Seward is situated on Alaska’s southern coast, approximately 120 miles (190 km) by road from Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage.
The city is named in memory of U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward.
He orchestrated the United States’ purchase of Alaska on behalf of President Andrew Johnson’s administration from the Russian Empire in 1867.
Seward is home to several of Alaska’s crown jewels, including the Alaska SeaLife Center—the state’s only public aquarium—and Kenai Fjords National Park, described by National Geographic as “the essence of coastal Alaska.”
Diversity of species
Additional world-class attractions are an easy drive from town.
According to the 2020 census Seward has a resident population of 2,717.
The area is known as one of Alaska’s premier sportfishing destinations. The pristine waters are home to a large diversity of species, including all five varieties of Pacific salmon, halibut, rockfish, and lingcod.
Saltwater combo fishing trips—targeting halibut, salmon, and rockfish—are a popular option from late June through early September.
Seward Harbor was certified as the second Alaska Clean Harbor in 2012.
Historical City
Until the voyages of Vitus Bering in 1741, Alaska remained a blank spot on maps and in the European imagination.
From 1743 until 1867, over a dozen artists travelled to Alaska on voyages sponsored by the Russian Crown and the Russian-American Company.
British connections
In 1793, Alexander Baranov of the Shelikhov-Golikov company (precursor of the Russian-American Company) established a fur trade post on Resurrection Bay where Seward is today
One name that keeps coming up whilst researching this article is that of a British naval officer in Russian service, James Shields (d. 1799). He was a shipwright on the first vessel built by Russians in Alaska. The three-masted frigate Phoenix was launched from the Russian shipyard in Resurrection Bay in September of 1794.
Seward is the southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad and the historic starting point of the original Iditarod Trail to Interior Alaska, with Mile 0 of the trail marked on the shoreline at the southern end of town.
More information
Seward Alaska city tourist website
Envisioning Alaska – Artistic Legacy of Russian America – Images created during the Russian voyages of exploration to Alaska are typically referred to as expedition art, and are treated as a scientific and ethnographic record – a faithful representation of their subject, and thus a reliable historic source.