Most of us recall from our US history that Alaska was at first a US territory after it was purchased from Russia in 1867. So it stands to reason there was a substantial Russian Orthodox Christian community there. The Russians were given wonderful spiritual counsel from Bishop Nestor who died on June 30, 1882. The see (or diocese) of the church was in San Francisco (this is a picture of an Orthodox church that stood there) for decades and Bishop Nestor spent months and weeks traveling to/from San Francisco and Alaska when one day he fell from the ship on which he was traveling and drowned. He also translated parts of the Bible into Eskimo.
