Sitka (; ) is a unified city-borough in the southeast portion of the U.S. state of Alaska. It was under Russian rule from 1799 to 1867. The city is situated on the west side of Baranof Island and the south half of Chichagof Island in the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean (part of the Alaska Panhandle). As of the 2020 census, Sitka had a population of 8,458, making it the fifth-most populated city in the state.
With a consolidated land area of and total area (including water) of , Sitka is the largest city by total area in the U.S.
History Etymology Under Russian rule, it was known as New Arkhangelsk ().
The current name, Sitka (derived from , a contraction of the Tlingit ), means "People on the Edge of Shee", with Shee being the Tlingit name for Baranof Island (the Tlingit name for the island is but is often contracted to ).
Russian America
Russian explorers settled Old Sitka in 1799, naming it the Fort of Archangel Michael (). The governor of Russian America, Alexander Baranov, arrived under the auspices of the Russian-American Company, a colonial trading company chartered by Russian emperor Paul I. In June 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed the original settlement, killing many of the Russians, with only a few managing to escape.Khlebnikov, K.T., 1973, Baranov, Chief Manager of the Russian Colonies in America, Kingston: The Limestone Press, Baranov was forced to levy 10,000 rubles in ransom to Captain Barber of the British sailing ship Unicorn for the safe return of the surviving settlers.
Baranov returned to Sitka in August 1804 with a large force, including Yuri Lisyansky's Neva. The ship bombarded the Tlingit fortification on the 20th but was not able to cause significant damage. The Russians then launched an attack on the fort and were repelled. Following two days of bombardment, the Tlingit "hung out a white flag" on the 22nd, deserting the fort on the 26th.
Following their victory at the Battle of Sitka in October 1804, the Russians established the settlement called New Archangel, named after Arkhangelsk. As a permanent settlement, New Archangel became the largest city in the region. The Tlingit re-established their fort on the Chatham Strait side of Peril Strait to enforce a trade embargo with the Russian establishment. In 1808, with Baranov still governor, Sitka became the informal capital of Russian America.
Bishop Innocent lived in Sitka after 1840. He was known for his interest in education, and his house, the Russian Bishop's House, parts of which served as a schoolhouse, has since been restored by the National Park Service as part of the Sitka National Historical Park.
The original Cathedral of Saint Michael was built in Sitka in 1848 and became the seat of the Russian Orthodox bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurile and Aleutian Islands, and Alaska. The original church burned to the ground in 1966, losing its handmade bells, the large icon of the Last Supper that decorated the top of the royal doors, and the clock in the bell tower. Also lost was the large library containing books in the Russian, Tlingit, and Aleut languages. Although the church was restored to its original appearance, one exception was its clock face, which is black in photographs taken before 1966, but white in subsequent photos.
Swedes, Finns and other nationalities of Lutherans worked for the Russian-American Company,Sitka Lutheran Church which led to the creation of a Lutheran congregation. The Sitka Lutheran Church building was built in 1840 and was the first Protestant church on the Pacific coast. After the transition to American control, following the purchase of Alaska from Russia by the United States in 1867, the influence of other Protestant religions increased, and Saint-Peter's-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church was consecrated as "the Cathedral of Alaska" in 1900.
Territorial Alaska
Sitka was the site of the transfer ceremony for the Alaska Purchase on October 18, 1867. Russia was going through economic and political turmoil after it lost the Crimean War to Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire in 1856, and decided it wanted to sell Alaska before British Canadians tried to conquer the territory. Russia offered to sell it to the United States. Secretary of State William Seward had wanted to purchase Alaska for quite some time, as he saw it as an integral part of Manifest Destiny and America's reach to the Pacific Ocean. While the agreement to purchase Alaska was made in April 1867, the actual purchase and transfer of control took place on October 18, 1867. The cost to purchase Alaska was $7.2 million, at 2 cents per acre.
Sitka served as both the U.S. Government Capital of the Department of Alaska (1867–1884) and District of Alaska (1884–1906). The seat of government was relocated north to Juneau in 1906 due to the declining economic importance of Sitka relative to Juneau, which gained population in the Klondike Gold Rush.
Alaska Native Brotherhood, Alaska Native Sisterhood The Alaska Native Brotherhood was founded in Sitka in 1912 to address racism against Alaska Native people in Alaska. By 1914, the organization had constructed the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall on Katlian Street, which was named after a Tlingit war chief in the early period of Russian colonization.
World War II In 1937, the United States Navy established the first seaplane base in Alaska on Japonski Island, across the Sitka Channel from the town. In 1941, construction began on Fort Ray, an army garrison to protect the naval air station. Both the navy and army remained in Sitka until the end of WWII, when the army base was put into caretaker status. The naval station in Sitka was deactivated in June 1944. A shore boat system was then established to transfer the approximately 1,000 passengers a day until the O'Connell Bridge was built in 1972.
Economy The Alaska Pulp Corporation was the first Japanese investment in the United States after WWII. In 1959, it began to produce pulp harvested from the Tongass National Forest under a 50-year contract with the US Forest Service. At its peak, the mill employed around 450 people before closing in 1993.
Sitka's Filipino community established itself in Sitka before 1929. It later became institutionalized as the Filipino Community of Sitka in 1981.
Gold mining and fish canning paved the way for the town's initial growth. Today Sitka encompasses portions of Baranof Island and the smaller Japonski Island, which is connected to Baranof Island by the John O'Connell Bridge (which uses the cable-stayed suspension method as its means of support). Japonski Island is home to Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport (: SIT; : PASI), the Sitka branch campus of the University of Alaska Southeast, Mt. Edgecumbe High School (a state-run boarding school for rural Alaskans), Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium's Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital, U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, and the port and facilities for the Kukui.
Sitka has become a destination for visiting cruise ships. In May 2025, a special referendum on restricting cruise ship tourism took place in the town with 3,000 votes cast. The referendum was less than 10 percent from their all-time high for a special election and some 73% of the voters rejected the limits on cruise ships with only 27% voting in favor of the proposed limits.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough is the largest incorporated city by area in the U.S., with a total area of , of which is land and , comprising 40.3%, is water. As a comparison, this is almost four times the size of the state of Rhode Island.
Sitka displaced Juneau, Alaska, as the largest incorporated city by area in the United States upon the 2000 incorporation with of incorporated area. Juneau's incorporated area is .
Climate
Sitka has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb) with moderate, but generally cool, temperatures and abundant precipitation. The average annual precipitation is ; average seasonal snowfall is , falling on 233 and 19 days, respectively. The mean annual temperature is , with monthly means ranging from in January to in August.
The climate is relatively mild when compared to other parts of the state. Only 5.1 days per year see highs at or above ; conversely, there are only 10 days with the high not above freezing. The winters are extremely mild compared to inland areas of similar and much more southerly parallels, due to the intense maritime moderation. The relatively mild nights ensure that four months stay above the isotherm that normally separates inland areas from being boreal in nature. Due to the mild winter nights, hardiness zone is high for the latitude (from 6b to 8a).
The highest temperature ever recorded was on July 30, 1976, and July 31, 2020. The lowest temperature ever recorded was on February 16–17, 1948.
Geology
Mount Edgecumbe, a "historically active" stratovolcano, is located on southern Kruzof Island, approximately west of Sitka and can be seen from the city on a clear day.
On April 22, 2022, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported that:
Adjacent boroughs and census areas Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska – north, northeast Prince of Wales–Hyder Census Area, Alaska – southeast
National protected areas Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (part of Gulf of Alaska unit) Saint Lazaria Wilderness (formerly Saint Lazaria National Wildlife Refuge) Sitka National Historical Park Tongass National Forest (part) South Baranof Wilderness West Chichagof-Yakobi Wilderness (part)
Demographics
1880 and 1890 censuses Sitka first reported on the 1880 census as an unincorporated village. Of 916 residents, there were 540 Tlingit, 219 Creole (Mixed Russian and Native) and 157 Whites reported. It was the largest community in Alaska at that census. In 1890, it fell to second place behind Juneau. It reported 1,190 residents, of whom 861 were Native, 280 were White, 31 were Asian, 17 were Creole and 1 was Other. In 1900, it fell to 4th place behind Nome, Skagway and Juneau. It did not report a racial breakdown.
1910 and 1920 censuses In 1910, Sitka was reported as two separate communities based on race: the village with mostly non-natives (population 539) and the part of the village with natives (population 500). Separately, they placed as the 15th and 17th largest communities. United, they would be 8th largest. For the purposes of comparison and the fact that the village was not officially politically/racially divided except by the census bureau report, the combined total (1,039) is reported on the historic population list. In 1913, Sitka was incorporated as a city, rendering the division by the census bureau for 1910 moot. In 1920, Sitka became the 4th largest city in the territory. In 1930, it fell to 7th place with 1,056 residents. Of those, 567 reported as Native, 480 as White and 9 as Other. In 1940, it rose to 5th place, but did not report a racial breakdown.
1950 and 1960 censuses In 1950, it reported as the 9th largest community in Alaska (6th largest incorporated city). It did not report a racial breakdown. At statehood in 1960, it became the 6th largest community (5th largest incorporated city). With the annexations increasing its population to 3,237, it reported a White majority for its first time: 2,160 Whites, 1,054 Others (including Natives) and 23 Blacks. In 1970, it fell to 14th place overall (though 7th largest incorporated city) with 3,370 residents. Of those, 2,503 were White, 676 Native Americans, 95 Others, 74 Asians and 22 Blacks. In 1980, Sitka rose to 4th largest city with 7,803 residents (of whom 5,718 were non-Hispanic White, 1,669 were Native American, 228 were Asian, 108 were Hispanic (of any race), 87 were Other, 44 were Black and 7 were Pacific Islander).
1990 and 2000 censuses