The Kamishak River flows through Katmai National Park and Preserve to Akumwarvik Bay, about 110 miles (180 km) southwest of Homer and 80 miles (130 km) east-northeast of King Salmon, Alaska. It rises from an unnamed lake at 2,700 feet (823 m) in a saddle between two peaks in the Aleutian Range, draining a watershed of 204,650 acres (82,819 ha) and flowing southeast for 10 miles (16 km), then north-northeast for 28 miles (45 km). The South Fork Kamishak River joins at Mile 27, and the Little Kamishak River at Mile 37, near the bay. The drainage basin is underlain largely by flat-lying Upper Jurassic sandstone and conglomerate of the Naknek and Chisik formations. Cenozoic volcanic rocks form the peaks along the range’s southeastern flank, while glacial debris and alluvium fill the valley floors. The name was first published in 1826 by Gavril Sarychev, a lieutenant in the Imperial Russian Navy, as ‘Reka Kamyshak’, or ‘Kamyshak River’.

Akumwarvik Bay extends about 5 miles (8 km) south-southwest off Kamishak Bay, on the Cook Inlet coast of the Alaska Peninsula. Kamishak Bay’s Alutiiq name is Qameksaq, and hunting and trapping in the wider Katmai region date to prehistoric times. The Kamishak Canning Company built a salmon cannery on the bay in 1922, but oil drew more interest. In 1920, U.S. Congress opened Alaska territorial public lands to oil leasing under the Mineral Leasing Act. After earlier surveys had shown petroleum potential, developers staked claims in 1922 along the bay’s southwestern shore and up the Kamishak valley for about 10 miles (16 km). Reports of oil seeps added to the interest, but no drilling had been attempted by 1923. That year a U.S. Geological Survey field party, which included the geologist Kirtley F. Mather, mapped the area. Its report, published in 1925, uses the name Akumwarvik Bay.

In 1929 the brothers Walter and Ole Wassenkari planned to run winter trap lines around Kamishak Bay. Ole was a Bristol Bay fisherman and a Kvichak–Iliamna area trapper. A newspaper article mentioned that they planned to use a cabin at the river’s mouth. The cabin’s location and condition remain unknown, and it was probably used only briefly, if at all. The cabin may have been built as a result of the oil-lease activity along the bay and river in the early 1920s. Today the river lies near the northern edge of Katmai National Park and Preserve and the southern edge of McNeill River State Game Sanctuary. The sanctuary protects about 128,000 acres (52,000 ha) of wildlife habitat in an area with a dense population of brown bears. The bears are attracted to and feed on spawning salmon that run up the river. While McNeil River is a famous area for bear viewing, few people visit the Kamishak River, and most who do are anglers on day trips. Trapping has been prohibited in the park since 1978, although it remains allowed in the adjacent preserve. Read more here and here. Explore more of Kamishak River and Akumwarvik Bay here: