Grigory Shelikhov founds the first Russian settlement in Alaska, Three Saints Harbor, in 1784.

Although Russian fur hunters had established temporary shore stations in Alaska earlier, they intend the Three Saints site to be a permanent colonial settlement.

The site is poorly chosen, for the hillside above the shore area is too steep to build on, and the shore area is too small for a substantial settlement.

When it is visited in 1790, it is described as a cluster of small structures (probably barabaras), with a population of about fifty men and a small number of women.

The site is harmed by subsidence and a probable tsunami in the wake of a 1788 earthquake.

In 1791 Alexander Baranov begins moving the main Russian settlement to the site of Paul's Harbor, now known as the city of Kodiak.