Historic Russian fort survives cuts to California parks budget
Fort Ross, a monument to Russian settlement of North America in the 19th century, will remain open, but only at weekends, as swingeing cuts to California's state parks take effect on Sunday.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had told California's 279 parks to cut $14.2 million and halve spending on maintenance and equipment replacement.
As part of the cuts, Fort Ross Historic State Park will only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The settlement, around 120 kilometers (80 miles) north of San Francisco, was founded in 1812 under a tsarist charter by the Russian-American Company and was used for three decades.
The park was established in 1906 and includes the restored Rotchev House, built around 1836 for the administrator of the outpost and a reconstruction of the first Russian Orthodox church in the Americas south of Alaska.
It had been feared that California's acute fiscal crisis would force the closure of as many as 100 parks, but under a plan for reduced funding - which lasts until June 30 next year - no park will shut completely.
The Russian Consulate in San Francisco and even the ambassador in Washington had lobbied for the park to remain open, and there was even talk of the Russian government helping out.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported in September that the park was the 77th most-popular in the state, with 200,000 visitors each year. They include many Russians and Americans of Russian descent, who even use the church on special occasions.
Some parks in California are self-financing through visitor fees, but Fort Ross falls well short of the nearly $1 million required each year, losing a reported $800,000 annually.
