Alex Wright


Russkies among the Redwoods

July 29, 2002

We spent the weekend at St Orres, a Russian-style hotel up the Mendocino coast in the little hamlet of Gualala. The hotel Web site doesn't nearly do the place justice; it's an exquisitely crafted building, with onion domes and a big lattice-roofed porch carved right out of the redwoods.




There's a strong Russian influence along this stretch of the coast, dating back to the early 19th century, when the Russians established Fort Ross to provision their seal-hunting crews in Alaska (where the Russian Orthodox church still commands a strong following among the native Aleuts). Russia closed down the settlement in 1841, abandoning its North American ambitions just a few years before the '49 gold rush (what's the Russian for "Doh"?)


File under: Personal

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