KENAI
Mystic Waters
The City of Kenai is where the Kenai River meets the saltwater of the Cook Inlet and where the great Kenai salmon runs begin! Kenai has a great Visitor Center with displays of local history and animals. The Kenai Airport makes for a quick flight from Anchorageor to other locations around the peninsula. When the dip netters start coming here in droves you know the upper non-tidal river fishing is just going to get better and better.
Interesting History
Kenai is a city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough and is one hundred and eighty-seven miles south from Anchorage. The population was 7,100 as of the 2010 census, up from 6,942 in 2000.
The city of Kenai is named after the local word ‘ken’ or ‘kena’, which means ‘flat, meadow, open area with few trees; base, low ridge’, This describes the area along the mouth and portion of the Kenai River near the City of Kenai. Archaeological evidence suggests that the area was first occupied by the Kachemak people from 1000 B.C., until they were displaced by the Dena’ina Athabaskan people around 1000 A.D. Before the arrival of the Russians, Kenai was a Dena’ina village called Shk’ituk’t, meaning “where we slide down.” When Russian fur traders first arrived in 1741, about 1,000 Dena’ina lived in the village. The traders called the people “Kenaitze”, which is a Russian term for “people of the flats”, or “Kenai people”. This name was later adopted when they were incorporated as the Kenaitze Alaskan Natives in the early 1970s.
In 1940, homesteads were opened in the area. The first dirt road from Anchorage was constructed in 1951; pavement would not arrive until 1956 with the construction of the Kenai Spur Highway.
A military base, Wildwood Army Station (later Wildwood Air Force Station), was established in 1953, and served as a major communications post. Wildwood was conveyed in 1974 to the Kenai Native Association in partial settlement of Alaska Native land claims. The facility was leased and later purchased by the State of Alaska and presently serves as the Wildwood Correctional Complex.
In 1965, offshore oil discoveries inCook Inlet caused a period of rapid growth. They were a part of a series of oil deposits located during the middle of the 20th century. In 1957, oil was discovered at Swanson River, 20 miles northeast of Kenai. This was the first major oil discovery in Alaska.
Kenai is located on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula near the outlet of the Kenai River to the Cook Inlet of the Pacific Ocean. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 35.5 square miles, of which, 29.9 square miles of it is land and 5.6 square miles of it (15.85%) is water.
Kenai first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as the unincorporated “Creole” (mixed Russian and Native people) village of Kenai Rédoute.It was simply shortened to Kenai with the 1890 census. It was officially incorporated in 1960.
As of the census of 2000, there were 6,942 people, 2,622 households, and 1,788 families residing in the city. The population density was 232.2 people per square mile (89.6/km2). There were 3,003 housing units at an average density of 100.4 per square mile (38.8/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 82.76% White, 0.49% Black or African American, 8.74% Native American, 1.66% Asian, 0.23% Pacific Islander, 1.12% from other races, and 5.00% from two or more races. 3.82% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
The main road access to Kenai is via the Kenai Spur Highway, which branches off of the Sterling Highway in downtown Soldotna and winds through downtown and the portions of city limits north of the Kenai River. The Warren Ames Memorial Bridge, located within city limits and the Kenai River’s farthest downriver crossing, provides access to the portions of city limits south of the river and to Kalifornsky Beach Road, the latter providing an alternate access to Soldotna and the outlying road network. Beaver Loop Road provides access to neighborhoods and parklands upriver of the bridge.
In 1985, a world record largest sport-caught Chinook (or “king”) salmon was taken from the Kenai River, weighing in at 97 lbs 4oz. Eight of the ten largest king salmons caught in the world have come from the same river, making the city a popular fishing tourist location.