ABOUT ANCHOR POINT
ANCHOR POINT’S RICH HISTORY
ANCHOR POINT’S RICH HISTORY
ANCHOR POINT’S RICH HISTORY
What is known today as Anchor Point was once home to the semi-nomadic Kenaitze Indians. They referred to the area as Qasmatchin.
It has long been held that in May 1778 Captain James Cook was sailing aboard his ship the Resolution looking for the Northwest Passage. An incredible storm arose, so he anchored his ship in the Inlet. It was most likely the severity of the storm that caused the kedge anchor to be lost. The experience was note-worthy enough that Captain Cook marked the spot on his map where the anchor was lost as ‘Anchor Point’.
Various groups of European explorers, gold miners, and fur traders left their mark on the Anchor Point area in the 18th and 19th centuries, including a woman who arrived with a group of men in 1896 to sluice for gold along the seashore. One of the largest influences still found here today is the rich culture of the Russians and their descendants. However, it was the 1940s before Anchor Point was permanently settled. At least one of the original settlers, who arrived with his devout mother in Homer in 1943 and began homesteading in Anchor Point in 1945, still lives here today. The descendants of many of the original homesteading families still live in Anchor Point.
Early settlers combed the Anchor Point beach for pieces of coal to heat their dwellings. At least one of the original school houses of Anchor Point also used coal for its source of heat. Visitors can still see the occasional local resident collecting coal from the beach for the same purpose.
Before the Sterling Highway (a section of which is now the Old Sterling Highway) between Anchor Point and Homer was completed, homesteaders traveled to and from Homer mostly via the beach using horse-drawn wagons or carts, Jeeps, or on foot. The mail was also transported from Homer to Anchor Point via the beach until the completion of the highway between the two towns in December 1948.
Among Anchor Point’s historical structures is the Anchor Point bridge, a single-car steel truss bridge, which can be accessed via the Old Sterling Highway and spans the Anchor River. The bridge was completed in the winter of 1948 and is still used today.
