Northwest History. Alaska, General. United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1937
• Subjects: Russian blockhouse; Alaska; museum; Juneau; St. Michaels; Yukon River; University of Alaska; Kolmoakoff blockhouse; Kuskokwin River; Volney Richmond; Northern Commercial Company; Nenana; Alaska Railroad; Michaelovski Redbout; Michael Tebenkoff; Russian American Company; Baron Wrangell; Russian colonies; fur trading post; Russian-American Company; Chevaux-de-frise; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Pacific; St Michael; Yukon; Yukon river
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/92177

Russian Blockhouse In Alaska Razed And Shipped To Museum. Russian Blockhouse in Alaska Razed and Shipped to Museum Special to The Chris JUNEAU, Alaska—The old Russian blockhouse which had stood for more than 100 years at St. Michaels, near the mouth of :the Yukon River, has been razed and delivered to the. museum at the University of Alaska. It must remain dismantled along with disjointed timbers of the old Kolmoakoff blockhouse at the mouth of the Kuskokwin River in storage at the museum, until the institution can reassemble the historical relics. The blockhouse from St. Michael was presented to the university by Volney Richmond of the Northern Commercial Company, who had it dismembered and delivered to Marshall on the Yukon River. From there it was shipped by a river steamer to Nenana where it was put in a box car and deliver-ed by the Alaska Railroad to the university. The post of St. Michael, or Michaelovski Redoubt, as the Russians called it, was built in 1833 by Michael Tebenkoff, officer of the Russian American Company under the order of Baron Wrangell, manager of that company and governor of the Russian colonies in Russian America, as Alaska was called. St. Michael was a fur trading post and headquarters for the Russian-American Company employees. The blockhouse was built from spruce logs brought by flood waters of the Yukon River. Every spring the Yukon and Kuskokwin Rivers discharge large quantities of driftwood—trees and logs which the force of their flood waters uproot and dislodge along the wooded banks of their headwaters and float down stream. This is the only wood that reaches St. Michael, as the country here is barren so far as large tree growth is concerned. Each year the Russians gathered this wood and piled it along the river banks and seashore. In winter the wood was transported to St. Michael by dog teams. St. Michael Is described as a fort composed of' log buildings and planked roofs, placed in the form of a square. Intervals between the buildings were filled by a palisade about 10 feet high surmounted by a chevaux-de-frise of pointed stakes. Within this stockade were two bastions, containing musketry and cannons; the commander's house with two bedrooms, an armory and counting room; a couple of storehouses, a bath house, and two separate houses.