And then there is the river that made it: the Kenai. Glacier-fed and an almost unreal turquoise, it runs eighty-two miles from Kenai Lake through the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge to Cook Inlet, and the Lower River — the famous water — begins right at the Soldotna bridge. All five Pacific salmon run it, along with trophy rainbow trout and Dolly Varden. It is the most popular sportfishing river in Alaska. On a clear day the water glows almost neon against the dark spruce, the color of glaciers somewhere far upstream.
Soldotna's claim to fame came out of that water. On May 17, 1985, an angler named Les Anderson — then the owner of Soldotna's Ford dealership — hooked a king salmon at Pillars Drift and fought it up and down the river for the better part of an hour. Weighed late that afternoon, it went 97 pounds 4 ounces: the world-record king salmon, a record that still stands more than forty years later. The mounted fish is displayed at the Soldotna Visitor Center, and anglers have come from everywhere since. Anderson hadn't even realized what he had until the official scales at Echo Lake Lockers settled it that afternoon.
Why People Visit Soldotna
Visitors come to Soldotna for the Kenai River and stay for everything around it — the salmon runs, the wildlife refuge, the homestead history, and an easy, river-centered pace. It is the natural base for the whole central Peninsula, with drift boats and fish camps along the water in summer and the northern lights overhead in winter. Active, welcoming, and built around its river, Soldotna rewards anyone drawn to the great Alaska outdoors in any season.
