Hutsnuwu Raven leaders in ceremonial garb, at potlatch given to Wolf-Eagle clans, Angoon 1901. Left to right: Youth wearing an abalone-incrusted "bear's ears" head-dress and a Chilkat blanket. Mrs. Chief Mitlakettle in black, as a mourner. Chief Mitlakettle of Basket Bay and two unidentified younger men.
AlaskaNorthwest Trading Company
The founders of Whalers' Cove Lodge had viewed a vessel passengers journal from the late 1800's which states that the crew of the schooner fished in the exact spot for halibut as we do today. The historical log book also refers to the wealth of herring found around the area. This holds true today; the abundance of herring supports our immense resource of all five Pacific Northwest Salmon (King, Coho, Sockeye, Chum and Pink), Halibut and over twenty species of Rockfish including Ling Cod and Red Snapper.
In 1886, Alaska Northwest Trading Company was built on the abandoned Tlingit village site on Killisnoo Island. The site again was chosen due to the prosperous fishery and the calm harbor.
Whaler's Cove Lodge Founders
Whaler's Cove, Inc. was originally founded as a partnership between Carl and Marguerite Jacobson and Richard (Dick) L. Powers in 1978. The concept and actual construction began in 1970 as an informal partnership between Jacobson and Powers. The formalization of Whaler's Cove, Inc. began with the first written partnership agreement and the formation of a Subchapter S corporation 8 years later. The lodge site is part of US Survey #5; one of the first patented properties in Alaska (1882). It was previously an Indian Village and after the Alaska Purchase, a trade manufacturing site. The lodge location was once, also, the town site of Killisnoo; a herring rendering and fish processing plant and one of the largest towns in Alaska at the turn of the century. A fire in 1928 and "The Great Depression" put the rendering plant out of business in the early 1930's. The Jacobsons purchased the abandoned property from the caretaker in 1952.
In 1970, the principals of Whaler's Cove, Inc. started construction by clearing the site of dilapidated Killisnoo buildings and dock remains. They purchased a portable sawmill, cut beach logs into building materials and framed the original lodge and 3 cabins. The development proceeded slowly until 1975 when Powers resigned his Forest Service job (area manager in Yakutat, Alaska) and moved to Angoon. He purchased the general store, Angoon Trading Company, from the Jacobsons and accelerated the growth of Whaler's Cove Lodge.
Whaler's Cove Lodge...Today
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