Seward Alaska

Seward overview

Seward (Alutiiq: Qutalleq) is an incorporated home rule city in Alaska, United States. Located on Resurrection Bay, a fjord of the Gulf of Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula, Seward is situated on Alaska’s southern coast, approximately 120 miles by road from Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage. With a population of 2,693 people as of the 2010 Census,[6] Seward is the fourth-largest city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, behind Kenai, Homer, and the borough seat of Soldotna. The city is named for former U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, who orchestrated the United States’ purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 while serving in this position as part of President Andrew Johnson‘s administration. Seward is the southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad and the historic starting point of the original Iditarod Trail to Interior Alaska, with Mile 0 of the trail marked on the shoreline at the southern end of town. In 1793, Alexander Baranov of the Shelikhov-Golikov company (precursor of the Russian-American Company) established a fur trade post on Resurrection Bay where Seward is today and had a three-masted vessel, the Phoenix, built at the post by James Shields, an English shipwright in Russian service.[7]The 1939 Slattery Report on Alaskan development identified the region as one of the areas where new settlements would be established through Jewish immigration.[8] This plan was never implemented. Seward was an important port for the military buildup in Alaska during World War II. Fort Raymond was established in Seward along the Resurrection River to protect the community. An Army airfield built in Seward during the war later became Walseth Air Force Base. Both of the military facilities were closed shortly after the end of the war.[9]A large portion of Seward was damaged by shaking and a local tsunami during the 1964 Alaska earthquake.[10]