Canoe Passage is a State of Alaska Marine Park covering 2,507 acres (1,015 ha), encompassing both shores of a small-boat passage running northwest–southeast through Hawkins Island, in southeastern Prince William Sound, about 44 miles (71 km) south-southeast of Valdez and 11 miles (18 km) west of Cordova, Alaska. The narrow passage is about 4 miles (6 km) long and popular for boating, fishing and hunting. Hawkins Island lies between Orca Bay to the north and Orca Inlet to the south, and is flanked by Hinchinbrook Island to the west and the mainland to the east. The island was first mapped in 1794 by James Johnstone and later named by Captain George Vancouver. Canoe Passage follows the Cordova Fault, which also bisects Hawkins Island from north to south. The island’s rocks belong to the Orca Group, a geologic belt of turbidites (sandstone, siltstone and mudstone) extending about 250 miles (400 km) from eastern Prince William Sound along the southern margin of Southcentral Alaska to Kodiak Island. These rocks probably underlie much of the contiguous continental shelf. The Orca Group is in fault contact with the southern margin of the Valdez Group. During the Wisconsin glaciation, ice completely overrode what are now the land areas bordering the Gulf of Alaska, extending to the edge of the continental shelf. The region’s present-day flora and fauna have become established in the 10,000 years since the ice receded.

Evidence of prehistoric human habitation in Prince William Sound comes primarily from an archaeological site on Hawkins Island that was first excavated in 1930 and 1932. These studies indicate that Hawkins Island was inhabited from around 2,200 years ago until at least the early to mid-1700s. The excavations also revealed the diet and hunting habits of these ancestors of today’s Chugach Sugpiaq people, which included a substantial marine component—fish, several whale species—and land-based fauna. When the Russians arrived in the 18th century, the territory between the Chugach Sugpiaq of Prince William Sound and the Tlingit of Dry Bay was occupied by the Eyak, an Athabaskan people who came from the interior down the Copper River to the coast. The Eyak homeland stretched from east of Yakutat to Cape Suckling and probably included the shores of Controller Bay. The Chugach Sugpiaq, however, controlled Prince William Sound and the offshore islands. Proximity and possible territorial overlap led to frequent skirmishes, but trade was also important. Commerce centered on non-food items such as slaves, copper, greenstone, slate and caribou skins.

The present-day land status of Hawkins Island’s uplands is complex. The Eyak Corporation, formed in 1973 as a for-profit corporation under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, selected lands on the eastern part of the island. The western portion is within the Chugach National Forest. The State of Alaska holds title to Canoe Passage and to Shipyard Bay at the island’s eastern end, where mariculture is permitted, and also owns the surrounding tidelands. A private subdivision occupies the northeast shore of Canoe Passage. In 1990 the Alaska State Legislature designated Canoe Passage a State Marine Park. The passage offers excellent anchorage, a scenic landscape and access to the rest of the island for hunting, and has long been a popular site for recreation, hunting and fishing among residents of Cordova. In 1919 black-tailed deer, which are not native to Prince William Sound, were transplanted from Sitka in Southeast Alaska to Hawkins and Hinchinbrook Islands, with more introduced from 1917 to 1923. They quickly adapted to the lack of competition for habitat, and their population rose rapidly, eventually dispersing throughout Prince William Sound. Read more here and here. Explore more of Canoe Passage and Hawkins Island here: