Cape Douglas is a headland at the base of Mount Douglas on the western shore of Shelikof Strait, forming the southern shore of Sukoi Bay in Katmai National Park and Preserve, about 83 miles (134 km) southwest of Homer and 81 miles (131 km) northwest of Kodiak, Alaska. Captain James Cook named it on May 25th, 1778, for Dr. John Douglas, canon of Windsor, who later edited the official account of Cook’s third voyage. The historical Alutiiq name for the cape was rendered variously as Kukak, Koukhat, or Kuchat. Shelikof Strait, about 30 miles (50 km) wide and 125 miles (200 km) long, separates Kodiak Island from the Alaska Peninsula and carries much of the outflow from Cook Inlet. Strong winds there often oppose the current, producing steep seas hazardous to vessels transiting to or from western Alaska and the Aleutians.

Mount Douglas, the stratovolcano that forms the cape between Kamishak Bay and Shelikof Strait, rises to 7,021 feet (2,140 m) and was built atop Jurassic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks, part of the same subduction-zone geology that produces the chain of volcanoes along the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands, where the Pacific plate dives beneath North America. The mountain was officially named in 1906 after the nearby cape, based on a 1904 report by U.S. Geological Survey geologist George C. Martin. Glaciers cover most of the volcano, but its north flank exposes unglaciated, relatively uneroded lava flows and an active fumarole field around a small, warm, highly acidic summit crater lake about 525 feet (160 m) wide. No historical eruption has been confirmed, though the fumarole activity suggests Mount Douglas last erupted sometime in the Holocene, the epoch that began roughly 11,700 years ago.

Submerged pinnacles and reefs make navigation near Cape Douglas hazardous. Two vessels working for the Wakefield cannery in Seldovia were lost here within weeks of each other in 1961: the Silver Star sank in October, and the 60-foot Ruth L, which had been searching for its wreckage, foundered on November 21 with the loss of its captain, Bob Hansen, and crewmen David Pontz and Dick Friemuth. The only officially named hazard, Douglas Reef, is about 2 miles (3.2 km) across and lies 5.5 miles (8.9 km) south of the cape; other rocks awash at high water lie roughly 2.8 miles (4.5 km) southwest of the reef and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) offshore, with a further hazard awash at half tide about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of the cape. These dangers remain marked on modern NOAA nautical charts, and mariners are still advised to exercise extreme caution. The cape itself lies along an uninhabited, roadless stretch of Katmai’s wilderness coastline, accessible only by boat or floatplane, with no permanent settlement or infrastructure. Read more here and here. Explore more of Cape Douglas and Shelikof Strait here: