Our Story

When my family got stationed here in Kodiak, Alaska, there was an inner resistance to the idea of being cold and wet all the time again. Kodiak’s average temperature is 55 degrees, and it has precipitation over 200 days of the year. We had been stationed in Juneau, Alaska before and I thought that we would never be back. But life has a funny way of making you do the things that are most uncomfortable, and opening your eyes to the beauty that is possible.

I don’t remember the first time going to Jewel Beach to specifically look for sea glass. We’ve always just picked up strange and beautiful items that the ocean has given us. What I do remember is Googling sea glass and discovering all the varieties of glass. Bonfire glass comes from old beer bottles being thrown into fires on the beaches and left for the tide to reclaim. Milk glass from, as the name implies, old glass bottles of milk. Marbles. Uranium glass. All of these can be found along the beaches in Kodiak. Additionally, like all communities, Kodiak used to dump trash along the coastline, which includes old military trash. So, you can also find copper, aluminum, silver, brass, gold, coins, ceramic, porcelain, buttons and in a few instances, dog tags.

A little History on Kodiak and how it relates to our beach finds:

In the late 1700’s, Russian settlers moved to Kodiak Island to set up a fur trade with the Alaskan natives, the Alutiq. For almost 100 years, the Alutiq were exploited by these early settlers. The United States bought Alaska in 1867 and American settlers gradually moved to the area, primarily focused on trade and fishing. Then in 1912, the area was devastated by a volcanic eruption that contaminated the drinking water, caused massive avalanches, killed off large percentages of the native wildlife, and nearly wiped out the salmon population for 4 years. It was the largest eruption of the 20th century. Additionally, in 1964, a major earthquake and tsunami ravaged the area again, destroying buildings, homes, and businesses- these were all washed away into the sea.

Between the volcanic eruption and the earthquake, Kodiak Island served as an operating base during WWII for the Aleutian islands. The Naval Air Station broke ground in 1939 and was commissioned in 1941. While Kodiak Island never saw any direct conflict, it housed nearly 1300 soldiers during that time. It was a main support for the Japanese bombing of Dutch Harbor, Alaska from June of 1942 to August of 1943, the only military campaign fought on American soil. Then in 1947, the United States Coast Guard commissioned the Air Station, and subsequently, the USCG Base Kodiak. It is now the largest operational Coast Guard base in the service. And it is home to Jewel Beach.

If you take into account the early settlers, volcanic eruption, military presence, garbage dumping, tsunami and earthquake, it makes sense that there would be decades of what some would consider trash, washing up on the shores. But to me, and many in this small community, it is beautiful. The Kodiak beaches are a literal treasure trove of items washed up by the salty ocean, salvaged, and turned into something we can all appreciate, despite the cold wet weather.