Fort Nikolaevskaia

Fort Nikolaevskaia or Fort St. Nicholas was a fur trading post founded by the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company (LLC) in Alaska, the first European settlement on the Alaskan mainland. It is located on the site of modern Kenai. It was one of several posts maintained by the company on Cook Inlet. With the creation of a monopoly in Russian America around the Russian-American Company in 1799, the station continued operations until the Alaska Purchase.

A LLC galiot under the command of Pytor Zaikov, the Sv. Pavel, sailed to Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island in 1786. The trade post was then center of Shelikhov-Golikov Company (SGC) operations, a competing Russian fur company. The crew wintered at the station despite orders given to NEC managers by Grigory Shelikhov to remove, "by force if necessary", competing Russian merchants located near company posts. Zaikov conferred with Evstratii Delarov about locating a suitable area to establish a trade post. Delarov recommended that the LLC employees make their station on Cook Inlet, where his own company had previously "pacified the inhabitants." Sv. Pavel entered Cook Inlet on 1 June 1787 and sailed 15 miles past the NEC Fort Alexander to the entrance of the Kenai River where Fort Nikolaevskaia was established. Above the stockade "a crude wooden carving of the imperial arms" was posted. The sea otters of the inlet were quickly hunted close to extermination by the rival Russian companies. SGC employees began sending recommendations to Aleksandr Baranov to close the SGC trade posts he managed.

While leading the Vancouver Expedition, George Vancouver sailed to Fort Nikolaevskaia on 10 May 1794. The British captain recorded there were about 25 buildings within the stockade. Besides the residency of the commanding officer, there 23 dwellings "of different dimensions all huddled together without any kind of regularity..." inhabited by primarily Dena'ina laborers or relatives. Vancouver went on to describe the trading post as comprising

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