Port Graham is a deglaciated fjord located at the southern entrance to Kachemak Bay on the southwestern end of the Kenai Peninsula, about 23 miles (37 km) south-southwest of Homer and 3.4 miles (5.5 km) east of Nanwalek, Alaska. This fjord is home to an Alutiiq Sugpiat community, also named Port Graham. Captain Nathaniel Portlock named the bay “Grahams Harbour” in 1786. The Russians later referred to it as Bukhta Anglitskaya, or “English Bay,” due to British exploration in the late 18th century. Today, this name is used on charts for the small bay adjacent to Nanwalek. The Port Graham fjord was shaped by repeated glaciations from the Chugach accretionary terrane. The geology surrounding Port Graham includes three rock formations. The outer third of the bay consists of the Talkeetna Formation, which formed during the Early Jurassic period. This formation comprises at least 17,000 feet (5,270 m) of andesite and dacite tuff, volcaniclastic conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone, and minor coal and limestone. The presence of coal in Coal Harbor on the north shore of Port Graham suggests that part of the formation was deposited in a non-marine environment. The middle third of the bay consists of the Port Graham Formation, characterized by dark-gray limestone, volcanic tuff, and sedimentary rocks containing tuff, and chert. The estimated minimum thickness is 5,000 feet (1,500m). Bivalve fossils indicate a Late Triassic age for most of this unit. The inner third of the bay, including most of the Port Graham River watershed in the Kenai Mountains, consists of the McHugh Complex, which is primarily conglomerate and massive graywacke of turbiditic origin. Regionally, the graywacke formed during the Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous periods.

The current residents of Port Graham and Nanwalek trace their origins to the Alutiiq people, who lived in permanent and seasonal settlements along the outer coast of the lower Kenai Peninsula, between Kachemak Bay and Prince William Sound. The subgroup of Alutiiq who occupied this area are called Sugpiat. The first documented contact with Europeans came from Captain James Cook in 1778. Russian fur traders from the Northeastern Fur Company arrived shortly after, seeking sea otter. In 1785, Grigory Shelikhov of the Shelikov-Golikov Company built a fort called Alexandrovsk at present-day Nanwalek. In 1786, Captains George Dixon and Nathaniel Portlock established trade relations with the Alutiiq in Prince William Sound and lower Cook Inlet. Portlock described scattered huts along Port Graham Bay, suggesting seasonal fishing and hunting camps used by outer coast people for salmon runs. The Russians quickly suppressed the Sugpiat by occupying villages, enslaving and killing men, and taking women and children hostage for ransom. In the late 18th century, men and women were organized into workgroups under Russian overseers. They were tasked with hunting sea otters and birds, trapping foxes, and gathering wild foods, including dried salmon, whale meat, and edible plants, to meet harvest quotas. In 1794, at the request of Shelikov and Simon Golikov, the first Russian missionaries arrived in Kodiak to instruct the Alutiiq in Christianity. The Russian Orthodox Church had a profound impact, replacing many traditions lost to Russian oppression. This church remains a significant legacy of the Russian occupation. In 1867, the Alaska Purchase transferred the territory from Russia to the United States. By the 1880s, the last permanent residents of the outer Kenai coast villages relocated to Nanwalek and Koyuktolik Bay at the request of the Russian Orthodox priest in Kenai, causing significant cultural and social changes for the Sugpiat. The Alutiiq population declined drastically due to diseases brought by Euro-Americans, forced labor, community dispersal, and population admixture.

The American takeover of Alaska had an immediate impact on local economies, notably through the development of salteries and canneries, which boosted the commercial fishing industry. In 1883, the Alaska Commercial Company operated a saltery at a trading post on the southern shore of Port Graham. By 1912, the Fidalgo Island Packing Company had built a cannery where Nanwalek residents worked seasonally, initially walking 3.5 miles (5.5 km) each day until a row of frame houses was constructed on pilings along the gravel beach west of the cannery. These houses served as worker accommodations until larger quarters were built as the cannery expanded. In the 1940s, the frame houses were sold and relocated to higher ground south of the cannery, with several converted into stores. The cannery was supplied with salmon caught in fish traps, with logs for trap pilings sourced from Windy Bay, Port Chatham, and Koyuktolik Bay. Traps were strategically placed at coastal locations where salmon migrated through narrows or around land points. After World War II, Port Graham’s population grew as people from Nanwalek, Port Chatham, and Koyuktolik Bay moved there for employment at the cannery. In 1960, a fire destroyed the cannery, forcing many families to relocate. They returned when the cannery was rebuilt in 1968. The cannery wharf now hosts a salmon hatchery owned and operated by the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association. This hatchery was originally built in 1991 and rebuilt in 1998 after a fire. It closed in 2007 and reopened in 2014 following a major renovation to modernize and improve efficiency. Today, Port Graham is an unincorporated community with a five-member tribal government, recognized by the federal government as a traditional governing council. Although local roads connect Port Graham and Nanwalek, there is no road access to this part of the Kenai Peninsula. Like many rural Alaskan communities, Port Graham relies on air service from Homer as the primary transportation link. Read more here and here. Explore more of Port Graham and Kachemak Bay here: