Alaska's cities
Adak, Alaska
Aleuts start new town at old naval base
Alaska.com
Adak sits on Kuluk Bay on Adak Island in the Aleutian Island Chain, 1,300 miles southwest of Anchorage, 350 miles west of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, the southernmost community in Alaska, on the latitude of Vancouver Island in Canada.
It has a population of about 320.
Adak is a community that in a few short years has changed from a U.S. military station to an Aleut town, with some old facilities still in use and others closed. A little more than one of every three residents is Alaska Native. Most of Adak Island and its former naval facilities are owned by the Aleut Corp.
The island provides infrastructure facilities for foreign fishing fleets. A grocery and ship supply store and restaurant opened in February 1999. Contractors are performing environmental cleanup. Alaskan-owned Norquest-Adak Seafood Co. processes Pacific cod, pollock, mackerel, halibut, albacore and brown king crab. There is one school, attended by 23 students.
History
The Aleutian Islands were historically occupied by the Unangas. Once heavily populated, Adak was eventually abandoned in the early 1800s as the Aleutian Island hunters followed the Russian fur trade east and famine hit the Andreanof Island group. However, they continued to actively hunt and fish around the island until World War II broke out.
Adak Army installations allowed U.S. forces to mount a successful offensive against the Japanese-held islands of Kiska and Attu to the west. After the war, Adak was developed as a naval air station, playing a key role during the Cold War as a submarine surveillance center and housing 6,000 naval personnel and their families at its peak. Budget cuts in 1994 closed family housing and schools. The station closed on March 31, 1997.
The Aleut Corp. acquired Adak's facilities under a land transfer agreement with the U.S. Departments of Interior and Defense. About 30 families with children moved to Adak in September 1998, most of them Aleut Corp. shareholders, and a school was reopened.
Aleut Corp. is developing Adak as a commercial center. The community formed a second-class city government in April 2001.
Source: Alaska Department of Community and Economic Development
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