The governor of Russian America, Alexander Baranov, arrived under the auspices of the Russian-American Company, a colonial trading company chartered by Tsar Paul I. Russian explorers settled Old Sitka in 1799, naming it Fort of Archangel Michael ( Russian: форт Архангела Михаила, t Fort Arkhangela Mikhaila). Saint Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Sitka The current name Sitka (derived from Sheet’ká, a contraction of the Tlingit Shee At'iká) means 'People on the Outside of Baranof Island', whose Tlingit name is Sheet’-ká X'áat'l (here contracted to Shee). With a consolidated land area of 2,870.3 square miles (7,434 square kilometers) and total area (including water) of 4,811.4 square miles (12,461 km 2), Sitka is the largest city-borough by total area in the U.S. As of the 2020 census, Sitka had a population of 8,458, the fifth-most populated city in the state. The city is situated on the west side of Baranof Island and the south half of Chichagof Island in the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean (part of the Alaska Panhandle). It was formerly known as New Archangel (Russian: Ново-Архангельск / Новоaрхангельск, romanized: Novo-Arkhangelsk / Novoarkhangelsk) while under Russian rule from 1799 to 1867. Sitka ( Tlingit: Sheetʼká Russian: Ситка) is a unified city- borough in the southeast portion of the U.S.
