Welcome to the Fort Ross Interpretive Association

The Fort Ross Interpretive Association (FRIA) is a California State Park Cooperating Association at Fort Ross State Historic Park. FRIA is dedicated to the preservation, research, and interpretation of the cultural and natural history at Fort Ross and Salt Point State Parks on California's rugged Sonoma County North Coast. The Kashaya Pomo, the Native Californians who have inhabited this area for centuries, the Russian-American settlement at Fort Ross in the early 19th century, and the pioneering American ranching and logging years which followed, are all part of this rich history.

The connection between Russia and Fort Ross is unique. The Russian-American Company established Fort Ross, the first European colony on the north coast of colonial California. It was a thriving Russian-American settlement for from 1812 to 1841. This commercial company chartered by Russia's tsarist government controlled all Russian exploration, trade and settlement in the North Pacific, and established permanent settlements in Alaska. Fort Ross was the southernmost settlement in the Russian colonization of the North American continent, and was established as an agricultural base to supply Alaska. It was the site of California's first windmills and shipbuilding, and Russian scientists were among the first to record California’s cultural and natural history. Fort Ross was a successfully functioning multi-cultural settlement for some thirty years. Settlers included Russians, Native Alaskans and Californians, and Creoles (individuals of mixed Russian and native ancestry.)