Bay of Pillars is on the west coast of Kuiu Island, spanning 1.5 miles (2.4 km) between Point Sullivan to the north and Point Ellis to the south, and located about 52 miles (84 km) southeast of Sitka and 52 miles (84 km) west-southwest of Petersburg, Alaska. The island’s name comes from the Tlingit Kuiu (pronounced Kooyu) Kwan, a people with historical ties to the area. In 1883, William H. Dall of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey published the bay’s descriptive name, which refers to the many rocky islands and reefs that obstruct navigation. These rocks are mostly sedimentary formations from the Silurian period, primarily consisting of graywacke and mudstone turbidites.

Humans have inhabited Kuiu Island for at least 5,000 years. By the 18th century, when European explorers arrived, the Tlingit people had established villages in bays such as Tebenkof, Security, Saginaw, and Port Camden. In the 19th century, introduced diseases like smallpox and influenza decimated these communities. In 1890, the Astoria & Alaska Packing Company built a salmon cannery on the southern shore of the Bay of Pillars, at the mouth of Kwatahein Creek, about 4 miles (6.5 km) northeast of Point Ellis. This cannery burned down in 1892, and Jack Mantle purchased the site, operating a saltery in each of the Pillar Bay arms. In 1918, the site was sold to the Fidalgo Island Packing Company, which built a new salmon cannery that operated until 1930. The principal streams in this area fished for commercial purposes were Kwatahein Creek, Kutlaku Creek, Pillar Bay Stream in Rowan Bay, and Kuiu Stream (also known as Alecks Stream) in Tebenkof Bay.

Today, the cannery site has been redeveloped as a remote fishing lodge. Bay of Pillars is located in the Kuiu Wilderness, part of a preserve protecting old-growth temperate rainforests, coastal estuaries, and subalpine meadows within the Tongass National Forest. A rustic camping shelter was built in 1997 near the shoreline. The area is a popular destination for sea kayaking, offering several portages during bad weather. A portage trail leads from the head of the bay to Port Camden and Keku Strait, while another connects Port Camden to Threemile Arm and Sumner Strait. Today, the island has no permanent residents and remains largely unvisited by the general public. Read more here and here. Explore more of Bay of Pillars and Kuiu Island here: