Adak
Going into town from Adak means a longer trip, overflying Atka, Unalaska, Akutan, King Cove, King Salmon, angling northeast across a mountain range the long way, before once again crossing saltwater in Cook Inlet while descending into Anchorage. These distances are oppressive, especially when the airlines charge top dollar for going into town.
Adak and the military have a shared history dating back to the 1940s, from a World War Il air base for attacks against the Japanese occupying the American islands of Kiska and Attu, and after 1943 against Japan’s shore-based fishing industry, and eventually to a Cold War outpost for watching the movements of Russian aircraft with close aerial encounters near the international boundary. And with international tensions rising, the military may make a return. A mock invasion was conducted with Marines storming ashore from a Navy transport ship, the USS Somerset, in 2019. At Adak, 5,000 service members and 2,500 dependents and teachers and contractors stayed at the modernized high-security outpost, originally built during World War II. While off limits to the general public, fishing boats making emergency visits were surrounded at the docks by armed guards. Following the end of the Cold War In the late 1990s, the Navy pulled out, leaving an architectural legacy of single-family houses in suburban-style subdivisions, a little Levittown in the part of the world known as the cradle of storms.
False Pass
The fishing town of False Pass is the first village on the first island in the Aleutian Chain. The town has a population of 56, and is primarily an Unangax̂ Alaska Native village, with a large multispecies seafood processing plant owned by Silver Bay Seafoods. Boats and aircraft are the only way to get to False Pass, with a 2,100-foot gravel runway and seaplane base. The state ferry Tustemena of the Alaska Marine Highway System stops once a month at the village seasonally from late spring to early fall, on the three-day Aleutian Chain voyage between Unalaska/Dutch Harbor and Homer
False Pass is named because of a shallow pass between Unimak Island and the mainland, through which large deep-draft vessels can’t pass without a healthy concern for safety and sensitive cargo. Even without vessels running aground, the shallow waters have led to unfortunate incidents, such as with perishable seafood cargo. A load of crab died when a crewmember forgot to turn the circulating seawater pumps back on. The pumps were turned off to avoid sucking mud into the crab tanks in the shallow strait. Sadly, the valuable product arrived at Kodiak in unmarketable condition, since the crab must be delivered alive for food safety
Akutan
Akutan is the home of a small Unangax̂ village and a large fish and crab processing plant. The plant is run by Trident Seafoods, which is serviced by a new airport on the nearby island of Akun. Built-in 2014 with a cost of $50 million, the two-island transportation system cost significantly less than building it on Akutan. It is a five-mile helicopter ride between Akun and Akutan, making it the community’s first runway on land. All air traffic to Akutan goes through the “hub” of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, with scheduled air connections to Anchorage. Previously, Pen Air’s Grumman Goose, an amphibious aircraft, would land in the water in front of the island, allowing for a one-aircraft connection from Dutch Harbor. But after its retirement, new ideas were needed for how to service Akutan. With difficulties from extreme weather conditions and costly investments, the hired helicopter proved to be the most efficient solution. In the future, Akutan is considering building a dock on Akun for a boat to transport villagers and fish plant workers across the water.
Belkofsky
Belkofsky is an abandoned village on the southern Alaska Peninsula, 12 miles southeast of King Cove. It is now used seasonally as a fish camp. The remote site is accessible by boat or float plane, but there are no stores, businesses, airstrip, harbors, or docks. The village was founded in 1823 to harvest the once-abundant sea otters in nearshore waters, making Belkofsky one of the region’s most prosperous villages. At the time, it had three stores and supplies were being shipped in from San Francisco. As sea otter populations continued to decline, local residents took up trapping on land or moved off of the island for employment. In the 1980s, the last of the Belkofsky residents moved to King Cove, bringing along the bell and icons from the Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, later installing them into a new church.