"A Town Like Any Other Town, But With a... " a Kodiak Travel Page by mrclay2000

Kodiak currently has a population of about 6,300 people, giving it a place among only fourteen Alaskan towns/cities with over 5,000 inhabitants. Devoted presently to the commercial fish industry, Kodiak's history has been tied to its fish and game ever since the Russians built their first onion-domed church here in the 1790s. St Paul's Harbor at the foot of downtown became so congested in recent years with commercial and private craft that new developments cleared forests and paved the way for a new harbor, St Herman's, on nearby Near Island (only a stone's throw from town), which in the mid-1980s was a primitive retreat accessible only by water. Today, despite a decline in the number of canneries, Kodiak's heart is still crowded around the waterfront and the fish industry, but a little of its Russian and Alutiiq heritage is still prominent on its comparatively modest skyline.