Homer was reshaped, literally, by the sea floor. The 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake — the most powerful ever recorded in North America — dropped the Homer Spit several feet, flooding parts of it and forcing the town to rebuild the harbor and the road that run its length today. As with so much of Alaska, the response was practical and stubborn: Homer rebuilt the Spit better, and went back to fishing. The shape of the modern town owes as much to that rebuilding as to anything Pennock ever planned.
Fishing made Homer, and it still does. The town calls itself the Halibut Fishing Capital of the World, and the boast is earned: the charter fleet and the commercial boats working Kachemak Bay and lower Cook Inlet land some of the largest halibut anywhere, and the harbor on the Spit fills each summer with the business of catching, weighing, and shipping fish. Salmon, crab, and the rest round out a working waterfront that has outlasted every other scheme the town ever tried — coal included.
Why People Visit Homer
Homer offers Alaska at its most scenic and approachable — a working fishing port and arts town on one of the most beautiful bays in the state. Visitors come for the halibut charters, the Spit, and the wildlife and water excursions, and stay for the galleries, beaches, and unhurried end-of-the-road feel. From the harbor docks to the mountains across the bay, it rewards a slow few days. It is wild, creative, and welcoming in every season on Kachemak Bay.
