Strategically situated on a bluff above the mouth of the Kenai River, Kenai has long attracted residents and visitors. For centuries the Dena’ina people lived in the area, subsisting as fishers, hunters, trappers, and farmers. In 1791 Russian fur traders built a fort here, making it the second permanent Russian settlement in Alaska.

The Americans built Fort Kenay her in 1869, two years after purchasing Alaska from the Russians. The discovery of major oil and gas fields in Cook Inlet in the 1950s consolidated Kenai as the largest and most industrial of the peninsula’s cities. Still its population is a mere 7,000, while its scenic setting befits a resort town more than an industrial city.