Coal Point forms the tip of the Homer Spit in Kachemak Bay on the southern Kenai Peninsula, about 15 miles (24 km) north-east of Seldovia and 5.7 miles (9 km) south-east of Homer, Alaska. The name is a translation by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey of the Russian “Mys Ugolnoy” or “coal cape”, first published by Captain Mikhail Tebenkov in 1881. The Homer Spit, approximately 4.4 miles (7.1 km) long, was named in 1904 by Ralph W. Stone of the US Geological Survey for the village of Homer, which was historically located at Coal Point. The spit is formed by the south-eastward movement and deposition of nearshore sediments along the western coast of the Kenai Peninsula. Further elongation is prevented by a submarine trough over 650 feet (200 m) deep with strong tidal currents. The spit is the supra-tidal expression of a much larger subtidal feature called the Archimandritof Shoals, named for Captain Illarion Archimandritov, who was sent by Tebenkov to survey Cook Inlet from 1848 to 1850 for the Russian-American Company. The shoals initially formed as a moraine when Kachemak Bay was still dominated by ancient, partially grounded tidewater glaciers. Sand and gravel eroding from sea cliffs along the Cook Inlet shoreline are suspended by turbulent storm waves, transported by shallow-water wave-induced currents, and eventually deposited where wave energy is attenuated. The Archimandritov Shoals cause large waves to break farther offshore, creating a relatively low-energy shoreline where sediment is deposited. However, during storms, large high-energy waves at high tide cross the shoals and cause extensive damage to the spit, its road and buildings.

In 1852 the Russian-American Company began coal mining at Coal Cove, discovered by Nathaniel Portlock in 1786 at the entrance to Port Graham. The mine operated until 1867, when the Alaska Purchase transferred the territory to the United States. In 1899 the Cook Inlet Coal Fields Company began developing a coalfield within 3 miles (5 km) of the base of the Homer Spit. About 150 men were engaged in constructing 20 buildings at Coal Point for the original settlement of Homer, and a large dock on the east side of the point where there is a protected anchorage. A narrow gauge railroad was built along the spit from Coal Point to the mainland, where it ascended a bluff and continued to a mining camp with eight buildings between Cooper and Coal creeks. Three tunnels were driven into a coal seam 6.5 feet (2 m) thick under the direction of John Kirsopp, a British mining engineer. During the winter of 1901-02 the mail steamer Discovery was supplied continuously with fuel from this mine. In spring 1902 the operation was shut down, and no additional investments were made in keeping the mines or the railroad repaired. In 1904 Ralph W. Stone and a team from the US Geological Survey used one of the buildings at Coal Point as headquarters while surveying Kachemak Bay for mineral resources. At that time there were no residents of Homer other than two company caretakers.

Coal Point and the Homer Spit consist of unconsolidated sediments that constantly shifting in response to the volume of sediment deposition and erosion. Earthquakes generally cause sea-cliff subsidence on the eastern shoreline of Cook Inlet, potentially introducing massive volumes of sediment into the nearshore and leading to more accretion. On March 27th 1964 an earthquake shook the Homer area for three minutes, resulting in tectonic land subsidence of 3 feet (1 m) on the mainland and an additional 3 feet (1 m) from differential compaction of sediments on the Homer Spit. A submarine landslide on the steep submerged face of Coal Point destroyed most of the harbor breakwater. High tides flooded most of the spit, and the buildings at Coal Point, as well as the road, had to be elevated. Much of the Homer Spit has since been altered, and the state of Alaska has attempted to control erosion with wooden beach groins, wooden bulkheads, a section of sheet piling, a concrete-slab revetment and, most recently, massive blocks of riprap to prevent damage to the highway and other structures. Read more here and here. Explore more of Coal Point and the Homer Spit here: