Southeastern Alaska

Last Update: 14/FEBRUARY/2010

Compiled by Phil and Pete Payette - Š2010 American Forts Network

Fort Tongass
(1868 - 1870), Tongass Island
An American military fort built here one month before Fort Wrangel.

Annette Island Post
(1940 - 1945), Annette Island
A U.S. Army Air Corps field with two 5000-foot runways, later extended to 6000 and 7500 feet. Beginning in May 1942 the base was primarily used by the Royal Canadian Air Force for bombers (115 Squadron) and fighters (118 Squadron) used in the front-line defense of Prince Rupert, BC. There was at least one Canadian Heavy AA gun battery, located at the southern end of the runway. A Canadian Infantry camp was located at Moss Point. All Canadian troops here were under Canadian command, until withdrawn in November 1943. A U.S. Navy seaplane base and fuel depot was located at Crab Point in Tamgas Harbor. American coastal defenses included a four-gun 155mm gun battery on Panama mounts located on Davison Point (mounts still remain), and two 6-inch naval guns located at Smuggler Cove (gone). Fire-control towers were located at Yellow Hill, Mid Point, Davison Point, Warburton Island, Hotspur Island, and Callaghan Island. Searchlight towers were located at Mid Point, Warburton Island, Hotspur Island, and Callaghan Island. (see also Prince Rupert Harbour Defences, British Columbia)

Portland Inlet Depot
(1896), Hyder
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers storehouse complex at Eagle Point. Four stone buildings were built to store supplies for the expedition to explore Portland Inlet and the surrounding area. At least two storehouses (#3 and #4) still exist. One was later used as a jail. These are the oldest masonry buildings in Alaska. Settlers and miners came to Hyder and Stewart, BC in 1898. Hyder was originally named Portland City.

Fort Wrangel
(1868 - 1870, 1874 - 1877, 1898 - 1900), Wrangell, Wrangell Island
An American military fort. The original Russian spelling was later changed to Wrangell. The British Hudson's Bay Co. Wrangell Post (1898 - 1901) was also here.

Fort Stikine
(1840 - 1849), near Wrangell
A Hudson's Bay Co. post at Point Highfield near the mouth of the Stikine River. Also called Fort Highfield, and erroneously called Fort Durham (2) in British reports. Originally this was the Russian Redoubt St. Dionysius (1834 - 1840), a log-stockaded blockhouse which was built to keep the Hudson's Bay Company out of the area. It was handed over to the British in 1840.

¤ HARBOR DEFENSES of SITKA
Sitka's WWII Page by Matthew Hunter || Sitka Military History by Gabe Emerson
250th Coast Artillery (155mm Gun) by Walter Dangel

¤ Fort Babcock
(Tongass National Forest)
(1942 - 1944), Shoals Point, Kruzof Island
Located at the entrance to Sitka Sound. Battery 290 (uncompleted) and a two-gun 6-inch naval gun battery (1942) (no remains) are located here, very overgrown. The remnants of the WWII barracks and Quonset Huts are still extant. A fire-control station was built at Lava Point (overgrown ruins). Fire-control and searchlight stations were planned but never built for Mt. Edgecumbe, Cape Edgecumbe, Sitka Point, and St. Lazaria Island. An SCR-296A radar tower may have been built on St. Lazaria Island.

¤ Fort Peirce
(1941 - 1944), Biorka Island
Located at the entrance to Sitka Sound on restricted U.S. Coast Guard property. Battery 291 (uncompleted) is located here. The remnants of the garrison buildings still exist, very overgrown. An SCR-296A radar tower was here also. A concrete fire-control station and two searchlight stations were built on Ataku Island (remains overgrown). Fire-control and searchlight stations were planned for Golf Island and Kita Island, but never built. Remnants of two searchlight shelters, a signal station, and a fire-control station still exist on Little Biorka Island.

¤ Fort Rousseau
(Fort Rousseau Causeway State Historic Site)
(WWII Causeway Project)
(1941 - 1946), Makhnati Island
Battery 292 (proposed name Battery Allen) (1944 - 1946) and a four-gun 155mm battery on 180-degree Panama mounts are here (only two mounts remain). A two-gun 6-inch naval gun battery was here in 1942. Also here are the HDCP/HECP command bunker, the HDCOP/SCR-582 radar tower (ruins), and two magazines. A rock causeway connected Japonski Island with Nevski, Reshimosti, Virublennoi, Gold, Sasedni, Kirushkin, Mogilnoi, and Makhnati Islands. It is now heavily eroded and awash at high tide in some places. The Sitka Airport was later built where the causeway connected to Japonski Island. Three ammo magazines remain on Virublennoi Island. One magazine and a warehouse/bunker remain on Gold Island. Four AA emplacements and magazines, as well as the weather station and other various foundations, are on Sasedni Island. A tower and bunker (temporary HECP) remain on Kirushkin Island. One building foundation remains on Mogilnoi Island. Fire-control and searchlight stations were on Clam Island (remains overgrown) and Kayak Island (remains overgrown), and an SCR-296A radar tower and power station was on Abalone Island (ruins overgrown). A HDOP and searchlight station was on Lisianski Peninsula on Baranof Island. Most of the islands are state property.

¤ Fort Ray
(1941 - 1946), Charcoal and Alice Islands
The headquarters garrison post for the Harbor Defenses of Sitka. Located near the Sitka Naval Air Station (1937). Additional cantonment areas were once located on Baranof Island. Several pillboxes and one ammo magazine still remain. A second magazine was destroyed in 2001. Both magazines were once used as mausoleums for Indian tuberculosis victims in the 1950's. Only six garrison buildings still stand, currently in use by commercial interests or residential homes.
Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat Battery #1 was nearby at Watson Point (site now buried by a grocery store, school, and residential area), along with Camps Riley and Aberdeen. Several warehouses and a fire station remain from Camp Riley. Several ammo magazines still exist from Camp Aberdeen. AMTB #2 (mounts still remain on private property) and ruins of other buildings are on Whale Island.

¤ ALSO: There was a signal station and searchlight on Sound Island, and an SCR-271 radar and AA gun emplacement on Harbor Mountain.

Info courtesy of Colt Denfeld and Al Grobmeier of the Coast Defense Study Group. Additional info courtesy of Matthew Hunter of the CDSG.

Fort St. Michael (1)
(Sitka National Historical Park)
(1799 - 1877), Sitka, Baranof Island
Also known as Fort Archangel Michael, and Fort Archangel Gabriel. The Tlingit Indians burned it down in 1801, and the Kolosh Indians destroyed it in June 1802. The Russian settlement, also called New Archangel, or Novo Archangelesk, was founded in 1799 and served as the Alaska headquarters for the Russian-American Company. The fort was rebuilt in 1804, and the settlement became the capital of Russian America in 1808. The Russian Navy took control of Alaska in 1818. Fort St. Dionys (1831) was also here. The official transfer of Alaska to the Americans took place here in 1867, and the fort was renamed Post of Sitka, sometimes referred to as Fort Sitka. Sitka was the territorial capital until 1900.

Nearby to the north, Castle Hill (1804) was the fortified governor's mansion, also called The Castle, (Alexander) Baranof's Castle, and Fort New Archangel (Fort Novo Arkangelesk). A 1962 replica of a Russian blockhouse (1824) is located at 120 Katlian Street, one of three original blockhouses that protected Castle Hill. See also Sitka Historical Society and Museum

Kiksadi Indian Fort
(Sitka National Historical Park)
(1804), Sitka, Baranof Island
Site of a Tlingit Indian stockade where they made their last stand against the Russians in October, who were retaliating against the earlier burning of Fort Archangel Michael.

Ozerskoye Redoubt
(unknown - 1852), Baranof Island
A Russian blockhouse that was attacked and burned by Stikine Indians. Located about 16 miles south of Sitka at the outlet to Deep Lake.

Fort Koutznou
(1867), Admirality Island
A proposed American military fort that was never actually built.

Fort Taku
(1840 - 1843), Taku Harbor
A Hudson's Bay Co. 150-foot square stockaded trading post, with two octagonal blockhouses at the corners, officially called Fort Durham (1). Located at the extreme northeast corner of Taku Harbor, on the eastern side of the outlet for Taku Lake. Abandoned for Fort Victoria, BC, due to poor economic conditions.
NOTE: Stockade Point, at the southern entrance to Taku Harbor, was named by the Americans in 1869 on the wrong assumption that Fort Taku was once there.
(thanks to Wallace Olson, of Heritage Research, for providing info)

Camp Treadwell
(1907), Treadwell, Douglas Island
A temporary Army guard detail for the Alaska Treadwell Gold Mining Company.

Juneau Post
(1942 - 1945), Juneau
A WWII Army garrison and airfield.

Excursion Inlet Post
(1942 - 1946), Excursion Inlet
A U.S. Army Engineer and Quartermaster post. Three barge docks, sheds, oil docks, cold storage buildings, warehouses, tank farm, marine repair facility, water reservoir, and barracks for up to 4000 troops were constructed. The post was not completed until after the Japanese evacuated the Aleutians, and was therefore abandoned without any use. There were no known defenses. The base was dismantled by imported German POWs from Colorado from June 1945 to November 1945. The remaining buildings were sold off in January 1946.

George Island Post
(1942 - 1946), George Island
A one-gun 6-inch naval gun battery was located here on Granite Cove (gun still remains in situ) to guard the Navy Section Base at Port Althorp. A Quonset Hut and foundations of other buildings still remain at the site.
(info courtesy of Colt Denfeld of the Coast Defense Study Group, website and additional info courtesy of Gabe Emerson)

Fort William H. Seward
(Alaska Indian Arts Center)
(1898 - 1943/1946), Haines
This was the first permanent American post in Alaska. Originally called Post at Haines Mission until 1904. In 1922 the name was changed to Chilkoot Barracks. Placed on care-taker status in 1943, it was sold in 1947 and became a private community named Port Chilcoot. It was renamed back to Fort Seward in 1970 when Port Chilkoot merged with Haines.
See also Tresham Gregg's Sea Wolf Gallery | Fort Seward Condos on Officers' Row | Fort Seward Bed and Breakfast Inn
(NOTE: There is a Battery Point just southeast of here on Chilkoot Inlet.)

Camp Skagway
(1898 - 1904), Skagway
An Army post located at the mouth of the Skagway River near the head of Taiya Inlet. The post was discontinued and the garrison moved to Fort Seward.

The Canadian North West Mounted Police had a small detachment here (Skagway Post) from 1897 - 1898 before the American Army arrived.

Camp Dyea
(1898 - 1899), Dyea
An Army post located at the mouth of the Taiya River. Established to relieve destitution among miners. It was destroyed by fire and replaced by Camp Skagway.

Yakutat Bay Fort
(1796 - unknown), Yakutat
A Russian (Sheilikof Company) fortified trade post where the Czar ordered the settlement of convicts.

Yakutat Post
(1940 - 1946), Yakutat
A two-gun 6-inch naval gun battery (partially destroyed) protected the military airfield here. A four-gun 155mm battery on Panama mounts was located at Point Carrow (mounts still remain).
(info courtesy of Colt Denfeld of the Coast Defense Study Group)

NEED MORE INFO: Fort Islet located off the western tip of Goat Island in the Tlevak Strait, west of Hydaburg; Fort Point located near Foot Island in Steamboat Bay, near Cape Fanshaw (Stephens Passage at Frederick Sound); Battery Point located on Chilkoot Inlet, just south of Port Chilkoot. Fortaleza Bay / Fortaleza Lake / Fortaleza Ridge / Fortaleza Point located on the southeastern shore of Baker Island facing Bucareli Bay, west of Prince of Wales Island.

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