Fossil Bluffs is located on the northeast shore of Halleck Harbor near the northern entrance of Saginaw Bay on Kuiu Island, about 42 miles (68 km) southeast of Sitka and 17 miles (27 km) southwest of Kake, Alaska. The name for these shoreline cliffs was recorded in 1948 by the U.S. Geological Survey. It refers to the abundant spiriferid and productid brachiopod fossils found in the bedrock of the Pybus Formation, which formed during the Permian period. On Kuiu Island, this rock formation consists predominantly of light gray dolomitic limestone, with some light gray chert dominating the lower 50 to 100 feet (15-30 m) on the north side of Halleck Harbor. Both limestone and chert weather to white, creating prominent white cliffs. Halleck Harbor was named in 1869 by U.S Navy Commander Richard W. Meade of the USS Saginaw, in honor of Major General Henry W. Halleck. From 1865 to 1869, Halleck commanded the Military Division of the Pacific. In 1867, the United States purchased Russian America. William H. Seward, possibly with input from Halleck and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, applied the Aleut word “Alaska,” meaning “great country or land,” to the acquired territory.

The USS Saginaw, a sidewheel sloop-of-war, was launched at Mare Island in 1859. During the American Civil War, Saginaw was part of the Pacific Squadron, patrolling the U.S. West Coast to prevent Confederate activity. In 1866, the ship was stationed in Puget Sound to support settlers in the Pacific Northwest and assisted the Western Union Company in laying a cable that introduced telegraphic service to the region. Following the Alaska Purchase in 1867, the U.S. Army assumed civil law enforcement duties in the Department of Alaska. Saginaw was dispatched to explore and chart the Alaskan coast. Trouble arose when U.S. authorities applied common law to dispense justice, ignoring the traditional legal system of the Tlingit people. Americans often dismissed the Tlingit legal framework as based on ‘revenge.’ However, it was more intricate, involving ‘peace ceremonies’ that included compensation in goods or human lives. These cultural misunderstandings led to a dark period in Southeast Alaska known as the Kake War.

Before the conflict, Tlingit warriors from Kake killed two European American trappers in retribution for the deaths of two Kake tribesmen who were killed while leaving Sitka by canoe. Sitka was the site of a standoff between the U.S. Army and the Tlingit after the Army demanded the surrender of Chief Colchika, who was involved in an earlier altercation at Fort Sitka. The USS Saginaw was dispatched to subdue the Kake Tlingit and, in February 1869, proceeded to destroy villages at Fossil Bluffs, Hamilton Bay, and Security Bay. Although the Kake evacuated the villages before the attacks, soldiers burned their winter food stores. According to tribal oral accounts, this led to the starvation and suffering of many people. The Kake Tlingit did not rebuild their destroyed villages. Instead, the people dispersed to other communities, including what is now the community of Kake. In 1869, the USS Saginaw was assigned to Midway Atoll to support dredging operations. In 1870, while approaching Kure Atoll, the Saginaw struck an outlying reef and was wrecked in the surf. The wreck was discovered in 2003 and remains under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command. In 2019, the name of Saginaw Bay was changed to the Tlingit name, Skanáx̱ Bay. Read more here and here. Explore more of Fossil Bluffs and Saginaw Bay here: