Bootlegger Cove, also known as Little Jakolof Cove, is a small, shallow embayment on the southeastern shore of Kachemak Bay, approximately 12 miles (19 km) south of Homer and 7.6 miles (12 km) northwest of Seldovia, Alaska. At low tide, an extension of Bootlegger Cove forms an isolated lagoon that supports an oyster farm. The surrounding land is privately owned or managed by the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. 

In the years before statehood, the territory of Alaska had few resources for the mentally ill or those with developmental disabilities. Many were sent to institutions outside the territory. In 1956, Congress passed the Mental Health Trust Enabling Act, transferring the responsibility for mental health services from the federal government to the territory of Alaska, and eventually to the state. To generate revenue, the legislation also created the Alaska Mental Health Trust, the only organization of its kind in the United States. Revenue-generating activities on Trust land include leasing and sales, real estate investment and development, commercial timber sales, mineral exploration and production, oil and gas exploration, and sales of coal, sand, gravel, and rock.

Oyster farming is a developing industry in Alaska where 36 operators currently produce Pacific oysters primarily in Southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound, and Kachemak Bay. Their combined yield is about two million oysters, with a sales value of $1.5 million, mostly from local customers. Farming Pacific oysters in Alaska dates to the early 1900s. The Pacific oyster is not native to Alaska or the Pacific coast of the Americas; it was first imported from Japan to Puget Sound in the early 1900s as a substitute for declining Olympia oyster populations. Alaska began importing Pacific oysters in 1909, planting oyster larvae on intertidal beaches from Ketchikan to Kachemak Bay. Production peaked at 550 gallons (2,082 liters) in 1943, but remoteness and transportation issues caused the industry’s collapse in 1967. Oyster aquaculture restarted in the late 1970s using floating raft farms and lantern nets, with oyster seed imported from hatcheries in Washington state to supply the live half-shell market. Today, the local restaurant market provides most of the demand. Read more here and here. Explore more of Bootlegger Cove and Kachemak Bay here: