Welcome to Katmai
Katmai National Park has many unique landmarks and opportunities for the adventurous spirit. The Valley of Ten Thousand smokes, Novarupta, Mount Katmai, and other volcanoes. This monument was created to preserve these famous landmarks in 1918. You can fly to Katmai, by taking a small air taxi from Kodiak. There are many remote fishing stops, bear viewing opportunities, rugged coastlines, archeological sites, wolves, moose, and bears that claim their fame to this location.
The Alutiiq people, Russian explorers, Euro-American trappers, and American entrepreneurs, inhabited this space at one time. Artifacts show that people arrived in Katmai 9,000 years ago.
There were four permanent villages at one time, along with other traditional used camps. The villages were, Savaonoski, Kaguyak, Kukak, and Katmai, but all was abandoned after the eruption of Novarupta in 1912.
Fure’s cabin
Fure's cabin was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The 1900’s gold rush and fur trapping lured Roy Fure, born in Lithuania in 1885 to the area, but he never became a US citizen. He married a native woman from Bethel, and had three sons, which only two survived. In 1926 the Naknek Lake’s Bay of Islands cabin was built, with hand-hewn spruce logs. Because he was not a US citizen, he could not claim a homestead on Park lands. His wife passed away in 1929, and he remarried another native lady from Naknek. Fure and his wife built a new cabin outside the Monument of American Creek, but always returned to visit the Bay of Islands cabin. In 1940 he was arrested for game violations, and ordered to leave. Fure and his wife and their daughter and left for Kodiak some time after that. Fure came back several times until the 1950’s. Today, the cabin has been restored, and is now a refuge for kayakers, canoers, and hikers. To reserve a stay, you must contact Katmai National Park headquarters.
Brooks Camp
The Brooks River is a National Register of Historic Places Archeological District and a National Historic Landmark. It is considered the most concentrated archeological areas in North America with 900 Alutiiq house depressions. Small tool tradition sites dating about 3,000-3,800 years ago are abundant.
To learn more, visit the Katmai National Park and Preserve website.
(Resources: Katmai National Park website, Pictures taken by Neal Sherod)
Traveling to Katmai
Click to view a map showing where Katmai National Park & Preserve is