Sitka, Alaska

Episode 45 / 22 November 2017 / 120 min / full

The Hottest Cold Case Around

"James says the episode is going to Sitka, Alaska, on Baranof Island in the Alexander Archipelago, in the Alaska panhandle; a consolidated city-borough" about 0:06:39

The case: Murder of Scott Covill (April 12, 1988). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2017

Population

8,863

Median age

38.5

Median household income

$69,600

Median home value

$365,390

Two-bedroom rent

$1,203

Cost of living

134

Religious

32%

Property crime

▲ slightly above the national average

Violent crime

▲ about 20% above

Murders between 2002 and 2015

one

History, in brief

• Sitka's name comes from a Tlingit word meaning people of the outside of Baranof Island. about 0:15:52
• Sitka was originally settled by Russians in 1799, by the Russian American Company chartered by Tsar Paul I. about 0:16:05
• In June 1802 the Tlingit destroyed the Russian settlement and killed many of the Russians; the Russians later came back with more people. about 0:16:50
• Sitka was the site of the transfer ceremony for the Alaska purchase in 1867. about 0:17:27
• The United States bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. about 0:17:53
• Gold mining and fish canning paved the way for the town. about 0:18:27
• In 1937 the US Navy established a seaplane base there, the first seaplane base, and had a fort; it was deactivated in June 1944. about 0:18:31
• Sitka is the sixth largest port by value of seafood harvest in the United States. about 0:19:04
• In 2010 a Texas company, S2C Global Systems, planned to ship between 2.9 and nine billion gallons of fresh lake water a year to the west coast of India, which could have earned Sitka up to 90 million a year; the plan fell apart in 2013. about 0:19:34
• Sitka was named one of the top 20 small towns to visit in 2013 by Smithsonian Magazine. about 0:20:06

Open the episode file