The historical community has suffered a profound loss with the passing of James R. Gibson (1935–2026), Professor Emeritus at York University and one of the world’s foremost scholars of Russian America, Siberia, and the Russian Pacific. Gibson died at the age of 91, leaving behind an extraordinary body of scholarship that transformed the study of...
Hundreds of pilgrims flocked to Fort Ross in October to celebrate the Divine Liturgy and honor the Orthodox legacy in America. Attending the service at the oldest Orthodox parish in the continental US makes you contemplate and imagine the struggles that Russian missionaries and settlers faced in establishing an Orthodox presence in the New World. ...
On October 4, 2025, Fort Ross welcomed around a thousand Orthodox pilgrims from across the country. They gathered for a Divine Liturgy marking one hundred years since services were renewed in the chapel of what is recognized as the first Orthodox parish on the North American mainland. The liturgy was concelebrated by three Metropolitans together...
The days when thousands of visitors flocked to Sonoma’s coast to witness historical reenactments at Fort Ross State Historic Park are now gone. The traditional Fort Ross Festival—which for decades celebrated the 19th-century Russian-American Company’s presence in California—has been replaced by the so-called Ocean and Art Festival. Gone are the performances by Russian artists, frontier...