Anchorage Daily News

POPULATION: 0 (2006)

LOCATION: On the east coast of Nushagak Bay, 17 miles south of Dillingham, spread out for about two miles along a narrow gravel spit extending from the Ekuk Bluffs in the shape of a hook.

DESCRIPTION: Historically an Eskimo village, Ekuk is now a commercial cannery and subsistence-use site used only in summer when it's flooded with fishing crews and processors. It has no year-round residents. Many families have setnet sites in Ekuk. The Wards Cove Packing Co. closed in 2002. During its peak, it employed 200 workers each summer, providing a market for about 80 commercial fishing boats and over 160 beach setnet sites. The 2000 U.S. census showed that 72 of the 73 total housing units were used only seasonally and two residents were employed.

HISTORY: The word Ekuk means "the last village down," because Ekuk is the farthest village south on Nushagak Bay. The village is mentioned in Russian accounts of 1824 and 1828 as Village Ekouk and Seleniye Ikuk. It is thought that Ekuk was a major Eskimo village at one time.

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