Once Graves, Soon a Hotel on Property Downtown

Part of the land where the new hotel will stand. Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

 The owners of the Best Western Kodiak Inn and Convention Center have begun construction to build a hotel on nearby land where there had once been graves. That’s according to Kathie Short, a member of the Hansen family, who says she and her brothers grew up on a neighboring property on Alder Way.

“We moved into that house in the early 60s when we moved into town from Raspberry Island, and there were graves alongside that used to have little white fences and Russian Orthodox crosses right there alongside the land, and my mom used to try to tend them, but you know what happens, things rot.”

Kodiak Island Borough Community Development Director Bob Pederson says nobody knows for sure if there are remains still on the property.

“The stories that we’ve heard, and we’ve spoken with a fair number of people about this, is that there were graves there of course, and they were removed at some point. No one’s quite sure when. It was a historic Russian cemetery and the graves are no longer there.”

Pederson says in the case of finding remains, the owners would get in contact with the Alaska Office of History and Archaeology and the State Historic Preservation Office.

“And then there’s a historic state preservation officer, there’s one in every state and territory, and they sort of administer those regulations and the archaeological work that occurs in the state of Alaska. There’s also federal laws that come into play under section 106 of the historic preservation act if there’s any federal permits, licenses or actions associated with the activities.”

Pederson says the property owners have obtained the zoning compliance and begun work on the land.

“It’s our understanding that the state historic preservation officer has spoken with the building official and with at least one of the contractors working for the owners and that they’re aware of what the procedures are and what they need to do should they encounter anything while they’re doing the preparation work for the site work and foundations and that type of thing.”

While Kodiak Inn owner Susan Johnson declined to comment at this time, in an interview with KMXT earlier this year she said that she imagines opening the new hotel in summer 2017.