Snug Harbor Packing Co., which operated from 1919 to 1980 on Chisik Island just off the coast of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The island sits in the Tuxedni Wilderness of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, southwest of the city of Kenai.
Snug Harbor is also the home of the largest seabird colony in Cook Inlet, for resident and migratory birds, where thousands of birds raise and feed their young.
The Snug Harbor Outpost, located on the island, advertises itself as one of Alaska’s best adventure trips, with no cell phone service and no roads and accessible only by boat or plane.
Alaska historian Katherine Johnson Ringsmuth tells the story of the cannery and the island in her book “Snug Harbor Cannery: A Beacon on the Forgotten Shore,” produced by Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. The book covers life at the cannery, as well as how the cannery ultimately shaped the history, economy and cultures of the region.
