At the Kenai Chamber of Commerce, Danielle Lopez-Stamm looks behind a display case at a 1700s printing of Captain James Cook’s book “Voyages of Discovery.” Next to it is a display, with photographs and written historical context, highlighting Seward’s Folly, or the U.S. purchase of Alaska.
The artifacts are just a few of about 50 pieces on view this month tabulating Kenai’s history from the 1700s to the 1960s. Lopez-Stamm coordinates the museum for the chamber and says many of the pieces have never been on view before.
“I want people to come in here and realize that Kenai itself has had a really broad and robust history, and a lot of people don’t realize that," Lopez-Stamm said. "I think sometimes, we just view Kenai’s history as the gold or the oil that happened here.”
Kenai in the 1700s was marked by the Russian fur trade. The 1800s saw the short-lived Fort Kenay, a U.S. Army installation that housed about 100 soldiers. That century also saw the founding of Kenai’s Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox Church, a centerpoint in last month’s chamber exhibit about Alaska’s Russian history.
The installation also touches on Dena’ina life after European contact, which Lopez-Stamm says was a time of change and adjustment.
“Throughout the cultural center’s rotations, I always want to note that the Dena’ina people have always been here, and they’re still here,” Lopez-Stamm said.
The new history exhibit also features fishing-related artifacts, like an unused label from one of Kenai’s former canneries. Near it are homesteading artifacts, including a few made by Peter Kalifornsky, an Athabaskan writer who documented Dena’ina stories, poems and language.
The installation briefly notes Kenai’s oil industry boom of the 1950s and ‘60s. Lopez-Stamm says the cultural center will put together a more comprehensive history of the region’s oil industry in the future.
“Kenai has been here for a long time, and it has had people here for a very long time," Lopez-Stamm said. "The history is very broad and very diverse.”
The Kenai cultural museum’s newest history exhibit will be on view through the end of the month. It’ll be swapped out in April with an installment about the history of Kenai’s schools and education.
The Kenai Chamber of Commerce will also host a lecture about Kenai’s history post-1700 next Thursday.
