Kenai Fjords A Stern and Rock-Bound Coast: Historic Resource Study

Establishing a Network of Navigation Aids

Prior to 1900, the southern Kenai coast had been imperfectly mapped; what was known about the coastal topography, in fact, was virtually unchanged from what had been provided by Russian skipper Illarion Arkhimandritov, who had surveyed the outer Kenai coast during the 1840s. The founding of Seward and the consequent railroad construction activity, however, created a demand for navigational information by those who sailed in and out of the new port.

As noted in Chapter 1, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey conducted a hydrographic and topographic survey of the coastline from the Barren Islands (at the mouth of Cook Inlet) to the Chiswell Islands during the summer of 1906. The Nuka Bay coast was surveyed from August 26 to August 31 of that year. [29] Six years later, a USC&GS boat returned to the area, and shortly afterward the agency published a nautical chart for Aialik Bay. [30] Mariners appreciated the improved charts; in addition, increasingly detailed Coast Pilot editions were published in both 1910 and 1916. Even so, mariners remained worried because of the lack of navigation aids.

Resurrection Bay was widely considered to be the finest anchorage along the southern Kenai coast. Entering the bay, however, could be fraught with danger. Toward the north end of the bay, Caines Head jutted out along the west side, and the shore north of Thumb Cove presented an additional danger on the bay's east side. To those entering the bay from the southwest, few islands or other impediments hampered ship progress. Most traffic, however, came from the east or southeast, and ships from that direction faced three steep protrusions: Renard (Fox) Island, Hive Island, and Rugged Island. The passage between Renard Island (the northernmost of the three) and the bay's eastern shoreline was considered narrow and impracticable. Mariners, therefore, navigated through one of the two passages that separated the islands, most choosing the passage between Renard and Hive islands. A preponderance of fog and rough waters, however, made the passage often unsafe. Complicating the situation was a fourth island, Barwell Island, at the bay's eastern entrance. Though smaller than the other islands, Barwell lay close to the prevailing navigation lanes and also worried those who sailed into the bay.

In order to provide a suitable navigation aid, Alaskan officials pressed Washington for help. Beginning in 1904, Governor John G. Brady, with the assistance of Alaska Central Railroad officials and local mariners, lobbied Congress for a lighthouse at the entrance to Resurrection Bay. During the three decades that followed, these requests were made many times. The U.S. Light-House Board, recognizing that the new railroad substantially increased area marine traffic, generally concurred with these requests; one official noted that "the need for a lighthouse and fog signal ... was imperative." Ship captains serving Seward also lobbied for a lighthouse. Congress, however, provided few funds to the Light-House Board, and although repeated requests for a lighthouse were made over the years (the last known request was in 1935), Congress never authorized such a project. Instead, Congress opted to fund less costly navigation aids such as beacons and buoys. [31]

In 1910, the U.S. Bureau of Lighthouses (which was then part of the Commerce and Labor Department) acted to ease access into the bay when it established an acetylene light atop Caines Head. [32] Four years later the bureau, now part of the new Commerce Department and with access to more funding, placed additional lights on Pilot Rock (at the southwestern entrance to the bay) and the north end of Rugged Island. Then, in June 1916, the increase in vessel traffic brought about by the construction of the government railroad resulted in the installation of a light at Seal Rocks, located five miles south of the Chiswell Islands.

Each of these acetylene lights, as noted on a U.S. Lighthouse Service specification sheet, was similar. The layout was as follows:

The lantern is mounted on top of a wooden accumulator house, painted white, the dimensions of which are 4' by 4' in plan and about 6 feet 6 inches in height. The house is erected on a concrete foundation having an average depth of 17 inches.

These lanterns typically flashed a white light every 3 to 6 seconds and had a candlepower ranging from 130 to 310. The cost of construction materials ranged from $1000 to $2000; annual maintenance costs ranged from $30 to $50. [33]

No further lights were added in the area until the mid-1920s, when a request was made to install a light on Hive Island in Resurrection Bay. A decade earlier, officials had considered constructing a light either here or on nearby Renard Island, because the primary shipping lane for traffic to and from Seattle was located between them. However, the officials had found it "impracticable to place a light on either of these two islands in such a position that it would be favorably located for guiding vessels through the passage." But in 1923, the agency reconsidered the idea, and the following summer it installed a light on the north side of Hive Island. At the same time, it eliminated the decade-old light on Rugged Island, the location of which was ill suited to either westbound or eastbound traffic leaving Resurrection Bay. Also installed in 1924 was a so-called gas and whistling buoy in the waters just south of Barwell Island. (Barwell was another location that had been proposed–and rejected–as a site for an acetylene light.) [34] The precipitous topography of the island, and the frequent fogs that surrounded it, resulted in the establishment of a sea-level buoy rather than a light perched atop a high rock.

During the 1930s, two more navigation aids were established. In 1934, an acetylene light was installed on the north side of McArthur Pass; it was the only navigation aid established in present-day Kenai Fjords National Park. Four years later, a number of Alaska Steamship Company ships' officers petitioned the Lighthouse Service for an acetylene light on the bluff just north of Thumb Cove. That request was granted, and the light was installed in September 1938.

During the past 60 years, several changes have been made to Seward area navigation aids. The buoy near Barwell Island was replaced by "a light 412 feet above the water ... shown from a small white house" during the 1930s; then, in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the light was removed. A light was re-installed on Rugged Island in 1956 or 1957; and throughout the area, the wooden houses that previously encased the lights were largely replaced by diamond-shaped dayboards during the 1960s and 1970s. [35]

In February 1921, the U.S. General Land Office established lighthouse reservations for the existing area lights. These included sites at Caines Head, Pilot Rock, and Seal Rocks. Lighthouse reservations were also inexplicably established for Barwell Island and Hive Island, even though neither location possessed a light at that time. As a further irony, the GLO in May 1925 created a reservation at Rugged Island, even though its light had been removed the year before. All six of these lighthouse reserves, which ranged in size from a single acre (for Pilot Rock) to 600 acres (for Rugged Island), remained in effect until November 1965, when at the State of Alaska's behest reservations were eliminated on Barwell, Hive, and Rugged islands. The Caines Head reservation was revoked in June 1968 for similar reasons. Lighthouse reservations remain at the other two sites. [36]

As noted above, the only navigation aid established in the park was the McArthur Pass light, installed in 1934. Lights were not installed elsewhere along the coast, primarily because few of the ships that plied the route between Seward and Cook Inlet stayed close to the coast. Those that did sail close to the fjords and headlands were smaller craft, owned by individuals rather than corporations. When accidents did occur, therefore, they were less likely to result in pressure for navigational improvements than in a higher-volume traffic situation.

The Coast and Geodetic Survey, of which the Bureau of Lighthouses was one agency, regularly maintained its network of navigation lights along the Alaskan coast. Scattered references in the Seward Gateway indicate that the various Seward-area lights were visited and serviced on a fairly regular basis, usually by the lighthouse tender Cedar. On occasion, such as during the summers of 1930 and 1931, Coast and Geodetic Survey ships were based in Seward for extended periods. [37]

The waters along this stretch of coastline are fabled for their storminess. Given that situation, the number of accidents over the years has been few indeed. On February 4, 1946, the S.S. Yukon of the Alaska Steamship Company foundered on the rocks of Cape Fairfield (on the west side of Johnstone Bay), 30 miles southeast of Seward. More than 500 passengers were aboard her when the ship hit the rocks and began taking on water. Miraculously, only eleven lives were lost. [38]

In the waters southwest of Seward, historical accounts tell of at least four parties local residents (either hunters or fishermen) who sailed off, never to be seen again. The most notable of these incidents resulted in the disappearance of "Herring Pete" Sather, who was lost and presumed drowned in late August of 1961. [39] Others had their boats wrecked in storms and were marooned on islands–sometimes for weeks–until saved by a passing vessel. [40] In recent years, the advent of radar and new boat construction materials has reduced the danger of coastal navigation to some extent; the rough seas, however, still endanger many who venture into these waters.