It was May 2004, and the Alaska Native–owned Huna Totem Corporation (HTC) was about to welcome its first cruise ship to Icy Strait Point, a new cruise destination not yet on any maps, located just outside the small Tlingit community of Hoonah on Chichagof Island, about 35 miles west of Juneau.

Converting a 100-year-old cannery into a tender port had been a multiyear project, designed to provide locals with jobs and the small city with income. The idea for a port came from enviously watching ships sail by to nearby Glacier Bay, says Johan Dybdahl, 77, who was raised in Hoonah and is now director of special projects for HTC.

As Dybdahl remembers, on the port’s first day, about 60 locally hired employees had stayed up the previous night readying for visitors from the 1,900-passenger Celebrity Mercury.

“When the ship poked its nose around the point, some people started whooping and hollering, and others were crying, and then the ship went right by us and anchored in Hoonah,” Dybdahl laughs, adding that the ship had to be transferred back to the small port.

No one makes that mistake today. What started with 32 ship visits by Royal Caribbean and its Celebrity Cruises brand in 2004 is now some 240ships representing all the major cruise lines and bringing more than a half million cruise passengers a year to Icy Strait Point.

The port is the largest employer in Hoonah, which has a population of about 920. Additional workers are brought in for the April to October cruise season (roles for the local workers include everything from tour guides to bartenders). During the off-season, the cruise port facility shuts down.

Read the full article at: https://www.afar.com/magazine/alaskas-icy-strait-point-things-to-do-at-the-cruise-port