Roller Bay is located on the west coast of Noyes Island near a prehistoric rock shelter on Cape Addington to the south, and Cape Ulitka to the north, about 122 miles (196 km) southeast of Sitka and 24 miles (39 km) west of Craig, Alaska. In 1923 the US Coast and Geodetic Survey named it for the rolling waves and squalls that enter its 2.5 mile-wide (4 km) mouth from the open ocean. Captain George Vancouver named Cape Addington in 1794 after Henry Addington, then speaker of Britain’s House of Commons and later prime minister from 1801 to 1804. Noyes Island, about 7 miles (11 km) across, lies in the Gulf of Esquibel off Prince of Wales Island‘s west coast within Tongass National Forest. William H. Dall named it in 1879 for William M. Noyes, stationed in Alaska with the Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1873 to 1880. The island forms part of the Prince of Wales Archipelago, representing the Alexander terrane, a tectonic accretionary complex of volcanic island arc, turbidites, siliceous shale, chert and limestone. The Port San Antonio Fault runs through Cape Addington’s base, separating Noyes Island’s volcanic basalt from the cape’s limestone, which wave action and dissolution erode readily, creating karst topography and extensive caves.

Several large sea caves on Cape Addington now sit above sea level, beyond the waves’ reach. As glaciers melted toward the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, relative sea level rose, peaking around 9,000 years ago at 30 feet (10 m) above present levels. The melting ice released pressure, triggering ongoing isostatic rebound that lowered relative sea level and elevated the caves. One sea cave has a main entrance 100 feet (30 m) wide and 50 feet (15 m) high, with smaller entrances connected by archways. Sitting 50 feet (15 m) above present mean sea level, it extends 246 feet (75 m) into the limestone cliff, where cavers found a whale bone dated to roughly 5,000 years ago. In 1994 archaeologists discovered a sea cave with a deep shell midden about 52 feet (16 m) above sea level. Excavation in 1997 suggested the cultural deposit was no older than 2,000 years and that people occupied the cave mainly from 50 to 1500 AD.

The midden yielded a large faunal assemblage dominated by California mussel (Mytilus californianus). The most common mammals, fish and birds were deer, harbor seal, halibut, salmon, Pacific cod, eagle and albatross. The earliest activities, from 50 to 260 AD, were halibut fishing and deer and fur seal hunting. From 260 to 660 AD, Pacific cod bones suggest spring occupation when these fish are most abundant. Sea otter remains dated from 660 to 860 AD, while salmon and halibut fluctuated in relative abundance but both became fishing targets after 1000 AD. The site may have been occupied for only a few weeks in some years, perhaps not at all in others. The midden data could not determine the occupants’ ethnicity. Noyes Island lies in the traditional territory of both the Tlingit and Kaigani Haida peoples, depending on the source consulted, and the foods consumed are not sufficiently distinctive. Read more here and here. Explore more of Roller Bay and Noyes Island here: