June 5, 2023 — Fishing is the front door to Unalaska and the Port of Dutch Harbor, located almost 800 miles southwest of Anchorage on the Aleutian Chain.
Most people who come to Unalaska are arriving to work in the processing plants, or on the fishing boats that Hobo Jim sings about.
But Unalaska’s first settlers, the Unangan people, have called the island home for 10,000 years.
Before the crab and pollock fisheries, Russian explorers arrived in the 18th century to harvest fur seals. In 1942, Japanese planes bombed Dutch Harbor — and World War II brought massive changes to the Aleutian Islands.