Russian Alaska began here. In 1784, Grigory Shelikhov planted Russia's first permanent settlement in Alaska at Three Saints Bay, on the island's south end; in 1792, Alexander Baranov moved the post north to a deep, defensible harbor he named Pavlovskaya Gavan — Paul's Harbor — and made it the capital of Russian America's fur empire. Today's Kodiak grew straight from that harbor, and its Russian layer is the deepest in the state: the c. 1808 Russian-American Magazin, now the Baranov Museum, stands among the oldest Russian buildings in America.
The modern town wears three uniforms: fisherman's raingear, Coast Guard blue, and rocket-crew white. Base Kodiak is the largest Coast Guard installation in the United States, guarding the most dangerous fishing grounds in the country; the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Narrow Cape has launched rockets over the Gulf since 1998; and Fort Abercrombie's WWII gun emplacements stand in spruce and salmonberry above the sea cliffs, a state park now, remembering the war that first brought the military north.
Why People Visit Kodiak Alaska
Kodiak offers Alaska in concentrate — the deepest Russian heritage in the state, a 7,000-year Alutiiq homeland, a top American fishing port, and the only place on Earth to meet the Kodiak bear at home. People come for the bears and the fishing, and find the Emerald Isle: green, rain-washed, and genuinely wild ten minutes from town.
