Red Bluff Bay is a fjord about 4 miles (6.5 km) long and 0.3 miles (0.5 km) wide on the east coast of Baranof Island, opening into Chatham Strait roughly 70 miles (113 km) west of Petersburg and 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Sitka, Alaska. The fjord comprises two basins separated by a shallow sill. The inner basin is about 2 miles (3.2 km) long and 40 fathoms (240 m) deep; the sill between the basins is only 7 fathoms (42 m) deep. The outer basin is also about 2 miles (3.2 km) long but deeper, at over 50 fathoms (300 m). A cluster of small islands at the bay’s entrance sits atop another sill, roughly 6 fathoms (36 m) deep, separating the fjord from Chatham Strait.

In 1895 Lieutenant Commander Edwin K. Moore of the U.S. Navy named the bay for the reddish-brown rock exposed on ridges along its north shore. A salmon cannery was built near the bay’s entrance in the late 19th or early 20th century and was converted to a herring plant in 1922. In 1933 Ray Race, an employee at the plant, discovered chromite deposits there, and 28 claims were staked covering nearly the entire rock outcrop. The U.S. Geological Survey mapped the deposits in 1939 and again in 1941, publishing its findings as Bulletin 936-G in 1942, though no mining was ever undertaken. The cannery burned down around 1935, and the bay has seen no industrial activity since.

Chromite is a mineral and the only economically viable source of the metal chromium, which is remarkably hard and highly resistant to tarnishing; polished chromium reflects almost 70% of the visible-light spectrum. It is the main additive in stainless steel, to which it lends anti-corrosive properties. Despite the claims staked at Red Bluff Bay, no chromite was ever commercially extracted there; the U.S. Geological Survey estimated an inferred resource of only about 30,000 tons at an average grade of 12% chromite, too iron-rich and low-grade to be economically mined. The world’s leading producers of chromium ore are South Africa (about 48%), Kazakhstan (13%), Turkey (11%) and India (10%), with the remaining 18% or so coming from smaller producers. Read more here and here. Explore more of Red Bluff Bay and Baranof Island here: