Resurrection Bay
fjord in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, United States
Resurrection Bay, also known as Blying Sound, and Harding Gateway in its outer reaches, is a fjord on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, United States. Its main settlement is Seward, located at the head of the bay. The bay received its name from Alexandr Baranov, who was forced to retreat into the bay during a bad storm in the Gulf of Alaska. When the storm settled it was Easter Sunday, so the bay and nearby Resurrection River were named in honor of it. Harding Gateway refers to the passage between Rugged and Cheval Islands.
Resurrection Bay is the location of Caines Head, at the summit of which Fort McGilvray is situated 650 feet (200 meters) above sea level. This fortification was constructed by the United States Armed Forces to defend against a possible invasion by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The bay remains ice-free even in winter, making it easily navigable.
It is called the "gateway to the Kenai Fjords" as many water taxis, kayak tours, anglers, and recreational boaters use the bay to access nearby Kenai Fjords National Park.
Geography
Resurrection Bay has a maximum depth of 972 feet (296 m), near the coast at Caines Head. It contains many deep coves, most notably Thumb, Humpy, Bulldog, Pony and Derby Coves.
The public source identifies “Resurrection Bay” as fjord in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Resurrection, fjord and Kenai.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1718269. The Library of Congress control number is sh91001938. Authority coordinates are 59.970, -149.381. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Resurrection Bay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.