Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

Surface pedestrian survey and geophysical survey conducted in the summer of 2004 and spring of 2005 attempted to identify the location of the Kostromitinov Ranch, an outlying farming operation intended to supply Russian-American Company outposts. Established in 1833 between Spanish and Russian colonial footholds in northern California, the ranch is noted on historic maps and in historic documents. While the archaeological surveys produced negative results, the establishment of Kostromitinov Ranch at the intersection of colonial and Native worlds offers historians and anthropologists a fresh perspective on aspects of Russian America and colonial encounters.