Refuge History

Timeline

Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and Kenai Peninsula

6000 B.C. Sometime around this time the first humans set foot on the Kenai Peninsula

1200 B.C. Eskimos are living along the Kenai Peninsula's western coast.

1741 Vitus Bering's expedition marks the first European contacts with Alaska.

1778 James Cook brought the first sailing ships into the inlet later named for him.

1848 Petr Doroshin, a Russian mining engineer discovered gold on Kenai Peninsula

1867 Russia sells Alaska to the United Stated. Alaska becomes a U. S. territory.

1886 Miners meet near Fox River and organized a mining district called "The Cleveland Mining District" this was to include all of the Kenai Peninsula

1897 First sport hunter arrived on Kenai Peninsula. Dall DeWeese from Canon City, CO.

1902 The Northwest Mining and Development Company on Indian Creek, a tributary of Kussiloff Lake had a sawmill in operation and a gasoline launch on the lake.

1904 Forest Ranger William A. Langille made a reconnaissance of the Kenai Peninsula traversing the peninsula from Seward to Seldovia, and during this trip he realized the unique value of the land as a wildlife and hunting preserve.

1907 Chugach National Forest was created.

1909 Chugach National Forest expanded to include the land from the Copper River on the east to Cook Inlet on the west, then to Kachemak Bay on the south, and all the Chugach Mountains to the north.

1914 During low water on Kenai River, while the boulders were exposed, the licensed guides of the Kenai Peninsula decided to clear out a channel between the Kenai Lake and Skilak Lake.          

1926 Alaska Glacier Tours Association had its first party of big game hunters. They hunted in the Tustumena Lake region.

1927 A power boat mastered Kenai River currents using a six-horse outboard motor. Big Game Guide Andy Simons completed a trip from Cook Inlet to Kenai Lake in 16 hours.

1932 Areas north of Kenai River and Skilak Lake were closed to moose hunting, and the bag limit on sheep was reduced from two to one.

1940 The Fish and Wildlife Service was created by combining the Bureaus of Biological Survey and Fisheries.

1941 Kenai National Moose Range established. Signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in December 16, 1941, just 9 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

1947 Forest fire burned 300,000 acres on the Kenai National Moose Range.

1951 The Sterling Highway connected the Kenai Peninsula to the rest of Alaska.

1956 The Fish and Wildlife Service is renamed the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with two bureaus, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. Management of  wildlife refuges falls to the former.

1957 Oil discovered within the Swanson River Field by the Richfield Oil Corp. On July 19, 1957. The location was near a lone hemlock tree.

1959 Alaska became the 49^th State.

1959-1966 Approximately 1500 miles of seismic trails were made on the Kenai NWR.

1966 National Wildlife Refuge Administration Act creates the present National Wildlife Refuge system

1969 Forest fire burned 80,000 in the Kenai National Moose Range.

1980 Kenai National Moose Range renamed Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

2003 Centennial of the National Wildlife Refuge System: 100 years since the creation of Pelican Island Refuge by President Theodore Roosevelt

Last updated: September 11, 2008