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Russian Traders/Colonists
View of Fort Ross, 1828; courtesy the Fort Ross Historic State Park Photo Archives
The Russians Withdraw
Decades of hunting had almost completely destroyed the sea otter population, and the Russians no longer had a reason to stay in North America. Attempts to maintain the Fort Ross Colony through cattle ranching and agriculture were disappointing. Rather than lose the colony to settlers from the newly independent Mexico, Russia sold the fort and land to Captain John Sutter in 1841.
The last Russians left Fort Ross in 1842. The Russian presence in North America itself would last only another 15 years, until Russia sold the Alaska territory to the United States in 1867.