Ward Cove (also Wacker, Wacker City, or Wards Cove) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States. Its elevation is 164 feet (50 m). It has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

with the ZIP Code 99928. This village is an extension of the settlement area of Ketchikan northwest along the highway. A saltery was established in Ward Cove in 1883–84 by W. W. Waud. Eugene Wacker was first postmaster of the Wacker post office, which was established 1920. The post office name was changed to Wards Cove in 1951 and then to Ward Cove in 1954. In 2007 the post office was named in honor of Alice R. Brusich, who served as postmaster from 1954 to 1985. The village population was 57 at the 1930 census. The name "Ward Cove" was declared official in 1966 by the Board on Geographic Names. The settlement lies on the northern shore of Ward Cove, at the southwestern end of Revillagigedo Island, 4 mi (7 km) northwest of Ketchikan. Ward Cove is the location of a floating cruise ship dock that can accommodate two large ships. The pier went into operation in August 2021 as restrictions on cruise ships as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

began to ease.

Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) is an American cruise line founded in Norway in 1966, headquartered in Miami, Florida, and incorporated in the Bahamas. It is the List of cruise lines, fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling ...

invested in the project which is called the Mill at Ward Cove, and has priority docking rights there. Free bus service to Ketchikan is available to passengers who disembark there.

Demographics

Ward Cove first appeared on the 1930 U.S. Census as the unincorporated village of "Wacker City." In 1940, the census bureau listed all settlements outside of the incorporated cities of Ketchikan and Saxman that could be reached by road on Revillagigedo Island as "Tongass Highway System", which had 494 residents. It did not report in 1950. In 1960, it returned as Wards Cove. In 1970, it was shortened to Ward Cove. In 1980, Ward Cove along with 6 other locales (Mud Bay, Peninsula Point, Port Higgins, Refuge Cove, Shoreline Drive & Tongass Highway System) were placed into the newly created census-designated place (CDP) of "North Tongass Highway", which had 1,722 residents. In 1990, it and all 6 other CDP's within Ketchikan Gateway Borough were dissolved (which contained 3,556 residents as of 1980). Aside from a southeastern portion of the former North Tongass Highway CDP being annexed into the city of Ketchikan, most of these locales, including Ward Cove, have not been counted within a city or CDP since 1980.

References

Populated coastal places in Alaska on the Pacific Ocean Unincorporated communities in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska Unincorporated communities in Alaska {{KetchikanGatewayAK-geo-stub