Port O’Brien is a remote salmon cannery on the eastern shore of Northeast Arm, Uganik Bay, located on the northwest coast of Kodiak Island, about 147 miles (236 km) south-southwest of Homer and 34 miles (55 km) west of Kodiak, Alaska. The cannery, named after longtime employee Bertram O’Brien, was first recorded in 1943 by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey. Uganik Bay is a deglaciated fjord extending 11 miles (18 km) south-southeast from Shelikof Strait into Kodiak Island, where it divides into three smaller bays: Northeast Arm, East Arm, and South Arm. It is named after the abandoned Alutiiq Sugpiat village of Uganik, reported as Oohanick by Yuri Lysianskyi in 1805, located about 3.4 miles (5.5 km) northwest of Port O’Brien. The steep terrain surrounding the fjords of northwest Kodiak Island has limited suitable sites for habitation and infrastructure. This is due to the local geology and repeated glaciations. The Kodiak Archipelago is one of the largest exposures of the Chugach terrane of southern Alaska. The flysch of the Chugach terrane, represented by the Kodiak Formation, is a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that transition from deep-water turbidity flow deposits to shallow-water shales and sandstones. Formed during the Late Cretaceous, the Kodiak Formation mostly consists of layered beds of graywacke averaging 3 feet (1 m) thick, along with shale and occasional beds of pebbly conglomerate. During the Paleocene, these metasedimentary rocks were intruded by magma, forming the Kodiak Batholith, which is exposed in the mountainous peaks near Port O’Brien. The batholith generally consists of ggranodiorite, composed of fine-grained biotite quartz monzonite crystals. Kodiak Island and its adjacent islands exhibit strong effects from Pleistocene and Holocene glaciations. Well-developed fjords and glacial deposits provide evidence that during the Last Glacial Maximum, glaciers from the Alaska Peninsula crossed Shelikof Strait and advanced onto the island as much as 6 miles (10 km) inland, while a locally formed ice cap covered much of the island.

Uganik was a historical Alutiiq Sugpiat village in the Northeast Arm of Uganik Bay. Its population was 73 in 1880 and 31 in 1890, after which it was abandoned. European contact began with the first Russian settlements on Kodiak Island. Kodiak was first discovered in 1763 when Stepan Glotov landed and wintered near its southwestern end. In 1784, Grigory Shelikhov established the first permanent Russian settlement at Three Saints Bay on the island’s southeastern coast. In 1785, an exploring party wintered at Karluk, about 45 miles (72 km) southwest of Uganik, and set up a trading post, or artel, there in 1786. The area became an important source of dried salmon for Alutiiq conscripted laborers and sea otter hunters. The 1867 Alaska Purchase transferred the territory from Russia to the United States, attracting mining and fishing entrepreneurs who hired local Alutiiq as laborers. Salmon canning began at Karluk in 1882, with up to seven canneries operating by the 1890s. By 1907, overfishing had reduced this to one, which moved to Larsen Bay in 1911. San Juan Fishing and Packing Company began as a fresh fish business in Seattle in 1899. It built Alaska’s first cold storage plant at Taku Harbor in 1901. In 1917, the company constructed a salmon cannery in Seward, which was relocated in 1924 to Port San Juan at Sawmill Bay on Evans Island. In 1926, the Port O’Brien cannery was built in the Northeast Arm of Uganik Bay, processing fish from one fish trap, 5 beach seines, and 14 gillnets. By 1944, seven fish traps provided 51% of the fish, with purse seiners supplying the rest. The company purchased the land from the State of Alaska in 1963. In 1967, it sold the cannery to New England Fish Company, which operated it until going bankrupt in 1978. Sam Rubinstein, the bankruptcy trustee, acquired the site and leased it to Ocean Beauty Seafoods from 1980 to 1982, then sold it to Kodiak Alaska Seafoods. The cooperative made one salmon pack in 1984 before closing. The property changed ownership several times, maintaining only a caretaker. In 1992, it was sold to Polar Equipment, Inc., doing business as Cook Inlet Processing. In 2002, Cook Inlet merged with Ocean Beauty Seafoods. In 2020, Ocean Beauty merged with Icicle Seafoods to form OBI Seafoods.

Alaska’s Gulf Coast hosts numerous historical industrial sites, active from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, now abandoned. These include settlements, salmon canneries, herring processing facilities, sawmills, and mines. Significant use of diesel fuel, gasoline, and oil lubricants marked many of these locations, especially after World War I. For instance, a facility in Prince William Sound consumed 25 barrels (about 4,000 liters) of fuel oil daily. The intense industrial activity of the early 20th century led to extensive soil and beach sediment contamination linked to fossil fuel use. Detecting fuel tanks onshore at these sites often indicates potential contamination in soils and sediments. In 2002, Ocean Beauty Seafoods evaluated the Port O’Brien facility for environmental liabilities. Fish processors historically occupied this site, operating mechanized salmon processing and canning systems. Most buildings are uninsulated wood-frame structures with corrugated metal roofing and wood or metal siding, founded on piles driven into the tidal flats. The canning system has evolved from its original design, where a central power plant drove a shaft running the building’s length, with belts for each piece of equipment, to a system of electric generators powering motorized canning equipment. At Port O’Brien, some original buildings remain, but large additions were constructed in 1956 and 1970. Continual upgrades have occurred since. One warehouse, built in 1941, is connected to another by a crossover near the facility’s westerly end. The rest of the site includes living quarters and buildings supporting a fully independent remote community. The winter watchman’s house, company office, and general store are insulated and occupied year-round. Geotechnical engineers discovered fuel contamination linked to storage and transfer lines. The owner is remediating this, and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is monitoring the sites. Read more here and here. Explore more of Port O’Brien and Uganik Bay here: