Lavrentii Zagoskin
Lavrentii A. Zagoskin (1808-1890), a naval officer, entered the service of the Russian-American Co. in December 1838. In 1840, he proposed to Gov. F.P. Wrangell that he lead an expedition into Alaska's western interior, and was dispatched on the mission in 1842 by Gov. Adolph K. Etholin. Zagoskin left Mikhailovskii Redoubt in December and spent almost two years exploring the region. From the Russian trading stations at Nulato and Ikogmiut, the naval officer's team journeyed up and down the Yukon, Koyukuk and middle and lower Kuskokwim rivers. The expedition returned to St. Michael in August 1844. In addition to exploring and observing, the party had traded with the Natives for furs, so successfully in fact that the furs they collected almost covered the cost of the expedition. Zagoskin returned to Russia in 1845. At the urging of Wrangell, he wrote a book about his expedition that was published in 1848.