Presentation Title:

Archaeological Investigations at Chernofski Harbor and a Brief Overview of Cleanup Work at Formerly Used Defense Sites on Unalaska Island and Surrounding Areas

Presentation Summary:

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been conducting cleanup work at the remains of the World War II-era military transshipment facility in Chernofski Harbor on the northwest side of Unalaska Island under the Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) Program. In addition to World War II cultural resources, Chernofski Harbor is home to the Chernofski Village site. Chernofski has been an important community for thousands of years; people stopped living there permanently in 1928, but it continues to be a significant cultural area. Under a 2018 Memorandum of Agreement, the USACE, SHPO, Tribes, and landowners identified certain archaeological research tasks that needed to be conducted before cleanup work could occur. This presentation provides an update on that archaeological research, as well as a brief overview of other USACE FUDS cleanup efforts on and near Unalaska Island.

Presenter Bios:

Kelly A. Eldridge is the lead archaeologist for the USACE Alaska District. She grew up in Anchorage and started working as an archaeologist in 2007. Kelly has had the pleasure of working on projects in the eastern Aleutians since 2010; she has been to Chernofski Harbor twice and Cape Prominence once.

Michael MacMillan currently serves as a Project Manager for the FUDS Program and the Native American Lands Environmental Mitigation Program (NALEMP) in Alaska. He has worked for the USACE Alaska District since 2007, originally as an environmental scientist.

Rena B. Flint is a Project Manager for the USACE Alaska District. She has the pleasure of working with the FUDS Program and NALEMP. She moved to Anchorage in 2018 from Fairbanks where she worked on contaminated sites and hydrology.

Jeremy D. Craner is a Project Manager who works with the FUDS Program for the USACE Alaska District. He has worked in Alaska since 2006 as a hydrogeologist and for the USACE since 2011. Jeremy has been to Cape Prominence and hopes to be able to visit Fort Glenn in 2021.