Battle of Sitka site and home of the traceable Lady in Black legend
Castle Hill, off Lincoln Street, Sitka, AK 99835
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public access to the state historic site; a paved switchback trail and stairs lead to the summit overlook.
Access
Wheelchair OK
A paved switchback ramp on the south side and a stairway from Lincoln Street climb the rock outcrop to a level overlook.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1804 · Battle of Sitka (1804) · Russian America capital · 1867 Alaska transfer ceremony · National Historic Landmark
Castle Hill, known to the Tlingit as Noow Tlein, is a rock outcrop overlooking Sitka Sound. In October 1804 it stood near the Kiks.adi Tlingit fort Shis'gi Noow, where clan members led by the warrior Katlian defended the site against Russian-American Company forces under Alexandr Baranov and naval officer Yuri Lisyansky. After a four-day engagement the Tlingit withdrew during the night of October 4 and made the journey north now remembered as the Sitka Kiks.adi Survival March. The Russians then fortified the hill and made Novo-Arkhangelsk the capital of Russian America in 1808.
A succession of company buildings stood on the summit, the last of them a large frame structure that visitors called the governor's castle, which is the source of the hill's English name. That building burned in 1894.
On October 18, 1867, the summit hosted the ceremony transferring Alaska from Russia to the United States following the purchase agreement of that year. The date is still observed in Sitka as Alaska Day. The hill was set aside for preservation by federal action in 1890, and it is now managed as Baranof Castle State Historic Site. It is recognized as a National Historic Landmark for its role in the events of 1804 and 1867.
Sources
The Castle Hill legend is unusual because its origin is on the record. The earliest published version appears in travel letters by Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore from the early 1880s, gathered in her 1885 book on southeastern Alaska. In that account a Lady in Black vanishes from a wedding ball at the governor's castle and is found dead in a drawing room. Scidmore noted that residents could not identify the figure with any member of the governors' families and reported a local belief that the story had been concocted within a few years to keep sailors and marauders away from the abandoned building.
The tale grew in later retellings. By John Arctander's 1911 romance the woman had become a Russian princess forced into marriage, and the color of her dress shifted from black to blue or white depending on the teller. A 2020 review in the Skeptical Inquirer walked through the documentary record and found no governor's daughter or princess whose life matched the story, and pointed out that a real Russian princess living and dying in Sitka would almost certainly have been noted by contemporary writers.
The castle building itself burned in 1894, so there is no haunted house left to visit, only the open summit. What remains is a clean example of a place legend whose spread through newspapers and tourist literature can be followed decade by decade.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Climb the paved switchback or the Lincoln Street stairs to the summit of the rock outcrop the Tlingit called Noow Tlein. Interpretive panels cover the 1804 Battle of Sitka and the October 18, 1867 ceremony that transferred Alaska from Russia to the United States. The overlook gives a full view of Sitka Sound and the harbor.
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