Fort Ross State Historic Park

Situated on a bluff overlooking the Sonoma coast, Fort Ross State Park includes 90-some acres of meadows, tidal areas, and submerged land. The fort, established by the Russians in 1812, originally served as an outpost for sea otter hunters and was bought by John Sutter, who owned the Sierra Nevada sawmill where gold was discovered in the 1840s. Although the fort no longer contains any original buildings, its reconstructions are near-matches, as the Orthodox chapel and commons buildings prove.