When I was in San Francisco many years ago there were public information boards that said the Russians occupied SF in the 1700s. It's a long time ago now, but my recollection is the Russians pulled out of the area for no given reason, but maintained a presence in Northern California until the early 1900s.
The Russians did not sell Alaska to the USA until the 1950s.
You sent me on an exploration into the Russians on the Pacific Rim...
Here's what happened with them:
Russian fur trappers were running out of animals in Siberia to kill for their furs. So they worked their way along the coasts from Kamchatka to Alaska in 1741, where they found many animals to kill for furs that they sold in China.
This created a buzz among the world's money hungry jackals, of course. During the late 1700's pretty much every country with a boat was poaching furs on the Pacific Northwest coast. But the Russians didn't really have large sea-faring boats. They had migrated along the coasts and islands in hide boats. They had Aleut hunters working for them that had kayak type boats. So they went into trade partnership with various Americans with ships.
The Spanish had claimed California as part of New Spain / Mexico. But they only established permanent settlements there after all the other countries threatened their supremacy of North America. The Spanish proceded to establish 19 settlements on the California coast with Missions and Presidios (forts) at each one. Yerba Beuna (San Francisco) was the farthest north and was founded in 1776.
The Russians founded a permanent settlement in Alaska in 1784, and started the Russian American Company in 1799. They over-hunted the abundant wildlife there and were close to starving due to poor resupplying. So they went south (in an American ship). They pulled into Yerba Buena to resupply in 1806. The Spaniards were polite and eventually reprovisioned them, but refused any formal trade agreement. The Russian diplomat that was on board managed to get himself engaged to a Spanish diplomat's daughter, but he died before the marriage could be completed.
The Russians liked the Bay area and established three different forts a bit north of Yerba Buena. Right around present day Russian River. They proceeded to over-hunt the abundant wildlife there (AGAIN?!?), nearly causing extinction of the sea otter. They also snuck overland around the south side of the Bay to poach right under the noses of the Spaniards. This may have been related to present day Russian Hill in San Francisco. The story is that settlers during the Gold Rush found some gravestones there with Cyrillic writing, and that's how it got named.
Beacause of the Napoleonic Wars raging in Europe, including the War of 1812, the Czar was a little busy at home and was unable to focus on expansion in North America.
In 1822 the Republic of Mexico was founded independent of Spanish rule. Guess the Spanish king was a little busy at home, too.
In 1823 the Monroe Doctrine put forth by the US made it clear that they considered the Western lands to belong to the US and that any colonial incursion would be met with military force. This shut down the Russians from
further expansion or they would face the wrath of the US Navy.
These Russian forts became unprofitable due to the over-hunting of fur bearing animals. (Go figure.) And some US settlers were coming around. And the Mexicans built a couple of missions and presidios north of the Bay in Sonoma to extend their reach. And the political climate had changed in Russia and Europe. So in 1842 the Russians leave California and head back up to Alaska.
Around the same time the Hudson's Bay Company sold off their branch trading post in Yerba Buena. It was British owned and they must have also felt the same pressures as the Russians.
Then a few years later the Mexican American War broke out and the US ended up with California in 1848.Then the Gold Rush started and California became a state in 1850.
And Russia sold Alaska to the US in 1867.
At least that's the official version.
I think it's more likely the Russians lived on Russian Hill while they were busy looting the buildings buried in mud. A group got shot by the Spanish and the survivors buried the dead guys.
And I think the Gold Rush was manufactured to get a bunch of strong single men with an adventurous attitude and their own picks and shovels to come by boat or overland quickly at their own expense. They would have been used to dig out the buildings and move the dirt into the marshy area to create more land. They probably were able to take whatever they found or get some payment for it from the foremen. Then they were either sent off to do some actual gold mining or the smarter guys would have stayed in town to make money off the dumb guys out prospecting.