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History · Cold Bay

Cold Bay was first counted by the census in 1890

Most of Cold Bay was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1989. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1943 on, and the census since 1890.

1890first census
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
12old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Cold Bay’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Cold Bay began

When was Cold Bay founded?

1890

Cold Bay first appears in the census in 1890.

First census: 231 in 18902020 census: 50136 years
Founding year: the first census.The full story ↓

What stands out about Cold Bay’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A town in old photos12 old photos, postcards and papers, 1910–1972.
★ What stands out · By decade

Cold Bay, decade by decade

5 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s6 items
Headland at Cold Bay, ca. 1910c. 1910Headland at Cold Bay, ca. 1910Cold Bay village, southwest end of the Alaska Peninsula, ca. 1912c. 1912Cold Bay village, southwest end of the Alaska Peninsu…Three natives in a bidarki or skin covered boat on Cold Bay, ca. 1912c. 1912Three natives in a bidarki or skin covered boat on Co…Three natives in bidarki, or skin covered boat on Cold Bay, ca. 1912c. 1912Three natives in bidarki, or skin covered boat on Col…Village at Cold Bay, ca. 1912c. 1912Village at Cold Bay, ca. 1912Houses and beach at Cold Bay, Alaska, 19191919Houses and beach at Cold Bay, Alaska, 1919
1930s–1950s5 items
ARCTIC ENTRYWAY TO 16' X 36' QUONSET HUT - Fort Randall, Neuro-Psychiatric Ward, Northeast of intersection of Californi…1933ARCTIC ENTRYWAY TO 16' X 36' QUONSET HUT - Fort Randa…DETAIL OF QUONSET HUT SHOWING BOARDWALK ON TUNDRA CONNECTING QUONSET HUTS THAT DID NOT HAVE INTERCONNNECTING WOOD FRAME…1933DETAIL OF QUONSET HUT SHOWING BOARDWALK ON TUNDRA CON…FIRE BREAK BETWEEN PSYCHIATRIC WARD AND NEXT WARD TO THE SOUTH - Fort Randall, Neuro-Psychiatric Ward, Northeast of int…1933FIRE BREAK BETWEEN PSYCHIATRIC WARD AND NEXT WARD TO …Fort Randall Army Airfield 19421942Fort Randall Army Airfield 1942Project Blue Book report - 1954-01-6779780-ColdBay-Alaska1954Project Blue Book report - 1954-01-6779780-ColdBay-Al…Book
1970s1 item
714th Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron1972714th Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron
1980s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
The story

How Cold Bay came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Cold Bay.

Read it all →

There is evidence of prehistoric occupation by Aleuts and later Russian encampments. Cold Bay's significance to American history began with the Japanese invasion of the Aleutians in World War II. General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. ordered the creation of Fort Randall, an airbase on the shores of Cold Bay, in 1942 as a part of a general expansion of American assets in the Aleutians. It (along with Otter Point) served as a base for the 11th Air Force to provide protection to the only deep water port in the Aleutians at the time, Dutch Harbor.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Cold Bay, 1910 to 1972

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1910In the archiveHeadland at Cold Bay, ca. 1910
  3. 1933In the archiveARCTIC ENTRYWAY TO 16' X 36' QUONSET HUT - Fort Randall, Neuro-Psychiatric Ward, Northeas…
  4. 1942In the archiveFort Randall Army Airfield 1942
  5. 1943On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1954In the archiveProject Blue Book report - 1954-01-6779780-ColdBay-Alaska
  7. 1954Post officeThe Cold Bay post office opens
  8. 1972In the archive714th Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron
On the map

Cold Bay on the map, 1943 to 1995

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cold Bay. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Cold Bay on the 1943 USGS mapCold Bay on the 1950 USGS mapCold Bay on the 1995 USGS map1943Cold Bay sheet · 1:250,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cold Bay.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Headland at Cold Bay, ca. 1910
Retake this viewHeadland at Cold Bay, ca. 1910, c. 1910

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Cold Bay’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Cold Bay, census by census

01002001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 256

Between 50 and 256 people in every census since 1890.

8 censuses, 1890–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cold Bay’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Cold Bay’s post office has been open since 1954.

Gone or out of use
Cold Bay Air Force StationmilitaryThornbrough Air Force Basemilitary
1cemetery inside Cold Bay
Cold Bay Trout Creek

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Cold Bay’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
5 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewHeadland at Cold Bay, ca. 1910: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Cold Bay’s history

What year was Cold Bay founded?

The Cold Bay post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1982.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (12), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.