Portlock ( Sugpiaq: ''Arrulaa'ik'') is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in the US state of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, located on the southern edge of the

Kenai Peninsula The Kenai Peninsula ( Dena'ina: ''Yaghenen'') is a large peninsula jutting from the coast of Southcentral Alaska. The name Kenai (, ) is derived from the word "Kenaitze" or "Kenaitze Indian Tribe", the name of the Native Athabascan Alaskan tribe ...

, around south of Seldovia. It is located in Port Chatham bay, from which an adjacent community takes its name. Named after Nathaniel Portlock, the town was an active cannery community in the early 20th century.

History

Establishment

Portlock was established in the

in the early 20th century as a cannery, particularly for

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

. It is thought to have been named after Captain Nathaniel Portlock, a British ship captain who sailed there in 1786. In 1921, a

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

opened in the town. The population largely consisted of Russian-

Aleuts 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 ...

Abandonment

After the construction of Alaska Route 1, Portlock, along with other towns, was abandoned in favor of communities along the opposite edge of the Kenai Peninsula that were accessible via the highway and, therefore, mainland Alaska. While some stories connected the town's abandonment with a local forest spirit ''Nantiinaq'' (sometimes associated with

Bigfoot Bigfoot (), also commonly referred to as Sasquatch (), is a large, hairy Mythic humanoids, mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.Example definitions include: *"A large, hairy, manlike ...

), the accounts emerged decades later, in the 2000s. These were later reported to be fabricated. Official records indicate that the town's post office closed between 1950 and 1951, marking its formal abandonment.

Post abandonment

Most of the people who left Portlock in the 1940s moved to the nearby Native Alaskan villages of Nanwalek and Port Graham. The village of Nanwalek still maintains private ownership of Portlock today. In recent years, the community has considered the possibility of re-establishing Portlock as a village.

Nearby communities

Portlock was located adjacent to another community known as Port Chatham (which takes its name from Port Chatham bay). Seldovia is located north of Portlock; a

chromite Chromite is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of Iron, FeChromium, Cr2Oxygen, O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The ...

mining camp, known as Chrome, was also located near Portlock, which operated in the early-twentieth century.

Demographics

Portlock first appeared on the 1940 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village of 31 residents. It would not report again on the census until 1980, when it was made a census-designated place (CDP), again reporting 31 residents. It was dissolved as a CDP by the 1990 census and has not reported again.

In popular culture

In the spring of 2021, Discovery+ filmed a reality television series in Portlock. The series, ''Alaskan Killer Bigfoot,'' follows a scout team exploring the ruins of the abandoned village. ''Alaskan Killer Bigfoot ''premiered on Discovery+ on December 7, 2021. It made its linear cable television debut on

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...

on June 26, 2022.

References

External links

* *
Alaska’s Best Known Cryptid Homicide Case Debunked
{{Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska 1950 disestablishments in Alaska Ghost towns in Alaska Geography of Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska Bigfoot