History & culture in Excursion Inlet

Excursion Inlet in brief

1. University of Washington archival records describe Excursion Inlet as originally a Native village, later the site of a fishing cannery and, in World War II, a strategic base for the Aleutian campaign and a prisoner-of-war camp. (archiveswest.orbiscascade.org · checked Oct 16, 2026)
2. The inlet opens onto Icy Strait beside Glacier Bay, which the National Park Service describes as the spiritual homeland of the Huna Lingít, most of whom today live across Icy Strait in Hoonah. (home.nps.gov · checked Oct 16, 2026)
3. The modern community was first settled as a cannery at the mouth of the inlet, and the name Excursion Inlet was first reported in the 1943 U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey Coast Pilot; during World War II it became a resupply point for the Aleutian campaign. (maps.commerce.alaska.gov · checked Oct 16, 2026)
4. Beginning in August 1942 the Army secretly built a vast supply terminal at Excursion Inlet — more than 600 acres, over 800 buildings, and three large docks — but by its completion in November 1943 the war had moved beyond Alaska, and the base was used for only a few months. (nps.gov · checked Oct 16, 2026)
5. In June 1945 the Army sent 700 German prisoners of war to Excursion Inlet to dismantle the barely used terminal, and some of the salvaged material helped rebuild Hoonah after its June 1944 fire. (nps.gov · checked Oct 16, 2026)
6. The cannery era appears paused: the Alaska Department of Fish & Game's 2025 'Southeast Alaska Shore-based Processors by Port' map lists plants at Hoonah, Gustavus, Elfin Cove, and Haines, but registers no shore-based processor at Excursion Inlet. (awc.adfg.alaska.gov · checked Oct 16, 2026)