Kodiak Historic Park or Site

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 3.2, Anton Larsen Bay Rd

MP 12.8, Chini­ak Highway

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.