Corea Creek drains a fen at an elevation of 200 feet (60 m) on the Kenai Peninsula and flows generally south-west for 2.4 miles (4 km) to the eastern shore of Cook Inlet, about 37 miles (60 km) north of Homer and 5 miles (8 km) south-south-west of Clam Gulch, Alaska. The creek is named after the three-masted bark Corea, which was wrecked at the stream mouth in 1890. The beach is backed by a steep, eroding bluff topped by relatively flat marshlands and fens. A fen is a wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water and is one of the main types of wetland, along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Underlying several feet of peat are unconsolidated sediments deposited in an ancient glacial lake associated with the last glacial maximum; these consist of clay, silt and fine sand. The glacial-lake sediments cover bedrock representing the Sterling Formation, which developed during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs (about 20 million to 3 million years ago). These rocks are exposed at the creek mouth, where stream erosion has incised the bedrock to sea level. The Sterling Formation is up to 9,800 feet (3,000 m) thick and consists of weakly lithified sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, carbonaceous shale, volcanic ash and layers of lignite coal typically less than three feet (1 m) thick.

Corea was a wooden bark-rigged sailing ship 133 feet (41 m) long, with a beam of 38 feet (12 m) and a draft of 18 feet (5.5 m), built in Boston in 1868. In 1885 the ship was owned by the Arctic Fishing Company and began making supply and passenger runs from San Francisco to Kasilof in Cook Inlet. On March 27th 1890 Corea departed San Francisco for Cook Inlet under Captain Robert H. Wheeler, loaded with cannery supplies, 97 passengers and 19 crew. The passengers were mostly Chinese cannery laborers. On April 23rd Corea ran aground on a sandbar extending about 6 miles (10 km) south from the southern tip of Kalgin Island in Cook Inlet. The ship was refloated on the next high tide but was leaking badly and filling with seawater despite all hands manning the pumps, so Captain Wheeler sailed the vessel 24 miles (38 km) to the eastern shore of Cook Inlet and deliberately beached it near Clam Gulch. The beaches here are relatively flat and because of the greater than 30-foot (10 m) tidal range are well over a half-mile (1 km) wide at low tide. The shipwrecked passengers and crew established a camp on the beach and were eventually rescued by the steamer Francis Cutting. The ship reputedly carried sheets of metal about 14 inches (36 cm) wide and approximately 20 inches (50 cm) long, called “flat cans”, which were to be rolled and welded into salmon cans at the cannery. Locals reputedly salvaged many of them for use as cabin-roofing shingles. On May 20th the steamer Karluk brought news of the shipwreck to San Francisco.

The eastern shore of Cook Inlet is a significant natural-gas producer for south-central Alaska, and one gas-production well is situated on the bluff above the mouth of Corea Creek. The Ninilchik gas field was discovered in 2001 and commercial gas production began in 2003. The primary reservoir is the non-marine Tyonek Formation, which developed during the Oligocene-Miocene epochs (about 30 million to 20 million years ago). Fluvial deposits of interbedded sandstone, siltstone and coal comprise a gas-prone section up to 3,500 feet (1,067 m) thick. Although Cook Inlet is no longer a major oil producer, and forecasted demand for natural gas is likely to exceed production by 2027, the US Geological Survey estimates there are about 19 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. Complications that make Cook Inlet a challenging environment for oil and gas production include seasonal ice, heavy sediment loads, potential conflicts with fishing activities and the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale. Read more here and here. Explore more of Corea Creek and Clam Gulch here: