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Dutch Harbor is a
harbor A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...
on
Amaknak Island Amaknak Island () or Umaknak Island (; ) is the most populated island in the Aleutian Islands, an archipelago which is part of the U.S. state of Alaska. Geography Amaknak is an islet of the Fox Islands archipelago, a portion of the Aleutian Is ...
in
Unalaska, Alaska The City of Unalaska (; ) is the main population center in the Aleutian Islands. The city is in the Aleutians West Census Area, a regional component of the Unorganized Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Unalaska is located on Unalaska Islan ...
. It was the location of the
Battle of Dutch Harbor The Battle of Dutch Harbor took place on 3-4 June 1942, when the Imperial Japanese Navy launched two aircraft carrier raids on the Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and U.S. Army Fort Mears at Dutch Harbor on Amaknak Island, opening the Aleutia ...
in June, 1942 when the
Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...
attacked it just seven months after the
attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...
in
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
. To this day, it remains one of the few sites in the United States to be subjected to an aerial bombardment by a foreign power. Dutch Harbor is now the home of an important fishing industry.


History


Russian to American

Druzhinin, the commander of the Russian ship ''Zakharii I Elisaveta'', is credited for discovering the deep-water harbor now known as Dutch Harbor. Dutch Harbor is located within the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, more precisely on
Amaknak Island Amaknak Island () or Umaknak Island (; ) is the most populated island in the Aleutian Islands, an archipelago which is part of the U.S. state of Alaska. Geography Amaknak is an islet of the Fox Islands archipelago, a portion of the Aleutian Is ...
in the Fox Islands. A mile-long spit extending from the northeast end of Amaknak Island makes Dutch Harbor a natural port, protecting ships from the waves and currents of the
Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...
, although winds off the Bering Sea have tossed shipments from decks of ships. Dutch Harbor is close to some of the richest fishing in the world, and it is ice-free. The native people are known as
Aleut Aleuts ( ; (west) or (east) ) are the Indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleuts and the islands are politically divided between the US state of Alaska ...
. When the
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
ns arrived, they exploited the Aleut by taxing them in fur pelts. The
Russian-American Company The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, United American Company. Emperor Paul I of Russia chartered the c ...
operated from 1799 through the mid-1800s. It used Dutch Harbor in the transport of goods, mainly seal and sea otter fur. In 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the United States. Fur was the main export in Alaska after the United States took control. Hutchinson, Kohl, & Company of
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
took over the assets of the Russian America Company in 1867, but it sold out in 1868, to the
Alaska Commercial Company Alaska Commercial Company (ACC) is a grocery and retail company which operates stores in rural Alaska, beginning in the early period of Alaska's ownership by the United States into the present. From 1901 to 1992, it was known as the Northern Comm ...
. A decline in the sea otter population slowed trade in 1895. The year 1897 brought a crowd of potential
prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * ''Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ra ...
s looking to get rich from the Alaska gold rush.Campbell, L. J., & Alaska Geographic Society. (1991). Unalaska/Dutch Harbor. Anchorage, Alaska: Alaska Geographic Society.


World War II

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
brought the U.S. Army and Navy, and their supplies, to Dutch Harbor at the Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and Fort Mears, U.S. Army. The first army troops arrived in June 1941 and the navy air base was finished in September 1941. During the war, Dutch Harbor was also used to house refugees evacuated from other
Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain ...
.
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
troops and civilian workers alike spent time at "Blackies", the only bar in the area. This establishment had cheap beer and 50-cent shots of whiskey, but no stools or chairs as they "splintered too easily in the event of a fight". Other entertainment included a brothel named "Pleasure Island", but this was closed in 1941 and later replaced by part of the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
submarine base. The 500-man mess hall doubled as a theater. The tickets for the military were 15 cents and 35 cents for civilian workers. In early 1942,
intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a member of the intelligence field employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a r ...
s of the U.S. Navy predicted that there would be a Japanese attack in the
North Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
area, and naval codebreakers warned Dutch Harbor of the impending attack. On June 3, 1942, at 5:45 a.m., 20 Japanese planes from two
aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...
s of the
Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...
bombed Dutch Harbor in the "
Battle of Dutch Harbor The Battle of Dutch Harbor took place on 3-4 June 1942, when the Imperial Japanese Navy launched two aircraft carrier raids on the Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and U.S. Army Fort Mears at Dutch Harbor on Amaknak Island, opening the Aleutia ...
," targeting the
radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...
and the petroleum storage tanks, and continuing the fight a day later. By mid-1942, a small
submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
base was in place, with a squadron of old U.S. Navy S-class submarines; these were withdrawn by late 1943 due to the availability of longer-range submarines (such as the '' Gato'' class) operating elsewhere. By May 1943, a peak of 10,151 sailors and 9,976 soldiers were stationed at the base.


Post-World War II

In 1947, the last units of the U.S. Navy left Dutch Harbor, and the base was decommissioned. In 1952, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...
stored 232 surplus buildings on 448 acres of land of the Fort Mears Military Reservation. During the mid-1980s, the U.S. government finally funded the cleanup of the derelict fort, and the area was turned over for commercial use. The U.S. Navy also scrapped its
air base An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a mi ...
on Dutch Harbor. The ship '' Kuroshima'' wrecked in 1997 when it broke away from its anchorage in the Dutch Harbor area.


Current events

The harbor is prominently featured in the
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...
reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
series ''
Deadliest Catch ''Deadliest Catch'' is an American reality television series that premiered on the Discovery Channel on April 12, 2005. The show follows crab fishermen aboard fishing vessels in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing ...
'', which has originated there since 2005.


Demographics

Dutch Harbor first appeared on the 1930 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. It returned lastly in 1940 and did not appear again separately afterward. It was later annexed into Unalaska.


Fishing

Dutch Harbor is ranked as a top fishing port with more than a billion dollars transferred each year. Huge harvests of
pollock Pollock or pollack (pronounced ) is the common name used for either of the two species of North Atlantic ocean, marine fish in the genus ''Pollachius''. ''Pollachius pollachius'' is referred to as "pollock" in North America, Ireland and the Unit ...
and
cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...
in the Bering Sea are part of this total. The Bering Sea has a continental shelf that is one of the world's largest, and supports a rich ecosystem. File:Dutch Harbor Attack - June 1942.jpg, Dutch Harbor attacked in WW2 - June 1942 File:Japanese Attack at Dutch Harbor.jpg, Buildings burning after the first Japanese attack, 3 June 1942. File:Dutch Harbor Naval Op. Base.jpg, The Naval Operating Base in 1972
Mount Ballyhoo Mount Ballyhoo is a summit in Alaska, United States. Description Mount Ballyhoo is part of the Aleutian Range. This iconic landmark of the Dutch Harbor area is set in Unalaska Bay as the high point of Amaknak Island of the Aleutian Islands.D ...
centered File:Dutch Harbor airport 3.jpg, The building at Dutch Harbor airport was used as a communication room and terminal with the old U.S. Navy Aero Unit insignia in August 1972 File:Dutch Harbor airport 2.jpg, View of Dutch Harbor ramp area with a USCG C-130 Hercules on stand-by for an emergency flight. File:Dutch harbor crab boats.jpg, Crab boats docked at Dutch Harbor in January 2009.


References

{{authority control Amaknak Island Unalaska, Alaska Ports and harbors of Alaska Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska Closed installations of the United States Navy Military installations closed in 1947