Murder Cove
cove in Alaska, United States
Murder Cove is located at the southernmost portion of Admiralty Island in the U.S. state of Alaska. The cove was home to the Tyee Company whaling station and was known for whaling operations from 1907 through 1913.
History
Name
The area was named Murder Cove after two gold prospectors were murdered in the area in 1869 as revenge for the killing of two Tlingit tribesmen. In retaliation the USS Saginaw destroyed three villages and two wooden forts near present-day Kake, Alaska. This unopposed destruction of villages and forts by the US Government became known as the Kake War.
Whaling
Commercial operations in fishing and sea hunting were established inside the bay at Point Gardner by the Tyee Company who sought to take advantage of the unexploited waters of southeast Alaska. They established their operations on Admiralty Island at Murder Cove in 1907 using the first American-built steam-powered whaler, the 97-foot Tyee Junior, which was equipped with a harpoon gun on the bow. Consequent to a declining whale population, the company closed its operations in 1913.
Coal exploration
In 1905, the most extensive coal exploration in southeastern Alaska occurred at Murder Cove, Kootznahoo Inlet, and Hamilton Bay. The Tertiary-aged coal-bearing formations are made up of conglomerate, sandstone, and shale.
“Murder Cove” enters the record as cove in Alaska, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Murder, Cove and cove can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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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 Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6937653. Authority coordinates are 57.029, -134.556. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1907, 1913, 1869 and 1905.
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This entry incorporates text from “Murder Cove” 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.