Page 56 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

54  INTRODUCING ALASK A

Color engraving dated between 1820 and 1840 depicting Alaska during Captain Cook’s 1778 voyage
European Explorers and By 1772, a Russian settlement at Unalaska
the Russian Era was harvesting the prized sea otter pelts
It is possible that the first European to sight throughout the Aleutians. Two years later,
Alaska was the Spaniard Bartolomeo de Spanish captain Juan Perez reported a
Fonte, who is said to have sailed up the Russian presence on Prince of Wales Island.
Inside Passage in 1640. Semyon Dezhnev, In 1778, on his third and final voyage, British
the first Russian in the region, saw the Bering captain James Cook sailed the Resolution
Strait in 1648 and reported that a “great land” up the Southeast Alaskan coast and
existed to the east. He was followed in 1728 through Cook Inlet to the site of present-
by Vitus Bering, a Dane sailing for Tsar Peter day Anchorage in his unsuccessful attempt
the Great. Sailing through the Bering Strait, to find the Northwest Passage to Europe.
he claimed the land for the Russian Empire. To discourage British interest in the
In 1741, Bering set out on another voyage, region, merchant and head of the Russian-
with Alexei Chirikov as the commander of American Company, Grigory Shelikov,
the second vessel. Chirikov landed on Prince established the first permanent Russian
of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska, paving community at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak
the way for the eventual establishment of Island in 1784. Eight years later, he was
Russian America. Bering did not survive the granted a fur monopoly by Tsarina
journey, but his crew returned with sea otter Catherine II. Over the next decade, both
pelts. Their success inspired many hunters George Vancouver, who had been one of
and traders, known as promyshleniki, who Cook’s lieutenants, and Alejandro Malaspina
headed for Alaska, exploiting not only the of Spain, explored the Southeast and the
land’s natural wealth, but also the labor of Gulf of Alaska for their respective countries.
the Aleuts. Despite their efforts, Russian influence

1725 Bering 1733 On Bering’s second 1781 Grigory
explores the area expedition, Georg Wilhelm Shelikov establishes
east of the Russian Steller conducts nature 1764 Clashes between Russian-American fur
mainland Vitus Bering studies in Alaska Russians and Aleuts trading company
1720 1740 1760 1780
1741 Alexei Chirikov reaches 1772 Russian 1784 Shelikov
1728 Bering sails through Prince of Wales Island; Bering settlement sets up a
Bering Strait, but does not dies on Bering Island in the established at town on
land in Alaska Komandorski Islands Unalaska Kodiak Island

054-055_EW_Alaska.indd 54 02/05/17 2:29 pm