Afognak, located at the head of Marmot Bay on the southeast coast of Afognak Island in the Kodiak Archipelago, is a historic village abandoned after the 1964 tsunami, about 122 miles (196 km) south-southwest of Homer and 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Kodiak, Alaska. The community comprised an amalgamation of settlements—including Rutkovsky (Russian Town) and Nasqualek (Aleut Town)—that stretched approximately 0.75 miles (1.2 km) in a single row of widely scattered dwellings along a gravel beach ridge. The beach gravel derives from the area’s principal bedrock—the Kodiak Formation—an accretionary wedge of slate and graywacke formed in a deep marine trench from Late Cretaceous turbidite deposits. Subsequently, the rocks were heated and partially metamorphosed as they accreted to the continental margin. Late Pleistocene glaciation scoured much of Afognak Island to bedrock. Deglaciation of the islands and the adjacent Alaska Peninsula about 11,000 years ago exposed the landscape seen today. Erosion in the surf zone carved wave-cut bedrock terraces and produced coarse, well-rounded particles that waves transported onshore and alongshore to form gravel beaches. Storm-induced high tides and waves built gravel berms several meters above sea level, while rapid backwash percolation into the highly permeable beach substrate facilitated the deposition of coarse gravel at high tide levels. Post-glacial isostatic uplift and sea-level changes during the mid and late Holocene raised these beach and berm complexes along the coast. These well-drained deposits provided one of the few widespread geologic settings suitable for human habitation.

Evidence of human presence in the Kodiak Archipelago dates to about 7,500 years ago. Early inhabitants of the Ocean Bay Tradition subsisted by hunting marine mammals, birds and fish. This maritime culture persisted largely unchanged until around 4,000 years ago, when a shift toward fishing spurred the adoption of mass-capture technologies. Net-sinkers and ground slate ulus appear in the archaeological record at this time, marking the move to long-term food storage. From 4,000 to 1,000 years ago, the region witnessed the emergence of the Kachemak Tradition. People settled in large villages of single-room, semi-subterranean houses and signaled social identity by wearing labrets, reflecting the formation of corporate groups. Sites from the end of this period have yielded intricately carved artwork, elaborate burial practices, a broader array of tools and exotic trade goods. The transition to the Koniag Tradition brought dramatic cultural change. Large, multiroom houses with built-in storage and cooking facilities replaced the simpler Kachemak dwellings, and communal feasting and ritual became more prominent. At the time of European contact, the village of Nasqualek—home to 105 inhabitants and named for its ’round’ or ‘bulging’ long beach—lay on Marmot Bay. This location enabled residents to follow the natural cycles of marine mammals and fish. Whale hunting played a significant role, with Alutiiq hunters using poison-tipped spears to fatally wound whales, which then drifted ashore. Harbor seals, along with porpoises and sea lions, provided most of the meat, oil and hides; seals were harpooned from kayaks or at shore haul-outs after being lured by decoys, ensnared in nets or clubbed. Equally vital was the salmon fishery at the mouth of the Afognak River, where sockeye and other species arrived from late April through the fall. Nasqualek typified main, or winter, villages—situated near resource areas and distant from isolated, sometimes frozen, bay heads.

Russians first encountered Afognak’s inhabitants in 1784, when fur company records recount dealings between Grigory Shelikhov and local islanders. A 1786 map shows a village near Nasqualek—known to Russians as Aleut Town—and by 1802 a one-man trading post (odinochka) operated nearby. Most early houses in Aleut Town were Alutiiq semi‑subterranean sod homes. In 1830, settlers established Rutkovsky (Russian Village) about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Nasqualek. Home to Russian-American Company retirees and their families—typically Russian men married to Alutiiq women—the community grew further after the 1838 smallpox epidemic brought survivors from neighboring villages. Residents, living in a row of log houses behind the beach, cultivated and sold surplus crops. The two settlements evolved along distinct lines. Separated by a marsh and social divisions, Russian Town was more affluent, its residents enjoying higher standing. In reality, most people in both communities had mixed Russian and Alutiiq ancestry, and many families were related. Despite tensions, many Alutiiq learned Russian and converted to Russian Orthodoxy, and the settlements eventually merged to form Afognak. After the 1867 Alaska Purchase, US authorities soon introduced English‑only schools in areas where no one spoke the language. By 1900, much of the younger generation was trilingual, speaking Alutiiq, Russian and English. The late‑19th‐century fishing boom spawned numerous salmon canneries, though wasteful practices provoked resistance among Alutiiq intent on preserving their subsistence lifestyle. In 1912, Afognak was buried under 3 feet (1 m) of ash when Mount Katmai erupted. On March 27, 1964, a tsunami triggered by the Alaska earthquake destroyed the village. A new community—Port Lions—was built on Kodiak Island’s northeast coast to honor the Lions Club that assisted in relocation; residents moved permanently in December 1964. Read more here and here. Explore more of Afognak Village and Marmot Bay here: