Taku Harbor

Seasonal community in Alaska, United States

Taku Harbor S'iknáx̱saankʼi
Seasonal community
Taku Harbor: public dock & cannery ruins.
58°04′04″N 134°01′11″W / 58.06778°N 134.01972°W / 58.06778; -134.01972
Country	United States
State	Alaska
Census Area	Juneau
Population (1880)--No year-round residents since 1980s--
• Total	269
Time zone	UTC-9 (Alaska (AKST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-8 (AKDT)

Taku Harbor (Lingít: S'iknáx̱saankʼi) is a sheltered bay located about 22 miles (35 km) southeast of central Juneau, Alaska, United States.^[1] With proximity to the Taku River, the harbor served as important center of trade for the Taku people, as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post, and salmon cannery. Currently nearly all of the harbor is part of the Taku Harbor State Marine Park. There are no current year-round residents.

History

Taku Harbor is named after the Taku people; this name was applied as early as 1848 by Captain Lieutenant M. N. Vasilief of the Imperial Russian Navy.^[1] It was the site of Fort Durham, a trading post established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1840; this location is now a National Historic Landmark.^[2]^[3]

On the eastern shore Taku Harbor is the community of Taku Harbor (alternatively spelled Tako, Takoo, or Takou and formerly known as Takokakaan or the Taku-kon Villages). This has comprised up to four Tlingit villages or camps. A census taken in 1880 provided a population count of 269.^[4]

The San Juan Fishing & Packing Company established a salmon cannery and cold-storage plant at Taku Harbor in 1901. It was the only such plant to operate in Alaska until 1909.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b USGS GNIS Feature Detail Report: Taku Harbor (bay)
^ USGS GNIS Feature Detail Report: Fort Durham
^ Olson, Wallace M. A History of Fort Durham. 1994.
^ USGS GNIS Feature Detail Report: Taku Harbor (populated place)
^ Cobb, John N. Pacific Salmon Fisheries. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1921.