Chip Cove is the site of a historic salmon cannery on the western shore of Moser Bay near Olga Narrows, on the southwestern coast of Kodiak Island, about 83 miles (133 km) southwest of Kodiak and 6 miles (10 km) north of Akhiok, Alaska. The embayment lies between Luchek Mountain to the south and Peak 2001 to the north, and was named Chip Cove in 1900 by Lieutenant Commander Jefferson F. Moser of the U.S. Navy, who commanded the U.S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross during surveys in the area from 1897 to 1901. Olga Narrows separates Olga Bay to the north from Alitak Bay to the south. Both Chip Cove and Olga Bay form part of the Alitak Bay Fishing District, crucial for the commercial salmon industry for over a century. The many tributary creeks in the area provide ideal habitats for spawning and rearing sockeye salmon. Since the late 1880s, salmon canneries have operated at Upper Station, Snug Harbor, Akalura, Chip Cove, and Lazy Bay, with only the latter still operational. The intricate coastline and geomorphologically complex landscape of the Kodiak Formation stem from repeated glaciations and weathering. This formation is part of the Chugach terrane, also known as the Southern Margin Composite terrane, which extends about 1,243 miles (2,000 km) along Alaska’s southern margin. The Kodiak Formation consists primarily of partially metamorphosed sedimentary rocks called turbidites. These rocks formed during the Late Cretaceous when sediments accumulated in a deep ocean trench. This trench was created by the subduction of an oceanic plate beneath the North American continental plate. Over time, it was filled with sediments eroded from adjacent volcanic arc mountains and uplifted rocks of older terranes.

Kodiak Island is home to the Koniag, an Alutiiq people also known as the Kaniagmiut. They occupied the entire island and parts of the adjacent Alaska Peninsula. Archaeological investigations indicate that at least two other culturally distinct groups inhabited the area earlier. Historically, Kasukuak was a village at Humpy Cove, approximately 12 miles (19 km) south-southeast of Chip Cove, across Alitak Bay. Established by Russian fur traders in the 18th century, Kasukuak was a sea otter hunting settlement. The population grew after a smallpox epidemic in 1837 led to the abandonment of several nearby villages. Starting in 1840, survivors from 65 small villages were consolidated into larger communities. People from Kaguyak, Sitkinak, Ubachvik, Tugidak, and Kashkak were relocated to Aiaktalik Island, off the southern tip of Kodiak Island. Those from Aiakolik and Paiskoe were sent to Kasukuak at Humpy Cove. After the Alaska Purchase in 1867, the decline of the sea otter fur industry shifted economic focus to fishing. In 1878, the village of Akhiok was founded with the construction of the Holy Trinity Church by settlers from Tigalda and Chulka village on Akun Island. Following the collapse of the fur trade and a devastating influenza epidemic in 1918, many families from Aiaktalik and Kasukuak moved to Akhiok to be closer to the new Alitak Packing Company salmon cannery at Lazy Bay, which provided employment. During World War II, the U.S. Postal Service briefly renamed the community Alitak to avoid confusion with Akiak, a Yup’ik village in western Alaska. The residents of Akhiok include descendants of families from Kaguyak, a village destroyed by the tsunamis following the 1964 Alaska Earthquake. Today, Akhiok is home to the federally recognized Alaska Native Village Corporation of Akhiok-Kaguyak.

In 1937, Richard D. Suryan of Anacortes, Washington, brought a floating cannery to Moser Bay to pack salmon. He had purchased the Commander, formerly a passenger ferry named the General Frisbie, which operated on San Francisco Bay and later in Puget Sound. Suryan converted it to house canning equipment and workers. The newly configured Commander sailed to Alaska on May 25, 1937, operated all summer, and returned to Puget Sound in the fall to sell the canned fish. A fleet of powered skiffs and two small seiners supplied salmon for the operation, which was later incorporated as the Far North Packing and Shipping Company. In 1939, the company beached the Commander and constructed a warehouse, fish house, and cold storage facility onshore at Chip Cove. The Commander was part of the cannery operations until it was dismantled in 1950. In 1946, the cannery was sold to Libby, McNeil & Libby. A fire destroyed the fish house in 1951, but most other buildings were saved. In 1959, Libby, McNeil & Libby withdrew from the Kodiak fishing district, selling the Moser Bay cannery to Columbia Wards Fisheries. Today, the facility no longer processes salmon but serves as a station for net repair and supplies. Read more here and here. Explore more of Chip Cove and Moser Bay here: