Kenai Peninsula.

• Author: Hill, Robin Mackey
• Position: Know Alaska

The Kenai Peninsula's economy is perhaps the most diverse of any regional economy in the state. Commercial fishing and fish processing, tourism, government, transportation, oil and gas production and refining, and, to some extent, timber, all play an important role.

And should there be any doubt about such diversification -- after talking to state economists and local planning officials -- all one has to do is talk to Aleja Devito, research specialist with the Kenai Peninsula Borough Economic Development District (EDD). "We have our plate full down here," Devito says from her Kenai office. "There's never a dull moment. ... Nothing ever happens twice."

A two-page list of EDD's major accomplishments during the last four years includes helping secure nearly $10 million in federal economic development funds for local public works projects; preparing and distributing several detailed statistical reports; organizing and overseeing the work of task forces on small business, shellfish, timber and health care; and giving birth to the Kenai Peninsula Tourism Marketing Council. In early 1992, EDD hired a small-business-development specialist to work with local entrepreneurs in starting and expanding small businesses.

And what about future projects? Devito takes a deep breath and ticks off a list that includes wide-ranging efforts in a variety of industries. Perhaps the most ambitious is an effort to determine the viability of a locally managed health care plan for all borough residents. Information is being collected by a health care task force, and experts from Washington, D.C., and Hawaii have met with borough officials. The idea of a borough-managed plan emerged after EDD found that skyrocketing insurance costs were a major barrier to those wishing to start or expand small businesses.

Other district projects include working with a private consultant to determine the feasibility of expanded shellfish farming in Kachemak Bay, working with existing groups to open a Career and Business Innovation Center and overseeing the work of a task force charged with finding commercial uses for acres and acres of beetle-killed timber along the peninsula.

The task force, established in late 1991, is seeking value-added applications for the timber, such as furniture, log homes and saunas. Opinions on the usefulness of timber killed by spruce bark beetle infestations conflict, but the naturally dried wood has proven ideal for building, says Devito. Since 1970, the beetles have killed trees on an estimated 70,000 acres, or 35 percent of the Kenai Peninsula's forested land.

And finally there's exploring the feasibility of catching and exporting sand fish to Japan. The small, eight-inch groundfish is a cultural mainstay in Japan, with consumers currently paying up to $30 for a pound, says Devito.

Supplies from Korea are dwindling and the Japanese are eager to find additional sources. A species of the fish grows in waters along the Kenai Peninsula, but no one currently fishes specifically for sand fish and nothing is known about its growth cycle or habits. Still, Devito hopes someone is able to collect enough local sand fish to send a test sample to Japan. If so, yet another fishing-related industry may be spawned along the peninsula.

HISTORY

Pacific Eskimos and, later, a branch of Athabascan Indians known as the Kenai Dena'inas were the earliest inhabitants of the peninsula. The Kenai Dena'inas were an adaptable people who established a thriving maritime culture. Many of their settlements were scattered throughout the central peninsula, and they often gathered at the mouth of the Kenai River to trade with other neighboring groups.

Early English explorers, including Nathaniel Portlock, George Dixon and George Vancouver, followed, with Russian explorers arriving and setting up permanent settlements in the late 1700s. Their contributions and influence are still noticeable today in the onion-shaped domes of area churches and in the names they attached to rivers, lakes and settlements.

Kenai, the peninsula's oldest and largest community and the second oldest permanent settlement in Alaska, was founded in 1791 by Russian priests. Russians also established settlements at Seldovia and Ninilchik in the early 1800s.

Perhaps the area's most diverse community historically, Seldovia over the years has attracted Eskimos, Aleuts, Indians, Russians, Scandinavians and Germans. After the United States purchased Alaska from the Russians in 1867, Kenai grew to include fishermen, miners, trappers and homesteaders.

The small, twin communities of Hope and Sunrise, situated on Turnagain Arm on the peninsula's northern shore, were founded...