Kenai Fjords National Park ⓘ

People have traveled through and lived in the area surrounding Kenai Fjords National Park for thousands of years. The rugged glacial environment, coastal fjords, and braided river drainages have presented successive and overlapping populations of Alaska Natives, Europeans, and Americans with rich resources in the form of marine mammals, fish, birds, fur bearing animals, and minerals.

Documentation of human use through archeology , oral tradition, and the historical record reveals a variety of human connections with the land which include subsistence, mineral extraction, transportation, recreation, and artistic expression.

The experiences and accomplishments of the people who have used, and continue to use, these lands illustrate the courage and resiliency of the human spirit.

The Sugpiaq (also known as Alutiiq) are a maritime people who traditionally hunted and subsisted on the outer Kenai Peninsula coast. Archeological evidence indicates they have used the Kenai Fjords area for more than a 1,000 years. The Port Graham Corporation was formed under the Alaska Native Settlement Act of 1971 to represent the Sugpiag people inhabiting the Kenai Fjords. Some of the land along the coastline of the park is owned by the Port Graham Corporation. Learn more about the Sugpiaq and other Alaska Native cultures by visiting:

Kenai Fjords' museum collection consists of more than 250,000 objects including herbarium specimens, preserved small mammals, stone artifacts, photographs, and oral history recordings. The collection supports the park's research and preservation strategies based on its enabling legislation with additional guidance from the park’s Foundation Statement, General Management Plan, Scope of Collections Statement, and park interpretive themes.

The collection of natural and cultural specimens began soon after Kenai Fjords was established in 1980. During the early 1980s, park rangers focused heavily on the collection of plant specimens and wildlife observations. Later, two significant archeological collections were made as a result of the National Park Service (NPS) Systemwide Archeological Inventory Program survey of the mid 1990s, and the Kenai Fjords Coastal Archeology project in the early 2000s. Beginning in 2003, the NPS Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring Program (I&M) initiated surveys within Kenai Fjords. I&M collections of mammals, plants, fish, invertebrates and associated records quickly became the park’s most aggressive collecting endeavor. In 2013, collections continue to grow with the primary contribution being park generated records.

The park archives consist of an extensive collection of official park records, visitor registers, research project materials, images, oral histories They also includes archeological project documents, historic records, park administrative documents, resource management records, maps, drawings, documents associated with natural resource studies and inventories, photographs, reports, oral histories and electronic media.

The majority of Kenai Fjords’ collections are housed at two facilities. The NPS Alaska Region Curatorial Center is the repository for the majority of the park’s archives, archeological collections, herbarium specimens, and a few natural and historical objects. The University of Alaska at Fairbanks holds a large number of herbarium and mammal specimens.

To fulfill the principles and purposes of the park collection, items are made available for use in exhibits, research and interpretive programs. Consistent with collection preservation practices, all use is supervised by museum staff and consumptive use is avoided. When items are needed for cultural demonstrations, the use of replicas is required. Papers, logs and photographs may be duplicated to reduce wear on the originals. Duplicate copies are often filed in the park libraries.

Many of the park's plant specimens are curated at the University of Alaska, Museum of the North. The collection can be searched and viewed through the Arctos Collection Managment Information System , which serves as a multi-institution, multi-collection museum database.

Kenai Fjords' museum collections serve as scientific and historical documentation for the park's resources. They provide baseline information for park planning, management activities, research and interpretive and educational programs. For research requests, questions and other inquiries, please email the park's Cultural Resources Manager.

Learn more about museum collections across the National Park Service and search thousands of images and records from its museum collections.

Archeology is the study of past peoples and their way of life. Clues to the past may be found on the landscape, buried under ground, and even underwater. Archeological resources take on many forms including: trash, tools, and the remains of buildings. It is an archeologist's job to analyze these clues, and bring the past to life by giving us an understanding of why and how human culture has changed through the years.

Archeologists have been surveying and analyzing archeological remains in Kenai Fjords National Park for over twenty years. Their research has documented numerous prehistoric sites and historic sites, as well as sites located in Seward's original townsite. These investigations have provided clues to the Alutiiq way of life at the time the Russians moved into the Resurrection Bay in the 1790s; the location of the Lowell family home in Seward; and even the location of a possible Prohibition Era still used to manufacture illegal liquor when Alaska went dry in the early 20th century.

If you think you have found an archeological resource, contact a park ranger who will record your find. Please do not remove artifacts from their original location, but report the location along with a photo, drawing or any information you believe is important. You can also contact the park headquarters by phone (907) 318-2040 or by email .

The National Park Service is the steward for many cultural resources that are important to our nation. Archeological resources are found in most all units of the park system and are evidence of past human activity. Both prehistoric and historic time periods are represented in the archeological record. Management of these cultural resources is mandated by law and policy.

Kenai Fjords National Park is comprised of federal, state, Native corporation, and private lands. The park has the authority to manage only federal park lands. Consequently, of the 91 identified archeological and historic sites in the fjords and adjacent islands, only 33 are NPS managed. These include park lands for which English Bay Corporation retain cultural rights. The remaining 58 sites are “local sites”, meaning they have not been relocated, they have been destroyed, or they are owned and managed by other entities.

When a site is identified, specific information such as location, site description and condition are recorded. This data is submitted to the Alaska Office of History and Archaeology (OHA) and the site is added to the Alaska Heritage Resources Survey (ARHS).

Listed sites are assigned a State identification number which begins with a three letter code representing the USGS topographic quadrangle in which the site is located; for example SEW (Seward), SEL (Seldovia) or XBS (Blying Sound). Numbers are assigned consecutively; SEW-175 is within the Seward quadrangle and is the 175th resource assigned a number within it.

Archeological sites within the park are described as prehistoric , protohistoric , and historic. Visual indicators of pre and proto-historic sites consist of scatterings of worked stones in the intertidal zone, ground depressions, middens , charcoal, ash or unnatural looking elements eroding out of shoreline banks, and culturally modified trees (CMT). The historic sites usually consist of structure ruins, mining features and equipment, and trails. Five park sites are a combination prehistoric, proto-historic and historic elements.

The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 requires federal land managers treat specific site information as confidential. For this reason sensitive site locations are excluded from all public documents. Permits are required for non-NPS researchers working on projects such as surveys and site testing. Collections and final project reports are accessioned into the park’s museum and archive.

Alaska Heritage Resources Survey : Inventory of all reported prehistoric and historic sites within the State of Alaska which is maintained by the Office of History and Archeology. Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 : An act to secure the protection of archaeological sites on public and Indian lands. Cultural compliance : Process to ensure projects consider all possible impacts to cultural resources. Culturally modified trees (CMT) : Trees that show signs of being altered by humans; for example, bark stripped tree trunks. Midden : A mound or heap containing bones, shells and other refuse which indicates human use. Prehistoric : Culture before recorded history. Proto-historic : Culture immediately prior to its first recorded history. Office of History and Archaeology (OHA) : Created after the passage of the 1970 Alaska Historic Preservation Act, OHA “works to preserve sites and buildings that reflect Alaska’s heritage”.

A Slice of Early Seward: How Archeology Provides a glimpse into Daily Life in this Frontier Town (2013) by Dan Trepal.

Thanks to the archeological investigations of the Seward Privy Project , researchers learned fascinating details about life in early Seward, Alaska.

Kenai Fjords National Park contains an impressive array of places that reflect the history, cultural richness, and changing relationship between people and the environment. These places encompass rugged glacially carved fjords, alpine mountainsides, the Harding Icefield, and braided river valleys.

What makes these places special? It is the varied uses and stories that we associate with them. Their significance may be worthy of a listing on our Nation's National Register of Historic Places, or they may be significant to us on a personal level. Either way, there are amazing places to be preserved in Kenai Fjords.

The Exit Glacier area of Kenai Fjords National Park is the most publicly accessible part of park and the only portion that is accessible by road from the town of Seward. A number of individuals and families from the Seward area visit the Exit Glacier area in the course of recreational and resource harvesting activities within the park and the greater Resurrection River Valley.

Prior to the establishment of the park in 1980, this area was used for various activities including, hunting, guiding, berry picking, snow machining, horseback riding, snow shoeing, skiing, hiking, and gold mining. The importance of the area's resources played an important part in the quality of life experienced by nearby Seward residents.

A series of interviews were held in recent years with an exceptional group of men and women who used the Exit Glacier area prior to the establishment of Kenai Fjords National Park. While the activities they participated in may have been distinct, they all shared a common appreciation for the land and its resources. The wealth of their knowledge speaks to the kinds of joys and struggles experienced by today's visitors to the Exit Glacier area.

To learn more about the project and what was learned from it, visit the Portland State University Library , where more information and a copy is available for download.

The Harding Icefield and its outflowing glaciers cover 700 square miles of Alaska's Kenai Mountains in glacier ice. Created more than 23,000 years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch, the Harding Icefield was a small piece of the vast ice sheet that covered much of Southcentral Alaska.

In 1970, a snowmobile camp existed up on the icefield, providing people an opportunity for summertime visits, learn more about this one year endeavor and what happened to it. Now, many people every summer look out over the Harding Icefield after hiking the 4 miles up the Harding Icefield Trail , a strenuous day hike, leaving from the Exit Glacier Area.

Nuka Bay is located on the outer, southwest coast of the Kenai Peninsula. No roads exist to the site and travel by boat and float plane are the primary means of transportation in and out of the bay. Sixty air miles southwest of Seward, and forty miles east of Homer, this area contains numerous sites of historic, ethnographic, and natural interest. The core historic sites are 1920-1940 mining sites typical of gold mining technology and techniques used in the mid-20th century. From a landscape perspective, the mining sites illustrate how the techniques of lode mining were adapted and applied to the extreme and challenging topography, vegetation and climate of the southern Kenai coast.

Stories abound of the riches to be had in the Nuka Bay District in the early 1900s. Seward's local paper, The Seward Gateway, regularly reported on the news brought up from the mining camps. While naysayers ridiculed the endeavors of the speculators and miners, the newspaper scoffed and supported the miners with articles touting the value of the Nuka Bay mines. It was even reported that the grass in Nuka grew tall as a result of the gold enriched the soils.

While the expectation of rich finds and gold bricks did not pan out as hoped, the Nuka Bay Mining District continues to be significant as a technological record of early 20th lode mining and a source of inspiration generated by the efforts of men and women who weren't afraid to work hard and dream big.

For more information on mining in the Nuka Bay Mining District, refer to the park's historic resource study, A Stern and Rockbound Coast .

Sitting just outside the boundaries of Kenai Fjords National Park, the town of Seward became home to the administrative headquarters of the park with the park's creation in 1980. Additionally, Seward has a rich cultural and historical heritage in its own right. Prior to the founding of the current community, the area that became Seward was a crossroads for the early native people, Russian traders, and settlers like the Lowell family. Created as the southern terminus for the Alaska Railroad because of its ice-free port, Seward served as a major link in the transportation of miners and ore for the gold rushes of the early 20th century. World War II, the 1964 Earthquake, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989, all impacted the development of the little town on Resurrection Bay. In the 21st century, Seward survives and thrives, serving as the gateway for much of the visitation to Kenai Fjords National Park.

The story of the Kenai Fjords is not just one of geology and landforms, but also of people. Archeological evidence indicates the region has been home to Alaska Natives for thousands of years. In more recent times, hunters, fishermen, fox farmers, miners, and more have made use of the fjords.

Within Kenai Fjords National Park, a representative piece of the north Gulf Coast of Alaska, stories of people and places abound; from the Sugpiaq, whose camps dotted the coastline, to the mining camps that once operated in the Nuka Bay area. Remnants of former times are abundant. They are worthy of protection as much as any natural feature, as they are invaluable links to the past.

We work to document the people in the park, past and present, and help preserve places with special history. The park maintains an extensive museum collection , of more then 250,000 objects, representing the history of this area. As part of our mission to preserve and protect the natural and cultural history of this special place, archeologists survey and analyze the remains of sites throughout the park, as well as, sites from historic Seward.

The maritime climate and abrupt, glacially carved peaks of the Kenai Fjords are home to a diverse array of plants. From the largest Sitka spruces, ancient and immense, to the smallest shoots of sprouting fireweed and the soft and verdant blankets of moss covering the forest floor, the plants of Kenai Fjords thrive in a harsh land of ice, rock, snow and rain. The sheer cliffs, jagged peaks and steep valleys of the ice-carved landscape create huge variations in habitat and plant communities over short distances. Lush and highly productive temperate rainforests can be found less than a mile or two from nearly desolate mountain ridges which support only a thin layer of alpine vegetation.

Kenai Fjords National Park is a truly dynamic place. Some of the changes are natural. Others are not. As glaciers retreat since the last ice age, plants colonize new areas and ecosystems grow and change through ecological succession . Anthropogenic climate change is speeding this process, and humans are further modifying the natural order by introducing invasive plants . The plants of Kenai Fjords are a perfect lens through which to see the forces of nature at work, remaking the landscape and its inhabitants, and to understand the growing role of human decisions in shaping the natural world.

A total of 191 species of birds have been documented in the park and many pelagic (open sea) birds can be found in the waters or nesting on or near the park.

The following land mammals can be found at Kenai Fjords National Park: black bear , brown bear , beaver, coyote, mountain goat , river otter, snowshoe hare, little brown bat, lynx, hoary marmot , marten, mink, moose , meadow jumping mouse, northern bog lemming, porcupine, shrew (5 species), red squirrel, vole (4 species), short-tailed weasel, gray wolf, and wolverine.

The following can be found in the waters and coast line near Kenai Fjords National Park: sea otter , Dall's porpoise , harbor porpoise, Steller sea lion , harbor seal , orca (killer whale) , fin whale , gray whale, humpback whale , minke whale , and sei whale.

In addition, the following marine mammals are on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's threatened or endangered species list : humpback whale, sei whale, gray whale, and Steller sea lion.

Watch in wonder. Witness humpback whales feeding on the bounty of the fjords late spring through summer. NPS Photo / K. Thoresen

Starting with a Quick Visit The Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor Center sits outside the park, nestled in the Seward Small Boat Harbor. The only road into Kenai Fjords National Park is 12 miles long, bringing you to the Exit Glacier frontcountry area. For those short on time, these locations offer a lower barrier of entry to the magic of Kenai Fjords

Full Day Activities Planning one day at a time, or making your home base in Seward? There are a variety of options to spend a day immersed between mountains, ice and ocean - watching wildlife play and wildflowers bloom.

Stay Awhile Take full advantage of the late summer sun, or cozy up by the fire in a snow-covered cabin. There are many ways to stay overnight in Kenai Fjords National Park. Most require advanced preparation and a keen eye for safety.

The Exit Glacier area is the only part of the park accessible by road. Witness up close how a glacier re-shapes a landscape.

Join a park ranger on a journey to deepen your connection to Kenai Fjords' beautiful, changing landscape.

Interested in becoming a Junior Ranger? Learn about activities for curious folks of all ages.

Get oriented and learn with us. Get your park stamp and shop at the Alaska Geographic bookstore.

Local boat companies seek playful wildlife and calving glaciers along Kenai Fjords' rugged coastline.

By dipping your paddle into these waters, you're participating in the long history of human powered travel along the Kenai Peninsula coast.

Commercial visitor service providers can often help with trip planning, transportation, equipment, and guides.

What do I need to know to camp in Kenai Fjords? Use the tent-only campground at Exit Glacier or find your own in the backcountry.