A FEW WORDS ABOUT NINILCHIK & KENAI PENINSULA
The name Ninilchik translates as "a peaceful settlement by river".
Present day Ninilchik includes both the original village site and the surrounding countryside. The pre-history of the area remains hazy but it is generally believed that Eskimo-speaking people occupied the area for some time before Athabaskan Indian entered Cook Inlet from the west. These are the people that were here when the Russians first settled in the area. All reliable sources agree the Russians had an agricultural colony. Some sources have said that Ninilchik had been a retirement settlement for older employees of the Russian American Company and their families. A number of Russians married Aleut women during the course of their employment. Few of the employees could afford to take their families back to Russia, had they desired to do so. They were unwilling to leave them when their contract was up so many renewed their contracts. They worked as hunters for the Company until they were to old for the hardships imposed, thus staying in the area and raising cattle, pigs, chicken and vegetables; catching fish, fur farming, hunting and trapping.
In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia. A few of the Russian families returned to their country after the purchase but most stayed. In 1912 Alaska was incorporated as a territory of the United States.
World War II brought servicemen to Alaska, many of whom came back after the war to live. The 40's and 50's brought a rush of homesteaders who came to Alaska to find adventure, to hunt and fish, to escape the depression, and to live a more independent life.
Alaska became a state in 1959, and since then the Kenai Peninsula has been growing at an accelerating rate.
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