Portlock

Overview

A cannery at the end of the peninsula

Portlock lies on Port Chatham, a sheltered bay near the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula, about 16 miles south of Seldovia and 10 miles south-southeast of Port Graham. CoastView says Nathaniel Portlock anchored here in 1786, though Skeptoid reads the 1789 account of the voyage as placing that anchorage at Coal Harbour, elsewhere on Cook Inlet; the bay got its English name from George Vancouver in 1794. The town began as a fish plant. The Fidalgo Island Packing Company built a cold-storage plant for cod and halibut in 1915, near the Alutiiq village of To'qakvik, and A. N. Nilson added a salmon cannery in 1928. The cannery employed Chugach and Alutiiq Sugpiaq people from the outer-coast villages, and a community of scattered cabins grew around the head of the bay. A post office opened in 1921, and the 1940 census counted 31 people.

The cannery burned in the winter of 1937–38 and was rebuilt in 1940. After that the town faded. CoastView ties it to falling production after the war, which sent families to the cannery at Port Graham; Skeptoid ties it to the new highway on the other side of the peninsula, which left water-bound towns behind. Most people moved to Port Graham and Nanwalek, and the post office closed in 1950 or 1951. Nanwalek still owns the land.

Portlock is better known now for a story. Since at least 1973, newspaper and later web accounts have said a hairy creature killed hunters and drove the town out; the name Nantiinaq joined the story with a 2009 Homer Tribune article. The record doesn't bear that out, and this page treats it as legend.

Timeline

Fish plant, cannery, empty bay

1. 1786CoastView says ships under Nathaniel Portlock and George Dixon anchor in the bay; Skeptoid, citing the 1789 account of the voyage, places Portlock's 1786 anchorage at Coal Harbour, elsewhere on Cook Inlet. George Vancouver names the bay Port Chatham in 1794.
2. 1915The Fidalgo Island Packing Company builds a cold-storage plant for cod and halibut at Portlock, near the Alutiiq village of To'qakvik.
3. 1921A U.S. post office opens under the name Portlock.
4. 1924Postmaster George W. Henk is arrested by Prohibition agents for one gallon of moonshine, the only notable crime Skeptoid found in the town's newspaper record.
5. 1928A. N. Nilson builds a salmon cannery.
6. 1937–1940The cannery burns in the winter of 1937–38 and is rebuilt in 1940 as the Port Chatham Packing Company.
7. 1940The census counts 31 people, Portlock's first appearance.
8. 1940sFamilies move away to Port Graham, where a cannery still offers work, and to Nanwalek. Skeptoid ties the decline to the new highway on the other side of the peninsula; CoastView to falling cannery production after the war.
9. 1950–1951The post office closes.
10. 1973An Anchorage Daily News article tells of a hairy creature that drove people out. It is the oldest account of the legend that Skeptoid cites.
11. 1980Counted as a census-designated place, again with 31 residents. It is dropped by 1990.
12. 2021Skeptoid finds no record of the killings told in the legend and says the town's relics survive on the beach and in the woods. A Discovery+ series films in the ruins that spring.
13. Oct 2025CoastView reports that the village of Nanwalek still owns Portlock.

Legend and record

The monster of Port Chatham

The legend says that in the 1940s the people of Portlock were terrorized by a creature they called the Nantiinaq. In the version CoastView retells, sheep hunters vanished in the hills, their dismembered bodies washed up in the lagoon, and the whole community fled to Nanwalek and Port Graham.

Skeptoid looked for the record in 2021. The oldest account it cites is a 1973 Anchorage Daily News article, and the version most often repeated online comes from a 2009 Homer Tribune story built on that article and on interviews with two elders. Newspapers from the decades before the town emptied report no murders or dismemberments there. The one death it found was an accident in 1920, and the only missing hunters were two men from Seward in 1917 with no clear tie to Portlock. Skeptoid also notes that the name seems to be borrowed from the Dena'ina nant'ina, a figure who kidnaps children. Wikipedia dates the accounts to the 2000s, decades after the abandonment, and says they were later reported to be fabricated.

We keep the story here because visitors will hear it, and because Discovery+ filmed a monster-hunting series in the ruins in 2021. It is a legend.

What's left

Pilings on the shore

Skeptoid said in March 2021 that the town's relics survive on the beach and in the woods, and the Discovery+ series filmed that spring follows a team exploring the ruins. The only list of what is there is undated: a mine tunnel, house pilings and rusted cannery equipment. We found no detailed, dated description of the site from a visit made with the landowner's permission.

The historic maps tell more. The 1953 USGS sheet marks Portlock on the south shore with a few buildings, a seaplane anchorage off Chatham Island, cabins along the north shore and a trail heading east from the head of the bay. The 1963 sheet adds Chrome (Site), the old chromite camp on Chrome Bay to the west. Today's topo shows the shore with no road at all, and the aerial view shows forest down to the water.

• Relics on the beach and in the woods (Skeptoid, March 2021)
• House pilings (undated report)
• Rusted cannery equipment (undated report)
• Mine tunnel (undated report)

Historic maps

Portlock on USGS maps, 1951–1963

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19511:250,00019531:63,36019631:250,000

Maps & access

Location and access

There is no road to Portlock, so this page has no driving route. The site is on the water at Port Chatham, about 16 miles south of Seldovia. Skeptoid noted in 2021 that the only road within 10 km (about 6 miles) of Port Chatham is a single unpaved forest road, and an undated listing says the site is reached only by boat or by bush plane landing on the beach. The land belongs to the village of Nanwalek, so arrange permission before you plan a landing.

Photos

Have photos of Portlock?

We haven’t added more photographs of Portlock yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Visitor reports

Been to Portlock?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Portlock

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Alaska index.

• Port Wakefield93.2 mi SW · Kodiak Island
• Portage147.1 mi NE · Anchorage
• Kern148.8 mi NE · Anchorage
• Three Saints Bay157.1 mi SW · Kodiak Island
• Knik169.6 mi NE · Matanuska-Susitna
• Independence Mine196.7 mi NE · Matanuska-Susitna
• Agivavik199.9 mi W · Dillingham
• Nushagak240.1 mi W · Dillingham

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Portlock, Alaska", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, the Sugpiaq name, the 1921 post office and its 1950–51 closure, the highway and the moves to Nanwalek and Port Graham, Nanwalek's ownership, Port Chatham as a neighboring community, the 1940 and 1980 census counts, the 2021 series in the ruins and the legend's late origin.
2. CoastView, "Portlock Cannery, Port Chatham", October 18, 2025: location, Portlock and Vancouver, the 1915 cold storage, the 1928 cannery, the fire and 1940 rebuild, the workforce, the legend as told, the move to Port Graham, the post office closure and Nanwalek's ownership.
3. Brian Dunning, "The Monster of Port Chatham," Skeptoid #772, March 23, 2021: the name Port Chatham, the 1789 account and Coal Harbour, the 1973 and 2009 articles, the newspaper record, the postmaster's arrest, the post office dates, the highway, the name nantiinaq, the relics on the beach and in the woods, and the nearest road.
4. ghosttowns.com, "Portlock": fact sheet fields (roads, climate, best time, remains).
5. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Portlock on the 1953 USGS sheet: buildings on the south shore of Port Chatham, a seaplane anchorage and cabins across the bay: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Seldovia 1951, 1:250,000; Seldovia A-5 1953, 1:63,360; Seldovia 1963, 1:250,000.