MacDonald Spit is a sediment depositional feature, about 1 mile (1.6 km) long, caused by longshore drift from west to east which forms the northwestern shore of Kasitsna Bay on the southern coast of Kachemak Bay, about 11 miles (18 km) south of Homer and 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Seldovia, Alaska. The local name was first published by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1951. The sediment forming the spit is sand, pebbles, and cobbles that are sourced mostly from eroding sea cliffs and Barabara Creek to the west. The sea cliffs are composed of rocks in the McHugh Complex, which is part of the Southern Margin composite terrane. The McHugh Complex is exposed at the base of MacDonald Spit and also at Nubble Point which forms the end of the spit, and this bedrock consists of basalt and chert. The basalt is mostly pillow and massive basalt, depositionally overlain by complexly folded and faulted radiolarian chert. The radiolaria range in age from Middle Triassic to Early Cretaceous. Between these bedrock outcrops, unconsolidated sediments accumulated during the Holocene creating a tombolo which is an island that becomes attached to the mainland by a narrow strip of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island, in this case Nubble Point, is known as a tied island. Sediments are continuing to accumulate through the process of longshore drift forced by the prevailing or primary wind and wave direction which is from the west. Waves that arrive and break on a beach at an oblique angle cause sediment to be moved along the beach in a zigzag pattern. Finer sediments are transported higher and farther along the beach than coarser particles. Longshore drift is augmented by the strong tidal currents in Kachemak Bay which also transport sediment. MacDonald Spit exhibits a hook extending from Nubble Point to the south into Kasitsna Bay. This is a recurved spit caused partly by wave refraction that wraps around the end of the spit and also by secondary winds that blow from the northeast. The recurved end of the spit creates a protected environment where a sandflat or mudflat has formed in Kasitsna Bay.

MacDonald Spit was probably first used as a summer camp by the earliest humans to reside in Kachemak Bay because it allows ready access to marine resources for exploitation. In the summer of 1930, Frederica de Laguna conducted an archaeological survey of Cook Inlet including Kachemak Bay. A village site on Yukon Island about 3 miles (5 km) northeast of MacDonald Spit was investigated and a chronology of human use spanning 1500 years was assembled based on midden artifacts. Jack Fields, a resident of Seldovia assisted de Laguna that summer and found a concave stone lamp on the beach of MacDonald Spit near the site of a midden. Also found were traces of a large rectangular prehistorical house pit, or barabara used by the Alutiiq people. Another midden was excavated at the base of the spit and revealed human bones, stone-splitting adzes, a slate knife, and an ivory statuette, all from the period pre-dating Russian occupation. When European explorers arrived, the southern coast of Kachemak Bay was occupied by Sugpiaq Alutiiq and the northern shore by Dena’ina Athabascans. The mix of cultures inevitably led to conflicts over resource use and at least one island at the mouth of Tutka Bay was used as a refuge island called Q’na’qesle, or present-day Grass Island. In the 18th century, Russian fur hunters called promyshlenniki were among the first European visitors to Kachemak Bay. In 1778, Captain James Cook sailed into Cook Inlet in search of the fabled Strait of Anián or Northwest Passage across the North American continent. In 1786, Stepan Zaikov of the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company established a trading post at the mouth of the Kenai River. These fur traders subjugated the Aleut and Alutiiq people and forced the males to hunt sea otters to supply the maritime fur trade. After the Alaska Purchase in 1867, when the territory was transferred from Russia to the United States, Kachemak Bay became a popular destination for miners, fishers, and fur trappers. The miners were mostly en route to the goldfields of upper Cook Inlet and the interior, but the fishers were interested in exploiting the bay for herring and salmon. Fox farms were established on several islands at the mouth of Tutka Bay and on MacDonald Spit that operated through the early 1900s.

The first salmon trap was built in Cook Inlet in about 1885. It was patterned after the pound nets used in the Great Lakes fisheries but was modified considerably to withstand strong tidal currents and waves. This type of salmon trap became known as a pile trap because whole log piles were driven into the sandy bottoms to support the trap and the webbing and wire netting were fastened to piles to form the walls. The first trap was so successful that more were built in other areas including Kachemak Bay which had 4 traps; one on the north shore between Travers Creek and Diamond Creek, and three on the south shore at MacDonald Spit, Point Naskowhak, and adjacent to Flat Island on the mainland. By the 1930s, the fish traps were owned by the Fidalgo Island Packing Company, which also operated the cannery at Port Graham. In the 1950s, Kasitsna Bay was homesteaded by Harley O. Ekren and his family. In 1955, they started a cannery called the Ekren Packing Company to process clams, salmon, and Dungeness crabs. Fish traps were banned following Alaska statehood in 1959, so the Ekren cannery used gill nets and purse seines until the cannery closed in 1975. Today, MacDonald Spit is subdivided into 36 remote residential lots mostly providing homes for a seasonal community. Some residents use set nets handled from small boats or from shore to catch salmon. Set nets are popular with subsistence and personal use fisheries because of the low cost and no specialized gear is needed. Personal use salmon fisheries of Lower Cook Inlet include the Kachemak Bay which requires a permit and targets coho salmon. Read more here and here. Explore more of MacDonald Spit and Kachemak Bay here: