A tour of Kenai

A little history about Kenai - The city of Kenai is named after the local Dena'ina (Tanaina) word 'ken' or 'kena', which means 'flat, meadow, open area with few trees; base, low ridge'. 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 Indian Tribe in the early 1970s. In 1869, after the Alaska Purchase, the United States Army established a post called Fort Kenay but was soon abandoned. In 1888 a prospector named Alexander King discovered gold on the Kenai Peninsula. The amount of gold was small compared to the later gold finds in the Klondike, Nome and Fairbanks. Kenai has a moderate subarctic climate due to the cool summers. Winters are snowy, long but not particularly with January featuring a daily average temperature of 15.8 °F. Snow averages 63.6 inches per season, falling primarily from October thru March.

Today we toured the Russian Church - Holy Assumption of Saint Mary Russian Orthodox Church - The church itself was originally established in 1791 and the current building was constructed in 1894. In 1970 the church site was declared a National Historic Landmark (one of 49 in Alaska). The church is the oldest Orthodox Church on mainland Alaska and is still active. The Parish House Rectory was built in 1881 and is believed to be the oldest original building on the Kenai Peninsula. This is home to the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church. The buildings of Holy Assumption represent “fine” examples of a Russian village church and the type of home provincial Russian gentry would inhabit.

We also visited the historic Kenai cabins. These cabins were built in the early 1900's and some were in use until the late 1940's.

The Kenai Municipal Airport is very close so we stopped there and while we were there 2 stealth fighters jets did a very low fly by! They moved so fast we couldn't get pictures. The campground is on the flight path for one of the runways so we were able to see the Alaskan Air Guard practice "touch and goes".

Kenai is home to the Peninsula Oilers, a minor league baseball team. We visited their headquarters.

The rest of the day was a walk to the beach and a campfire. The bluff area at the beach was the former site of a Russian Fort, St. Nicholas Redoubt, built in 1791. The Russian fur traders were the first to establish forts with 3 fur trading posts in the Cook Inlet. When the Russians sailed in to Cook Inlet, they beached the boat and used some of its wood to build their first building. A few years later they built a permanent Fort on the bluff.Read more