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Fort Ross was founded in 1812 by the Russian-American Company, a trading and fur trapping firm whose primary
shareholders were members of the Czarist family. The Russian-American Company supported a number of outposts, mostly in Alaska. But the company's ships made frequent forays south -- sometimes as far
as Baja California -- in search of sea otter, seal and sea lion pelts. Fort Ross served as a staging area for sea mammal hunting as well as a source of agricultural products for the Northern colonies. In
addition, from 1818 to 1824, the area's rich forests provided raw materials for shipbuilding
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