Kodiak Historic Park or Site

Step back in time at Kodiak’s historic park and sites. Explore the preserved buildings and artifacts that tell the stories of Russian settlers, Native Alaskan cultures, and pioneers. Immerse yourself in history while surrounded by stunning natural beauty.

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Historic Park or Site

Hope­ful­ly this life-size bronze stat­ue is the clos­est you’ll come to a Kodi­ak brown bear. The stat­ue hon­ors Charles Mad­sen, Kodiak’s pio­neer-era bear-hunt­ing guide and one of the first reg­is­tered guides in Alaska.

This old bunker is open for explo­ration. If you make it this far on your hike, be sure to walk around the bunker and step inside to get a rough idea of how how sol­diers lived dur­ing WWII.

Watch the bus­tle of the seafood indus­try and get great pho­tos of a tru­ly giant ship — the Star of Kodi­ak is 441 feet long and can hold 10,000 tons of car­go! Pro­duced as part of a five-year gov­ern­ment pro­gram dur­ing WWII, this ship was con­struct­ed in Port­land, Maine and orig­i­nal­ly named the Albert M. Boe. Launched in 1945, it had only one year as an active mil­i­tary ship and saw very lit­tle action. Part of an impro­vised effort to get Kodi­ak back…  ...more

When the U.S. Navy closed their Kodi­ak sta­tion, Fort Gree­ley, in 1972, the Coast Guard took over. This is now the country’s largest sta­tion, with almost 1,000 personnel.

Difficulty: Easy

Loved by locals and trav­el­ers alike, this 182-acre state park has numer­ous trails, beach­es, and rocky view­points. For his­to­ry buffs, the trails take you past bunkers and relics from WWII out­posts in the area. You’ll also find sum­mer nat­u­ral­ist pro­grams where you can learn about ecol­o­gy as well as ocean and for­est creatures.

The town’s most rec­og­niz­able build­ing, with icon­ic blue onion-like cupo­las capped by cross­es, this cathe­dral was estab­lished in 1794. That’s the year Russ­ian monk St. Her­man arrived in Kodi­ak. A benev­o­lent force in the col­o­niza­tion and exploita­tion of the Aleuts and Alu­ti­iqs, he was known for his care of the sick and dying dur­ing West­ern-intro­duced epi­demics, as well as his pro­tec­tion of the local pop­u­la­tions. He was can­on­ized in 1970,…  ...more

This was the largest base on Kodi­ak Island dur­ing WWII, and the cen­ter of the Har­bor Defens­es for Kodi­ak. At the peak, some 8,000 troops were sta­tioned here. Now all that remains are some unmarked buildings.

Difficulty: Easy

One of the best spots to check out WWII relics, there’s a short trail from the park­ing area on the side of the road.

MP 12.8, Chini­ak Highway

MP 3.2, Anton Larsen Bay Rd

This is the for­mer site of a Russ­ian brick­yard and is cur­rent­ly the site of an archae­o­log­i­cal exca­va­tion. You can also access the Iron Gate Beach.

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