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Gerasim Grigoryevich Izmaylov, in Russian Герасим Григорьевич Измайлов; circa 1745-after 1795) was a Russian Empire navigator involved in the Russian colonization of the Americas and in the establishment of the colonies of Russian America in Alaska.
He was responsible for the first detailed maps of the Aleutian Islands. A native of Yakutsk, Izmaylov attended a navigation school in Okhotsk with Dmitry Bocharov, who became his lifelong business companion.
In 1771, both were caught up in the Benyovszky mutiny at Bolsheretsk on Kamchatka. Izmaylov attempted to break away from the mutineers but, after being flogged, was marooned on the isle of Simushir, one of the uninhabited Kuril Islands. For a year he subsisted on scallops, grass, and roots before being rescued by yasak gatherers. He was investigated in Irkutsk on account of his association with Benyovszky, but was eventually cleared of all charges in 1774.
In 1775, Izmaylov assumed command of the boat St. Paul and set to work mapping the shores of the Aleutian Islands.
In October 1778, while visiting Unalaska, he made the acquaintance of Captain James Cook who presented him with an octant in exchange for a letter of introduction to the Kamchatka authorities. Cook also handed over to Izmaylov a recently drawn map of the western coast of North America, which was to be delivered by the Russians to the British Admiralty.
In 1783-1785, Izmaylov and Grigory Shelikhov made their historic voyage from Okhotsk to Kodiak Island, where they founded the first Russian settlement in America.
In 1789, Izmaylov became the first to explore and map the Kenai Peninsula. Three years later, he took up employment under Alexander Baranov, helping him withstand a sea attack by the Tlingit.
Having wintered in Unalaska, Izmaylov visited Saint Paul Island, where he discovered the crew of a Russian ship that had been missing since 1791. He brought them back to Okhotsk in June 1794. He is mentioned for the last time in 1795, when he accompanied to Alaska a group of Orthodox missionaries under Father Joasaph.
More information: National Park Service
Alaska is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. It is in the Western United States region and is considered to be the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost (the Aleutian Islands cross the antimeridian into the eastern hemisphere) state in the United States. To the east, it borders Canada (the Yukon territory and the province of British Columbia). It shares a western maritime border, in the Bering Strait, with Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean lie to the north and the Pacific Ocean lies to the south. Technically a semi-exclave of the U.S., it is the largest exclave in the world.
Alaska is the largest U.S. state by area, comprising more total area than the next three largest states of Texas, California and Montana combined, and is the seventh-largest subnational division in the world. It is the third-least populous and most sparsely populated U.S. state, but is, with a population of 736,081 as of 2020, the continent's most populous territory located mostly north of the 60th parallel, with more than quadruple the combined populations of Northern Canada and Greenland. The state contains the four largest cities in the United States by area, including the state capital of Juneau. The state's most populous city is Anchorage and approximately half of Alaska's residents live within its metropolitan area.
Indigenous people have lived in Alaska for thousands of years, and it is widely believed that the region served as the entry point for the initial settlement of North America by way of the Bering land bridge. The Russian Empire was the first to actively colonize the area beginning in the 18th century, eventually establishing Russian America, which spanned most of the current state, and promoted and maintained a native Alaskan Creole population.
The expense and logistical difficulty of maintaining this distant possession prompted its sale to the U.S. in 1867 for US$7.2 million (equivalent to $157 million in 2023). The area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as a territory on May 11, 1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959.
More information: History Central
The soul of Alaska lies in its wilderness
-the vast stretches of mountain peaks,
endless forests, wide rivers, and deep blue ocean
harboring a tremendous diversity of wildlife.
Gary Snyder
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