Karluk is a historical fishing community situated on a barrier spit at the mouth of Karluk Lagoon on the west coast of Kodiak Island, about 301 miles (485 km) southwest of Anchorage and 88 miles (142 km) southwest of Kodiak, Alaska. The Karluk River flows north and then northwest for 24 miles (39 km) from Karluk Lake in the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge to Karluk Lagoon on Shelikof Strait. The river is the largest and most productive salmon spawning system on Kodiak Island with significant runs of sockeye salmon, coho, pink, Chinook, and chum salmon, as well as steelhead and Dolly Varden trout. The name ‘Karluk’ is the Alutiiq word for ‘fish’ and was taken from the Alutiiq Sugpiat community reported in 1897 by Lieutenant Commander J.F. Moser of the U.S. Navy, who commanded the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries steamer Albatross.

The mouth of the Karluk River is thought to have been inhabited by Alutiiq people for more than 7,000 years. A prehistorical village locally known as Old Karluk was located at the base of the barrier spit on the north side of Karluk Lagoon. About 600 years ago, another village locally called New Karluk was established adjacent to the end of the spit on the south shore of the lagoon. It has since been completely destroyed by erosion. In 1787, Evstratii I. Delarov, the manager of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company established a trading post at Karluk. Following the Alaska Purchase in 1867, Karluk quickly became known for having one of the greatest salmon streams in the world, and in the 1880s and 1890s, it wasn’t rare to catch 40,000 sockeye salmon in a single beach seine. In 1882, the Karluk Packing Company opened the first cannery on Kodiak Island on the spit at Karluk, and a community quickly developed known locally as New Karluk. In 1890, Karluk had 1,123 residents, making it the 3rd largest community in Alaska, narrowly behind Juneau with 1,253 and Sitka with 1,190. In the early 1900s, more canneries were constructed by the Alaska Packers Association; however, in 1911 their operations were moved to Larsen Bay. Overfishing of the area forced the remaining canneries to close in the late 1930s.

The Ascension of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church in Karluk was built in 1888. It is one of the oldest standing, still-used Russian Orthodox churches in Alaska. As a place of worship, blended traditions, community gathering, and cultural expression, this place is sacred to many individuals and families in Karluk. Besides the church building and associated structures, the surrounding community cemetery contains upwards of 600 graves. There are multiple headstones and crosses, supportive wooden structures, fencing, and raised mounds. The church was built on a gradually sloping hillside above the Karluk River and Karluk Lagoon, overlooking Shelikof Strait. According to a 2007 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report, the hillside was protected by a spit until 1978, when a storm breached the spit, causing new outflow from Karluk lagoon. The bluff began to erode during high tides at an annual rate of about three to five feet. By the summer of 2021, the dramatically undercut bluff was within 10 feet (3 m) of the north side of the church. Read more here and here. Explore more of Karluk and Kodiak Island here: