Final Project

For this project, I chose to focus on the Kenai area. My interest of the area sparked last summer when I lived in Old Town Kenai for a few weeks while taking an integration course.

Timeline:

1791 – Russians establish Redoubt St. Nicholas in midst of Athabascan Dena’ina subsistence community at mouth of Kenai River

The 3rd Russian Fort to be built on the Kenai Peninsula, Redoubt St. Nicholas

1845- Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox Church is permanently established

Holy Assumption Orthodox Church, Church of the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary

1867- Alaska becomes part of the U.S. and the military establishes Fort Kenay

Fort Kenay in Old Town Kenai

1951- First dirt road is built between Kenai and Anchorage

The Seward Highway today

1912- Wards Cove Packing Company establishes a fish cannery at mouth of Kenai River

Recently remodeled, the cannery is now a popular tourist destination

1957- Oil is discovered at Swanson River near Kenai

Swanson River Oil Fields by Paul Andrew Lawrence

 

Cause-Effect Statements:

1. The discovery of oil at Swanson River in 1957 led to offshore drilling, producing an economic boom and population increase in what is now known as the “Oil Capital of Alaska!”

2. The establishment of the Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox church in 1845 was of tremendous social significance to the area, as it became the education, religious, and judicial center of the community.

3. Wards Cove Packing Company constructed a fish cannery in the mouth of the Kenai River in 1912, which not only processed locally harvested salmon for decades, but has since become a National Historic landmark and community marketplace, visited by tboth ourists and locals.