Kanatak is an uninhabited Alutiiq community of the Native Tribe of Kanatak located at the head of Portage Bay, on the Pacific coast of the Alaska Peninsula, about 136 miles (219 km) west-southwest of Kodiak and 65 miles (105 km) southeast of Egegik, Alaska. Portage Bay takes its name from an ancient portage trail that crosses the peninsula between Shelikof Strait on the Gulf of Alaska and Becharof Lake, which connects to Bristol Bay at Egegik. During the Last Glacial Maximum of the late Pleistocene, the Alaska Peninsula underwent severe mountain glaciation. A complex of confluent alpine glaciers, island ice caps, and piedmont lobes covered much of the area. Although the limits of glaciation remain uncertain, all the major valleys in the high mountains bear evidence of vigorous glacial scour and ice streaming to the sea. These ancient glaciers accumulated ice to depths of nearly 1,000 feet (305 m). Although the primary movement was northward into the basin of Becharof Lake, a lobe spilled southeastward across Kanatak Pass—at an elevation of about 900 feet (274 m)—into Portage Bay. No glaciers remain today. In the high mountains southwest of Portage Bay, many cirques and valleys contain morainal deposits, while the bay itself hosts stream gravels and extensive beach deposits of Quaternary sand and gravel. Its rugged shoreline comprises a series of wave-cut cliffs, below most of which a gravel or bedrock platform is visible at low tide. In many places, however, sheer cliffs descend directly into the water, leaving no beach even at low tide. The only extensive beach deposits occur at the head of the bay, where the shoreline is shielded from waves and the beach sand and gravel merge with the delta deposits of the Kanatak River.

Archaeological evidence from the Shelikof Strait coast indicates that Kanatak’s cultural sequence began about 7,300 years ago. By 1762, Russian fur-trading expeditions had reached Kodiak Island, and in 1783 a permanent trading post was established at Three Saints Bay. The rugged islets along the Alaska Peninsula provided rich sea-otter hunting grounds, and Russian influence spread rapidly among the Alutiiq, as male hunters were conscripted for forced labor while women and children were held hostage. Missionaries gradually improved conditions, but Russian influence persisted through the conversion of the Alutiiq to the Russian Orthodox Church. Even after the 1867 Alaska Purchase, Orthodox missionaries continued serving the natives’ spiritual needs. In the early 20th century, Kanatak was a small settlement with a seasonally fluctuating population. In winter, Alutiiq families lived in modest sod barabaras; in summer, some worked in the salmon canneries at Bristol Bay while others fished at Becharof Lake to prepare provisions for winter. In the 1920s, oil and gas development transformed the region. In August 1922, two steamships landed drilling equipment at Portage Bay, and within two or three weeks Kanatak’s population swelled from a handful to nearly 200. Residents occupied tents, log cabins, and frame buildings while work began on a road linking Kanatak to the drilling site—located 17 miles (27 km) to the northwest. Along with Katalla on Controller Bay, the area experienced an oil boom. Oil and gas development ended in the late 1940s when efforts to extract recoverable oil failed. With the collapse of the industry, hotels and merchants could no longer be sustained. The post office closed soon after, followed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs school, and by the 1950s Kanatak had declined and was eventually abandoned when U.S. mail routes ceased and supply ships stopped serving Portage Bay.

Kanatak’s original Alutiiq residents lived off the land, traveling seasonally to Bristol Bay via the Kanatak Trail. For thousands of years, Yup’ik and Alutiiq people used this portage route to cross the coastal mountains of the Alaska Peninsula between the Pacific and Bering Seas. The 5‑mile (8 km) trail begins at the Kanatak village site on shoreline terraces. It crosses a stream that separates a cobble beach from the valley at the head of Portage Bay, then climbs a steep scree slope, zigzagging 900 vertical feet (275 m) to Kanatak Pass. The route continues along Summit Lake before descending to Lake Ruth, which drains via Ruth River to the southern embayment of Becharof Lake, where a community once known as Fish Village—or called Marratuq by the Alutiiq—is now abandoned. In late spring, residents left their winter village to cross Kanatak Pass to Marratuq, gathering vegetables such as wild celery, spinach, ferns, roots and wild peas. In June they collected birds’ eggs from Becharof Lake’s islands, fished for char, whitefish, salmon, smelt and trout, and hunted caribou; by mid‑June they traveled to Egegik to work in commercial fishing. When the salmon runs ended, they bought supplies like rock salt at the cannery store before returning to Becharof Lake to dry fish, preserve berries and hunt ducks. Some families spent the winter at Marratuq while others returned to Kanatak. In late fall and early winter, supplies and subsistence foods—chiefly preserved salmon, eggs and vegetables—were carried over Kanatak Pass, and in winter they trapped mink, fox, otter, wolverine and beaver for cash. Other portage trails crisscrossed the Alaska Peninsula, but few were as well known as the Kanatak Trail. Early Russian and American explorers used it, and in the 1920s, during an oil boom that brought hundreds to Kanatak, primitive roads were built along part of the route. In 2012 the trail was designated the Kanatak National Recreation Trail and is now managed by the Becharof National Wildlife Refuge. Read more here and here. Explore more of Kanatak and Portage Bay here: