The history of Kodiak Alaska begins with the Alutiiq people, who have lived on the Kodiak Archipelago for more than 7,000 years. In the 1780s, Russian fur traders arrived, and in 1792 they made Kodiak the first capital of Russian America. A volcano buried it in ash in 1912, and in 1964 a tsunami nearly wiped it away. Yet Kodiak rebuilt each time. Today, it is one of the largest fishing ports in the United States.
The Alutiiq, also called the Sugpiaq, have lived on Kodiak Island and along the Gulf of Alaska for more than 7,000 years. The Koniag Alutiiq of the Kodiak Archipelago fished, hunted sea mammals, and traveled in skin kayaks. They built a rich culture, and they passed their history down through storytelling, singing, and dancing. The Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak preserves this heritage.
The Alutiiq kept their independence until 1784. That April, Russian fur trader Grigory Shelikhov arrived with two ships. He founded a settlement at Three Saints Bay on the southeast side of the island, near present-day Old Harbor and about 63 miles from the city of Kodiak.
The arrival was violent. On August 14, 1784, Shelikhov and about 130 armed men attacked Alutiiq people sheltering at Refuge Rock, off Sitkalidak Island. The Awa’uq Massacre killed hundreds of people. Alutiiq history calls the years from 1784 to 1818 the darkest period their people have known.
In 1790, Shelikhov hired Alexander Baranov to manage his fur business. Baranov judged Three Saints Bay too hard to defend, and in 1792 he moved the settlement to St. Paul’s Harbor, the site of present-day Kodiak. The Russians first called it Pavlovskaya Gavan, or Paul’s Harbor.
The harbor became the first capital of Russian America. Baranov built a warehouse, called a magazin, on a hill above the harbor to store sea otter pelts. The building still stands today. It is the Kodiak History Museum, and it is often called the oldest standing building in Alaska.
The Russians also brought a lasting religion. On September 24, 1794, ten monks from Valaam Monastery arrived at Three Saints Bay. One of them was Herman, later known as Saint Herman of Alaska. The monks became defenders of the Alutiiq. They baptized more than 7,000 people, and they built a church and monastery at St. Paul Harbor.
The faith endures. Saint Herman was canonized in 1970 in Kodiak, and his relics rest in the Holy Resurrection Cathedral. The original church burned down, and the present cathedral, restored in the 1940s, shows the traditional Russian style, with blue onion domes.
After Baranov’s departure, the Russian colony began to falter. In 1867, the United States bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, or about two cents per acre. Kodiak then became a commercial fishing center, and that has been the mainstay of its economy ever since. Before World War II, it relied on cattle raising and on herring and salmon fishing.
Disaster struck in June 1912. On June 6, the Novarupta volcano, across Shelikof Strait on the Alaska Peninsula, produced the largest eruption of the 20th century. The eruption lasted three days. Kodiak, about 160 miles away, was buried in a foot or more of ash. Residents feared they would be found like the people of Pompeii.
Kodiak incorporated as a city on September 11, 1940. The new city government soon faced a world at war.
War reshaped Kodiak. Construction of the Kodiak Naval Operating Base began in 1939. In April 1941, Battery C of the 250th Coast Artillery Regiment, a California National Guard unit, arrived. By September 1941, the Army had set up a headquarters at Fort Greely, later renamed Fort Abercrombie. Roads, an airport, and the forts turned the town into a fortress.
Today, Fort Abercrombie is a state historical park and a National Historic Landmark. It was one of the first secret radar installations in Alaska. Its bunkers are among the best-preserved World War II sites in the state. The Kodiak Military History Museum occupies a bunker there, and the Kodiak Maritime Museum is also in the park.
The worst disaster came on Good Friday, March 27, 1964. The Great Alaska Earthquake, the largest ever recorded in North America, shook the Kodiak area. The tsunami that followed virtually leveled downtown Kodiak. It destroyed the fishing fleet, the processing plants, the canneries, and 158 homes. It also destroyed three Alutiiq villages on the island.
Kodiak rebuilt. The city and a government redevelopment authority cleared and redeveloped the downtown through the late 1960s. The authority acquired the old Russian magazin, and in 1967 the city leased it to the Kodiak Historical Society.
Fishing shaped the new Kodiak. After World War II, dairying and the harvesting of shellfish and king crab became important. From the 1960s into the 1980s, the crab boom earned Kodiak the unofficial title “King Crab Capital of the World.” Today, it is one of the largest fishing ports in the United States, and it has many fish-processing plants.
The military remained. The U.S. Coast Guard now occupies the site of the former Kodiak Naval Station, which the Navy built and operated from 1939 to 1971. The Coast Guard base is one of the city’s largest employers.
Several institutions keep this history alive:
Kodiak counted 6,130 residents in 2010 and 5,581 in 2020. The Census Bureau estimated 5,281 in July 2025, a decline of 5.3 percent from the 2020 base. The city covers less than four square miles, and it is the tenth-largest city in Alaska. Kodiak Island Borough had an estimated 12,387 residents in 2025. Everything that moves between the island’s communities and the outside world passes through Kodiak by ferry or by air. Its motto is “Alaska’s Emerald Isle.”
The history of Kodiak Alaska runs from the Alutiiq people to a fishing city of more than 5,000. The Russians founded Three Saints Bay in 1784, and Baranov moved the capital of Russian America to Kodiak in 1792. Orthodox monks arrived in 1794, and the United States bought Alaska in 1867. Kodiak survived a volcanic eruption in 1912 and a tsunami in 1964. Today, its museums, its cathedral, and its working harbor connect it to every part of that story.