On Day 5 of our adventure, we were treated to a beautiful morning in Sitka. Before the Russians came at the end
of the 18th century, Sitka was the ancestral home of the Tlingit Indian Nation. Unfortunately for the Tlingits,
the Russian territorial Governor Alexander Baranov came to covet the Sitka site for its beauty, mild climate,
and economic potential. In the island's massive timbered forests he saw raw materials for shipbuilding,
its location offered trading routes as far east as Hawaii and the Orient, as far south as California. Territorial
wars between Baranov's people and the Indians forced the Indians to the other side of the island. When Russia sold
Alaska to the USA for $7,200,000 in gold, the transfer was formalized here on October 18, 1867 and it was in Sitka
that the American flag was raised for the first time over Alaskan soil. From 1867 until 1912, Sikta was the capital of Alaska.
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