The Ankau Saltchucks form a network of tidal lagoons in a complex estuary about 1.2 miles (1.9 km) across at the northwestern tip of the Phipps Peninsula, at the entrance to Yakutat Bay and along Monti Bay’s west shore, about 215 miles (346 km) southeast of Cordova and 3.6 miles (6 km) west-southwest of Yakutat, Alaska. A saltchuck is a brackish lake connected to the sea by a tidal channel. The term comes from Chinook Jargon, combining ‘salt’ with the Nuu-chah-nulth word for water, ‘č̕aʔak.’ The lagoons, dotted with small islands and rocks, are separated from the Pacific Ocean by a narrow barrier beach. The upper lagoon—Russian Lake—is fed by Tawah Creek, which drains Rocky, Aka, and Summit Lakes. Summit Lake, located east of a former US Coast Guard LORAN-A Station, was once navigable at high tide; however, post-glacial rebound has silted its upper reaches and choked the lake with vegetation. Deglaciation of Yakutat Bay was complete before 1791, and since then the peninsula has undergone continual isostatic rebound, sea-level changes, and redistribution of glacial sediments. Captain Alessandro Malaspina named the estuary ‘Estero del Ancau’ in 1791 after a Tlingit chief. Russian fur traders later adopted ‘Yakutat’ (or ‘Yakudat’) in 1823 for the mouth of Ankau Creek, which drains the saltchucks into Monti Bay. La Perouse named Monti Bay ‘Baie de Monti’ in 1786 after one of his officers. The Phipps Peninsula, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long, lies between the Gulf of Alaska and Monti Bay. Captain George Dixon named it ‘Cape Phipps’ in 1787 for explorer Constantine John Phipps, renowned for his 1773 voyage to Spitzbergen and the Arctic Ocean. Yakutat Bay spans 18 miles (29 km), with an embayment extending 35 miles (56 km) northeast to Disenchantment Bay. Yakutat’s history predates European contact. Eyak-speaking peoples likely migrated southeast from the mouth of the Copper River, while a northwestward migration of Tlingit from Southeast Alaska eventually assimilated the Eyak. Yakutat was one of several Tlingit and mixed Tlingit-Eyak settlements—the others now depopulated or abandoned.
The Phipps Peninsula was used first by the Tlingit, then by Russians, maritime fur traders, the US military, and the Coast Guard. In the early 1790s, Alexander Andreyevich Baranov of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company launched expeditions east from Prince William Sound in search of new sea otter hunting grounds. His first encounter with the Yakutat Tlingit occurred in 1792 when a party of 30 Russians in two baidarkas and a fleet of 150 vessels manned by 300 Alutiiq hunters, camped on Hinchinbrook Island near future Nuchek, was ambushed by Yakutat Tlingit from Yakutat Bay, seeking revenge for prior injuries inflicted by the Chugach. In 1793, Baranov dispatched James G. Shields and four British sailors to escort 170 baidarkas into Yakutat Bay in search of sea otter breeding grounds. The following year, he purchased land from the Yakutat Tlingit to establish a settlement, but the plan was scrapped after the Tlingit turned hostile to an advance party. In 1796, 192 Russians landed and built a fort called New Russia on the Ankau Saltchucks. The fort comprised two log buildings, a palisade, and a blockhouse. By 1805, the settlement had expanded to 12 buildings and a small shipyard that built two boats. Tensions persisted, and later that year the Tlingit attacked New Russia, burning it and killing nearly all its occupants, save a few women and children. Soon after, a fleet of 300 baidarkas was lost in a storm in the Gulf of Alaska, further diminishing Russian interest. The Yakutat site was never reoccupied, possibly because the Russian-American Company established its headquarters at Sitka. After the attack, the area received only sporadic visits; by the 1870s, American traders found nothing of the old fort. Interest in the region waned, leaving the site largely forgotten.
US military interest in Yakutat Bay began in 1929 with the Yakutat Bay Naval Reservation. In 1940, the Department of War acquired 46,083 acres (18,649 ha) and the Army Corps of Engineers began constructing the Yakutat Landing Field at the base of the Phipps Peninsula, completed in 1943. A 155 mm battery was installed at Point Carrew on the peninsula’s northern tip to defend the airfield. In 1945 the airfield was declared surplus and transferred to the Civil Aeronautics Administration in 1947. In 1952 a double master LORAN-A station was built between Summit Lake and the beach at the base of the Phipps Peninsula. The isolated duty station was staffed by electronics technicians, machinist mates, a cook, a boatswain’s mate, seamen, a yeoman and a commissioned officer on one‑year assignments. Two connected steel Quonset huts, about 300 feet (91 m) inland, housed the station. The northwest hut held LORAN‑A electronics and generators; the southeast hut housed the dining area, kitchen and living quarters. In 1960 the Air Force acquired land from the Forest Service and the Alaska Division of Lands to construct the Ocean Cape Radio Relay Station. At Ocean Cape, the peninsula’s westernmost point, the facility included buildings, storage tanks, pipelines, a bridge, roads, utilities and four 60‑foot (18 m) parabolic antennas. It relayed communications between White Alice stations at Cape Yakataga (98 miles NW) and Hoonah (186 miles SE) and was part of the Alpha Route of the Rearward Communications System along Southeast Alaska’s coast to Duncan Canal on Kupreanof Island, where signals transferred to a subsea cable. Between 1974 and 1976 the facility was leased to America Alaska Communications, Inc., and later idled when satellite communications rendered White Alice obsolete. The LORAN‑A station operated until 1979, when it was phased out. Both facilities were razed; the Army Corps and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation now manage monitoring and remediation efforts. Read more here and here. Explore more of Ankau Saltchucks and the Phipps Peninsula here: