(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Sitka Alaska is a unified city-borough located on the west side of Baranof Island in the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean (part of the Alaska Panhandle), of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is  8,835.

Climate
Average annual rainfall is 86 inches; annual average snowfall is 39 inches. The average high temperature in August is 62 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average low temperature in January is 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

History
The area was originally settled by the native Tlingit (Kolosh) Indians. The name Sitka (derived from Sheet’ká, a contraction of the Tlingit name Shee At'iká) means "People on the Outside of Shee," Sheet’-ká X'áat'l (often expressed simply as Shee) being the Tlingit name for Baranof Island. Old Sitka was founded in 1799 by Alexandr Baranov, the governor of Russian America. Baranov arrived under the auspices of the Russian-American Company, a "semi-official" colonial trading company chartered by Tsar Paul I. In 1802 a group of Tlingit destroyed the original establishment (an area today called the "Old Harbor") and massacred most of the Russian inhabitants. Baranov was forced to levy 10,000 rubles in ransom for the safe return of the surviving settlers.

Gajaa Héen (Old Sitka), circa 1827. The new Russian palisade atop "Castle Hill" (Noow Tlein) that surrounded the Governor's Residence had three watchtowers, armed with 32 cannons, for defense against Tlingit attacks.Baranov returned to Sitka in 1804 with a large contingent of Russians and Aleuts aboard the Russian warship Neva. The ship bombarded the natives' village, forcing the Tlingits to retreat into the surrounding forest. Following their victory at the Battle of Sitka the Russians established a permanent settlement in the form of a fort, named "Novo-Arkhangelsk" (or "New Archangel," a reference to the largest city in the region where Baranov was born). In 1808, with Baranov still governor, Sitka was designated the capital of Russian America.

Bishop Innokentii of the Russian Orthodox Church lived in Sitka after 1840. The Russian Bishop's House has since been restored by the National Park Service. The steady influx of American settlers eventually caused the predominant religious influence to sway from Russian to Western European. The Sitka Lutheran Church, built in 1840, was the first Protestant church on the Pacific Coast. The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Michael was founded in 1848, and St. Peter's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church was consecrated as "The Cathedral of Alaska" in 1900. There are twenty two buildings and sites in Sitka that appear in the National Register of Historic Places.

Saint Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Sitka was the site of the ceremony in which the Russian flag was lowered and the United States flag raised after Alaska was purchased by the United States in 1867 after the sea otter pelt trade died out. The flag lowering and raising event is re-enacted in Sitka every October 18 (Alaska Day). After the original ceremony, the entire U.S. government presence in Alaska until the Klondike Gold Rush consisted of a single customs inspector on the island. Sitka would serve as the capital of the Alaska Territory until 1906, when the seat of government was relocated north to Juneau. The state's first newspaper, The Sitka Times, was published by Barney O. Ragan on September 19, 1868.

While gold mining and fish canning paved the way for the town's initial growth, it wasn't until World War II, when the Navy constructed an air base on Japonski Island, (with its 30,000 service personnel) that Sitka finally came into its own.

The Home Rule Charter of the City and Borough of Sitka was adopted on the 2nd of December, 1971 for the region of the Greater Sitka Borough, which was incorporated on the 24th of September, 1963.

Sitka is the state's fourth-largest city in terms of population and the nation's largest city in terms of area.

Transportation
By air, Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport offers service from jet and regional carrier Alaska Airlines and charter and bush community carrier Harris Aircraft Services. However, delays due to Sitka's weather are frequent.

The much more reliable, but also dramatically slower option for travel is the Alaska Marine Highway System (ferry). The ferry terminal is located seven miles north of downtown.