Little Tutka Bay, a tidal lagoon on the south side of Kachemak Bay and the southern entrance to Tutka Bay, lies about 12 miles (19 km) south of Homer and 7 miles (11 km) east-northeast of Seldovia, Alaska. Its name derives from the Dena’ina Athabascan word tut’ ka’a, meaning ‘big enclosed water.’ Tutka Bay is a deglaciated fjord that extends about 9 miles (15 km) southeast from the Herring Islands—historically known, along with Grass Island, as the Gateway Islands—into the Kenai Mountains, ending at the mouth of the Tutka River. Most of Kachemak Bay’s southern coast comprises rocks of the McHugh Complex, part of the Chugach terrane. Separated by the Border Ranges Fault from the Peninsular terrane west of Seldovia, these formations are chiefly conglomerate and massive graywacke in fault-bounded layers thousands of feet thick. Deposited as turbidites in a deep ocean trench, they record a dynamic marine environment and tectonic evolution from the Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. The Herring Islands feature basalt buried by radiolarian chert and later folded and faulted. The basalt appears as pillow basalt, pillow breccia, and massive basalt, while the chert—occurring in gray, green, red, and black varieties—dates from the Middle Triassic to early Cretaceous. The present-day landscape of the Cook Inlet basin, including Kachemak Bay, is the result of multiple Pleistocene glaciations. During the Last Glacial Maximum, ice streams scoured bedrock to carve deep fjords before merging to fill the basin. The basalt and chert of the Herring Islands resisted glacial erosion, preserving their distinctive features. By 16,000 years ago, retreating glaciers likely opened the outer coast to human occupation. As the ice receded, post-glacial rebound caused the land to rise—albeit more slowly than sea level, which inundated the coastal fringe by about 400 feet (120 m). This interplay of glacial and tectonic processes continues to shape the region’s dramatic landscape.

Human migrations began shortly after the Last Glacial Maximum. The earliest settlers belonged to the Ocean Bay archaeological tradition, known for distinctive technology and artifacts dating to 4,500 years ago. They were succeeded by peoples of the Arctic Small Tool tradition, who used the bay around 4,000 years ago. Around 3,000 years ago, the Kachemak tradition arrived, only to abandon the bay about 1,500 years later. For the past 1,000 years the bay has been continuously used by the Dena’ina Athabascan and Alutiiq Sugpiat. Upon European arrival, the Alutiiq Sugpiat occupied the southern coast of Kachemak Bay while the Dena’ina Athabascan settled along the northern shore. This cultural mix led to conflicts over resource use. At least one island at the mouth of Tutka Bay—about 2 miles  (3.2 km) north of Little Tutka Bay—served as a refuge called Q’na’qesle. Oral tradition recounts that its inhabitants were besieged; one man had to swim ashore at night to fetch water in a bladder because none was available on the island. In the 18th century, Russian fur hunters (or promyshlenniki) were among the first Europeans to visit Kachemak Bay. In 1778, Captain James Cook sailed into Cook Inlet in search of the fabled Strait of Anián across North America. In 1786, Stepan Zaikov of the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company established a trading post at the mouth of the Kenai River. Fur traders soon subjugated the Aleut and Alutiiq people, forcing men to hunt sea otters for the maritime fur trade. That same year, Captain Nathaniel Portlock discovered coal beds on the north shore of present-day Port Graham, later mined by the Russians. After the 1867 Alaska Purchase, Kachemak Bay became a destination for miners, fishers, and fur trappers. Miners en route to goldfields of upper Cook Inlet and the interior, fishers exploiting herring and salmon, and fox farms on islands at the mouth of Tutka Bay—operating into the early 1900s—helped shape the region’s economic history.

Most of the land around present-day Little Tutka Bay is owned by the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and managed by the Trust Land Office, which subdivides and leases parcels to generate revenue. Before statehood in 1959, Alaska offered few mental health services for those with mental illness or developmental disabilities. Mental illness was criminalized: individuals unable to care for themselves or lacking a guardian were charged as ‘an insane person at large’ and sent by the federal government to Morningside Hospital, a private institution in Portland, Oregon. By 1942, over 2,000 Alaskans, including young children, resided there. In 1956, the US Congress passed The Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act, transferring responsibility for mental health care to the territory and establishing the Alaska Mental Health Trust, which was granted 1 million acres (400,000 ha) to generate income for a comprehensive care program. This legislation marked a turning point in the territory’s approach to mental health care. In 1984, an Alaska Supreme Court class-action ruling found that the state had breached its fiduciary duty in managing Trust land. After years of litigation, a landmark 1994 settlement reconstituted the Trust Authority with $200 million and 1 million acres. The Permanent Fund Corporation now manages the cash corpus—a commingled allocation of the Permanent Fund—while the Trust Land Office oversees noncash assets, managing numerous surface leases statewide and seeking additional long-term leases to boost revenue. The settlement reformed the management structure, ensuring more transparent use of the Trust’s assets. Since its inception, land sales and land use activities have contributed over 50 percent of the Trust Land Office’s total revenue. These funds have been critical in supporting Alaska’s mental health programs. The management model, established by federal legislation and refined through litigation, continues to underpin the state’s investment in mental health care and fosters ongoing improvements in service delivery across the region. Read more here and here. Explore more of Little Tutka and Kachemak Bay here: