Port Walter
Port Walter is a fjord on the southeastern coast of Baranof Island, Alaska. It has two main bays: Big Port Walter at the main arm and Little Port Walter to the southwest. The surrounding hills rise over 2,000 feet, and several lakes drain into the fjord, which opens into Chatham Strait. The area is part of Tongass National Forest.
A long history of use preceded European contact. The Tlingit people lived and fished here for generations. The first known written mention came in 1901. A lighthouse was built at Port Walter in 1914 to help ships, and it was upgraded in 1918, showing that Port Walter had become an active harbor.
Port Walter became a busy cannery center during World War I, when demand for seafood rose. In the 1910s, Southeast Alaska saw many new plants, including two in Port Walter. The Big Port Walter plant stood at the head of the main arm; Little Port Walter had its own plant in a cove of the inner bay. The area also featured a large, ambitious facility at the head of Big Port Walter built by Norwegian-American investors, and a hydropower setup supporting operations at New Port Walter.
Over the years the plants changed hands many times. The Big Port Walter plant was part of the Alaska Pacific Herring Company, then the Southern Alaska Canning Company, later run by Elling Arentsen, and finally by Wilbur-Ellis and Edible Herring Products. The Little Port Walter plant was rebuilt in 1918 as Wilson Fisheries. A big fire in 1924 destroyed several buildings, and the Little Port Walter plant closed in 1925. The Big Port Walter plant closed in 1966, and the site was abandoned with significant oil pollution that was cleaned up in 1972.
New Port Walter saw development of a dam and power plant starting in 1919, with later expansion in the 1920s. The site produced fish oil and other products, but it did not maintain a long-lasting cannery. In 2002 a spill occurred at an abandoned tank there, highlighting ongoing environmental concerns.
Port Walter also became important for science. In 1934 the Bureau of Fisheries began research at Little Port Walter. The Civilian Conservation Corps built facilities there in the late 1930s, and the Little Port Walter field station opened in 1938. Today, it is the Little Port Walter Research Station, part of NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center and linked to the Auke Bay Laboratory. The station runs a salmon hatchery and has helped study many species; more than 200 peer‑reviewed papers have come from its work.
Naming and identity here are a mix of stories. There are several theories about how Port Walter got its name, including connections to local fishermen or to a Coast Survey official’s family, but no single proven origin. Hutchinson Point, Lover’s Cove, and features like Borodino Lake and Osprey Lake carry names with their own histories.
Little Port Walter has a very wet climate, one of the wettest in the United States. It gets heavy rain and snowfall, with record and often extreme precipitation. In the 1940 census, Port Walter was listed as an unincorporated village with about 21 residents; today it is part of Sitka.
Today, the area is known for its history of fishing and canneries, its important scientific research station, and its rugged, rain-drenched landscape.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:22 (CET).