Portlock, Alaska

Portlock is a ghost town in the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern edge of the Kenai Peninsula, around 16 miles (26 km) south of Seldovia.[1] It is located in Port Chatham bay, after which an adjacent community takes its namesake.[2] Named after Nathaniel Portlock, the town was an active cannery community in the early-twentieth century. The residents of the town purportedly fled en masse by 1950 after a number of unsolved murders and disappearances.[3]

Portlock
Ghost town
Portlock
Location within the state of Alaska
Coordinates: 59.2144444°N 151.7461111°W / 59.2144444; -151.7461111
CountryUnited States
StateAlaska
Elevation
36 ft (11 m)
Time zoneUTC-9 (Alaska (AKST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-8 (AKDT)

History

Establishment

Portlock was established in the Kenai Peninsula in the early-twentieth century as a cannery,[1] particularly for salmon.[4] It is thought to have been named after Captain Nathaniel Portlock,[1] a British ship captain who sailed there in 1786.[3] In 1921, a U.S. Post Office opened in the town.[3] The population largely consisted of Russian-Aleuts.[3]

Abandonment

Around the 1940s, it was reported that several Dall sheep hunters had disappeared in the hills outside Portlock; it was also stated in a 1973 article from the Anchorage Daily News that dismembered bodies of some of the missing had washed ashore in the lagoon.[3] These events led the residents of the community to flee en masse, and the town's post office officially closed between 1950 and 1951.[3][1][5]

Nearby communities

Portlock was located adjacent to another community known as Port Chatham (which takes its name from Port Chatham bay).[3] Seldovia is located c. 16 miles (26 km) north of Portlock; a chromite mining camp, known as Chrome,[6] was also located near Portlock, which operated in the early-twentieth century.[7]

Demographics
Historical population
CensusPop.%±
194031—
198031—
U.S. Decennial Census[8]

Portlock first appeared on the 1940 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village of 31 residents. It would not report again on the census until 1980, when it was made a census-designated place (CDP), again reporting 31 residents. It was dissolved as a CDP by the 1990 census and has not reported again.

References
  1. Orth, Donald J. (1967). Dictionary of Alaska Place Names. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 773 – via Internet Archive. alaska portlock chatham abandonment.
  2. "Something's Afoot in Port Chatham – Century-old Rumors Persist of a Terror in the Mountains". Alaska Magazine. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
  3. Klouda, Naomi (October 21, 2009). "Port Chatham left to spirits". Homer Tribune. Homer, Alaska. Archived from the original on December 20, 2011.
  4. Nelson, Charles E. (July 25, 2000). "Erling Nilson, 81, made smoked fish popular delicacy". The Seattle Times. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
  5. Council, Mary Lee (September 17, 1951). "Capital News Letter". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Fairbanks, Alaska. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Anchorage and the Cook Inlet Basin. Alaska Geographic Society. 1983. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-882-40172-0.
  7. U.S. Geological Survey (1920). "Mineral Resources of Alaska, 1918". Bulletin - United States Geological Survey, Volumes 710-712. p. 34 – via Google Books.
  8. "U.S. Decennial Census". Census.gov. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
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