Koggiung is a coastal settlement by
Kvichak Bay
Kvichak Bay is an arm on the northeast side of Bristol Bay in southern Alaska, at . It is long and wide. The Kvichak River flows into the bay at its furthest northeast point, while the Naknek River
Naknek River is a stream, long, in the Brist ...
, an arm of
Bristol Bay
Bristol Bay ( esu, Iilgayaq, russian: Залив Бристольский) is the easternmost arm of the Bering Sea, at 57° to 59° North 157° to 162° West in Southwest Alaska. Bristol Bay is 400 km (250 mi) long and 290 km, ( ...
, in
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
, United States. It has a history of summer
gillnet
Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is ...
fishing and
cannery
Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although un ...
operations. Graveyard Point is in the area, as is the Koggiung Airport.
The schooner ''
C.A. Thayer'', carrying 28-foot (8.5 m)
gillnet
Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is ...
boats, bundles of
stave
Stave may refer to:
Places
* Stave (Krupanj), a village in Serbia
* Stave Hill, in London
* Stave Lake, in British Columbia, Canada
* Stave River, in British Columbia, Canada
* Stave Run, a river in Virginia, United States
Other uses
* Stave ...
s for barrels, salt, and a crew of fishermen and cannery workers sailed from San Francisco to Alaska each April from 1912 through 1924. It was anchored at a fishery camp like Squaw Creek or Koggiung, where the fishermen worked their nets and the cannery workers (on the shore) packed the catch.
Each September it returned to San Francisco with supplies of barrels of salted salmon.
In 1909 a reindeer station was formed with a 500-strong herd driven down the
Kvichak River
The Kvichak River (Yup'ik: ''Kuicaraq'') is a large river, about long, in southwestern Alaska in the United States. It flows southwest from Lake Iliamna to Kvichak Bay, an arm of Bristol Bay, on the Alaska Peninsula. The communities of Igiugig ...
to Koggiung. The station was vacated in 1918 after the ash from the 1912
Mount Katmai volcanic eruption caused the deer to starve.
The area became a ghost town after the
Libby's Graveyard Point, Koggiung cannery closed in 1959.
[ Archival photos of Koggiung remain.] It has seen a resurgence of fishing activity and summer fish camping in the 21st century.
References
Populated coastal places in Alaska on the Pacific Ocean
{{LakeAndPeninsulaAK-geo-stub