Page Contents for Yakutat, Alaska

Statistics & Facts

Location

Weather & Climate

Geography

History & History-related items

City Attractions

Economy

Government

Historical Events

Chamber of Commerce.

Organizations, Churches, and Sports.

Schools.

Miscellany

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Statistics & Facts

The Alaska state capital is Juneau.
The population of Yakutat is approximately 680 (2004), 662 (2010).
The approximate number of families is 189 (1990), 270 (2010).
The amount of land area in Yakutat is 7.572 sq. kilometers.
The amount of surface water is 12.124 sq kilometers.
The distance from Yakutat to Washington DC is 3345 miles.
The distance to the Alaska state capital is 237 miles. (as the crow flies)
Yakutat is positioned 59.55 degrees north of the equator and 139.76 degrees west of the prime meridian.
Yakutat per capita income is $ 22,579 (2000).
Yakutat median income is $ 46,786 (2000).
Yakutat average annual precipitation is 132 inches peryear.
Yakutat average annual snowfall is 219 inches per year.

Location

212 miles northwest of Juneau and 225 miles southeast of Cordova on a narrow neck of mountainous terrain connecint southeast Alaska with the rest of the state.

Here is a location page for Yakutat.
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Geography

at the mouth of Yakutat Bay, one of the few refuges for vessels along this stretch of coast. The Hubbard and Malaspina Glaciers are nearby.

Mount St. Elias, 18,008 feet high, is the second tallest peak in the United States.
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Climate

maritime with mostly mild and rainy weather. Summer temperatures run from about 42 to 60 while winter temperatures range from 17 to 39. The area has very heavy precipitation, among the highest numbers in the state.
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History & History Related Items

Yakutat means the place where the canoes rest. Many explorers came here in the 18th and 19th centuries. Much trapping was done for the local fur trade, particulary that of the sea otters. In 1805, The Russians built a facility to handle the pelts but would not let the local Natives to harvest them. This brought great unrest to the region until a war party destroyed the facility. As the years went by, gold miners came, schools were opened, a sawmill was built, a cannery and the railroad were built. The cannery, built around 1903 brought many new residents to the area. It finally closed in 1970. The city was founded in 1948 but was dissolved when a Borough was organized instead. The Borough is both the city and the borough government.
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Attractions

Yakutat has a school, health center, sewage treatment plant, a water system, a landfill. It is accessible only by air and by sea. A seaplane base is nearby. There are two jet runways, one of concrete and one of asphalt. Other smaller airstrips are available in the area. During some periods of the year, very rough seas in the Gulf of Alaska prevent the ferry service from operating.

The Hubbard Glacier
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Economy & Industry

mainly dependent on the fishing industry and government services. There are a number of commercial fishing operations here. Much sea food processing also occurs here. Tourism is also a large factor, particularly with recreational fishing and hunting.
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Yakutat City Government

City & Borough of Yakutat
P.O. Box 160
Yakutat, AK 99689
Phone 907-784-3323
Fax 907-784-3281

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Yak-Tat Kwaan, Incorporated
P.O. Box 416
Yakutat, AK 99689
Phone 907-784-3335
Fax 907-784-3622

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Yakutat Tlingit Tribe
P.O. Box 418
Yakutat, AK 99689
Phone 907-784-3238
Fax 907-784-3595

Yakutat Historical Events

1959-60 - Memories of Yakutat, Alaska in the years of 1959-60 by young man who was treated kindly.

I went first to Yakutat on a contract setting out mining claims South of Yakutat at Latulia Bay (SP), worked there for about four months. Very rugged, very in touch with nature. This area had been previously mined at about the turn of the century. Back off the shore was an overgrown road, just a moss trail then. We use to walk the road out to where we would start setting out claims. The brown bears also used it and steeped in their own tracks so that their foot prints were etched in the moss. I next went to work for Ed Voss who was the Standard Oil Distributor at Yakutat. The next year Arnie Isrealson became the Standard Oil Distributor and I worked for him. The pay wasn't much but it was a good job. If I was to go to work 6 am I would step out of the little cabin I had use of at the airport and drive the fuel truck over to the office and was given a list of deliveries for the day which pretty much matched eight hours work. I could work hard and get done in 6 hours or spend some time at the Coast Guard playing pool and maybe eating some pie. The Federal Aviation Agency ran he airport and had family quarters at the airport. Between the FAA people and the people in the village of Yakutat I believe I was always invited to dinners on holidays and many other days besides. In those days at Yakutat there wasn't any TV and only at night would you get radio but what reception the from as far away as California and Hawaii. But most of our entertainment was each other. In the form of formal entertainment the Coast Guard and the FAA each had a movie once a week and the FAA had a dance once a week. At the FAA dance you were thought best of if you danced with everyone of all ages and once you got use to dancing with a 12 year old one dance and a 87 year old the next it was great fun with a very homey feeling. Sure missed it when I went back South and you only danced with the woman you brought if you didn't want to risk starting a fight. The Indians at Yakutat were (I believe) Klinket Indians who in the old days were fierce fighters and very proud in my days in Yakutat. I was told to be careful when I went to town but I found you could find trouble if you were looking for it but they treated me very well. I remember the old Post Office were the Post Master lived in the back part while the front part was used as a Post Office. This man and his family treated to some fine dinners and conversation. I was only 18 at the time and surely was much of a conversationalist. The two commercial flyers at the airport where Dick Nickles and Dale Firestack who I got to know fairly well as I was an Airframe and Powerplant licensed mechanic. I remember one time with Dick at the mouth of one of the rivers South from Yakutat with the tide out and the sand all ripply, we loaded the back seat of a Cessna 170 with cut up moose meat and tried to take off across the bay banging and crashing until we came to a lagoon were Dick skidded to a stop and we quickly taxied back and he took off one haunch of meat and somehow we staggered out of there. Dick had one short leg and stiff at the knee also from a previous auto wreak. Just before I left Yakutat for the last time he had a aircraft wreck pulling a heavy jack of beach. An Indian who saw the wreck said Dick hit so hard it looked like dust came off the wings. I was told if it wasn't for this Indian Dick would have died as the wreck was rolling up and down the beach in the surf. I was told that Dick's knee freed up from all this although he broke both legs. Dick later died, how or what from I don't know, maybe Dale is still flying around up there. A new car at Yakutat in those days was one that hadn't gone through a winter yet and gotten it's sides mangled. The main road to town was snowblower cleared and the side would be snow 14 feet high and frozen. The road was gravel and crowned so you drove down the middle of it in the winter and stayed on top of the crown and when you met another vehicle coming from the other way you got off the crown just enough to share the crown with the on-coming traffic. Sooner or later you went sliding into the frozen snow and ice on the shoulders and with dented sides you car was not now new to Yakutat. I remember hearing a car that sounded real funny, kind of hissing as it went along. I figured out what it was, it was new. The sides weren't dented and it had a muffler, that is why it sounded different. I loved Yakutat so much that I claimed it as my home town for years. I only once got back to Yakutat as I got a job, married and then the long struggle to provide but I still remember them and wish them well. Submitted by: Michael A. Woody

Yakutat Chamber

Greater Yakutat Chamber of Commerce

Yakutat Organizations

Greater Yakutat Chamber of Commerce

Yakutat Schools

Yakutat School District
Phone: (907) 784-3317 Yakutat

Miscellany

The population of Yakutat was:
1990 - 534
2000 - 724
2004 - 680 (estimate)

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The land area for the entire Borough is 7,650.5 square miles. There are 1,808 square miles of water area in the Borough.