The Salt Chuck is a lagoon at the head of Hobart Bay, on the eastern shore of Stephens Passage, about 71 miles (115 km) southeast of Juneau and 46 miles (74 km) north-northwest of Petersburg, Alaska. The bay was named in 1889 by Lieutenant Commander Henry B. Mansfield of the U.S. Navy, after Point Hobart, about a mile (1.6 km) to the south. Point Hobart, in turn, was named by Captain George Vancouver for John Hobart, the second Earl of Buckinghamshire. Hobart Bay was first settled as a logging camp that same year.

“Salt Chuck” is a local name published in 1943 by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. “Chuck” is a Chinook Jargon word meaning “water.” According to Edward L. Keithahn of the Alaska Historical Library and Museum, the term is usually applied to a salt lake that fills at high tide, sometimes with a bore, and empties or partly empties at low tide with a reverse bore or, occasionally, rapids. A strong or dangerous chuck is sometimes called a “skookum chuck,” skookum meaning “strong.”

Hobart Bay was long a logging camp operated by Goldbelt, a Juneau-based corporation whose shareholders are Alaska Natives of Tlingit and Haida descent. Goldbelt owns roughly 30,000 acres (12,140 ha) of land in and around the bay. Logging ended in 1999, and the area is now managed for the regrowth of spruce and hemlock. The introduction of bark and wood debris into the water near log-transfer facilities has been a concern in Hobart Bay and has been monitored to gauge its effects on the marine ecosystem. The main physical impact is the deposition and buildup of debris on the seafloor, which can create anoxic or hypoxic conditions. Read more here and here. Explore more of The Salt Chuck and Hobart Bay here: