Situk

Located on USGS Yakutat B-5 map.

Yakutat

History: Tlingit Indian village; the principal winter village of the Yakutats, a subtribe of the Tlingits, reported by Ivan Petroff in the 1880 Census. Its population was 500 in 1880, 300 in 1890, 271 in 1910; 165 in 1920; 265 in 1930; 292 in 1939, and 298 in 1950. The Yakitat post office was established in 1892 and discontinued in 1895. It was reestablished as "Yakutat" in 1901 (Ricks, 1965, p. 72). Description: population 230, on W end of Monti Bay, 210 mi. NW of Juneau, Malaspina Coastal Plain.

According to Wikipedia:
Yakutat City and Borough is a unified city-borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2000 census, the population was 808. The name is Tlingit, Yaakwdáat, meaning "the place where canoes rest," but it may originally derive from an Eyak name which has been lost. Besides the original city of Yakutat, described below, the only other significant population center in the borough is the community of Icy Bay, the site of the Icy Bay Airport, in the west-central part of the borough. Yakutat City is the largest city in the United States by area, and the eighth largest city in the world by area.

Touristy Description: Hang ten, dude! Alaska has more coastline than any other state in the country, but the last thing most people associate with it is surfing. Not any more. As a result of a Surfer magazine cover story on surfing in Alaska, the state’s first surf shop opened in Yakutat in 1999. That caught the attention of other national media and suddenly this small, isolated town, up to that point known only for big steelhead and a big glacier, was ‘Surf City Alaska.’

Isolated on the strand that connects the Inside Passage to the rest of Alaska, Yakutat is now something of a tourist destination. Hubbard Glacier, the longest tidewater glacier in the world, is a mere is 30 miles away. The 76-mile-long glacier captured national attention by galloping across Russell Fjord in the mid-1980s, turning the long inlet into a lake. Eventually Hubbard receded to reopen the fjord, but the glacier did it again in 2002 and came close in 2008. The eight-mile-wide glacier is easily Alaska's most active. The entire area, part of the 545-square-mile Russell Fjord Wilderness, is one of the most interesting places in Alaska and usually visited through flightseeing or boat tours.

Life in Yakutat is rich with the culture of the Native people of the area. Here the elders share their knowledge and wisdom through storytelling in the local community gathering place. Hear their story and see the traditional dress regalia of the Tlingit people.

For fishermen, there are 12 U.S. Forest Service cabins. Many are near rivers and lakes that are renowned, even by Alaska standards, among sport fishers for their trophy salmon, steelhead trout and Dolly Varden. The Situk River, 12 miles south of town by road, is often rated as one of Alaska's top fishing spots. The U.S. Forest Service Yakutat Ranger District Office (907-784-3359) can provide information on seasons, rivers, cabin rentals and local fishing guides.