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Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles

—digitized titles

38historic places

—earliest paper

1960formed

58,799pop. 2020

15cemeteries

—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 38 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1966; 2 are also National Historic Landmarks. Most listings are in or near Seward, Hope, Soldotna.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Alaska is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Kenai Peninsula titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

19 of 38 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

38 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
Alaska Central Railroad: Tunnel No. 1	Seward	Structure	1977
Alaska Nellie's Homestead	Lawing	Building	1975
Ballaine House	Seward	Building	1978
Berg, Andrew, Cabin	Soldotna	Building	2000
Brown & Hawkins Store	Seward	Building	1988
Chugachik Island Site	Homer	Site	1976
Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary NHL	Kenai	Building	1970
Clam Cove Pictograph Site	Port Alsworth	Site	2017
Coal Village Site	Port Graham	Site	1978
Cooper Landing Historic District	Cooper Landing	District	1986
Cooper Landing Post Office	Cooper Landing	Building	1978
Diversion Tunnel	Seward	Structure	1977
Fort McGilvray Historic Archaeological District	Seward	District	2022
Government Cable Office	Seward	Building	1980
Hirshey Mine	Hope	Site	1978
Hoben Park	Seward	Site	2006
Holm, Victor, Cabin	Kenai	Building	1977
Holm, Victor, Homestead	Kasilof	District	2006
Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Chapel	Ninilchik	Building	1978
Hope Historic District	Hope	District	1972
Johnson, Harry A., Trapline Cabin	Hope	Building	2000
Lauritsen Cabin	Moose Pass	Building	1979
Lee, Jesse, Home for Children	Seward	Building	1995
Magnetic Island Site	Pt. Alsworth	Site	2016
Moose River Site	Sterling	Site	1978
Selenie Lagoon Archeological Site	Port Graham	Site	1974
Seward Depot	Seward	Building	1987
Snug Harbor Packing Company	Chisik Island	District	2023
Soldotna Post Office	Soldotna	Building	2008
St. Nicholas Chapel	Seldovia	Building	1980
St. Peter's Episcopal Church	Seward	Building	1979
Sts. Sergius and Herman of Valaam Church	English Bay	Building	1980
Sunrise City Historic District	Hope	District	1997
Swetman House	Seward	Building	1978
Thorn-Stingley House	Homer	Building	2001
Tuxedni Bay Pictograph Site	Port Alsworth	Site	2020
Van Gilder Hotel	Seward	Building	1980
Yukon Island Main Site NHL	Yukon Island	Site	1966

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Kenai Peninsula was formed in 1960 (1960-04-01) from unknown / original county.

1960 census. Kenai-Cook Inlet (Election District 12) served as a census area.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Kenai Peninsula Borough population from 1960 to 2020 (Census historical series).

1960	1980	2000	2020
6,097	25,282	49,691	58,799

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

15 cemeteries and 12 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 15 of 15 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
American Legion Cemetery	60.05017	-151.6639
American Legion Cemetery	60.12869	-149.43496
Anchor Point Kallman Cemetery	59.84879	-151.80735
Cooper Landing Cemetery	60.49248	-149.83802
Hickerson Memorial Cemetery	59.68082	-151.65475
Homer Community Cemetery	59.65155	-151.51455
Hope Cemetery	60.91682	-149.62292
Kenai City Cemetery	60.56039	-151.26066
McGahan Cemetery	60.73644	-151.244
Port Graham Cemetery	59.34712	-151.82371
Seward City Cemetery	60.12867	-149.43627
Spruce Grove Memorial Cemetery	60.35171	-151.26727
Sunrise Cemetery	60.89862	-149.42785
Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Cemetery	60.05032	-151.66494
Woodlawn Cemetery	60.15499	-149.40402

Historical populated places — 12 of 12

Name	Lat	Lon
Aurora	59.68333	-151.1
Chenik	59.21389	-154.13889
Chinila	60.53505	-151.26781
Nikishka Number 3	60.77952	-151.17903
Old Tyonek	61.03806	-151.28306
Ostrovski	59.58333	-151.5
Shlakaq'	60.48306	-151.135
Skilak	60.03333	-150.2
Skittok	60.55	-151.26667
Tobona	61.04389	-151.18944
Toyonak	60.9	-151.7
Yalik	59.45	-150.6

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Kenai Peninsula County, Alaska

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.