A few memorable sentences for your written answer. Start with the ten cues below; the full list follows your 42-stop circuit. Recording dates are not necessarily the dates a name was first used.
One sentence is enough. For example: “Eldred Passage and Sadie Cove both commemorate Sarah ‘Sadie’ Eldred Baker.” Then continue with the navigational facts. These are optional history details, not another compulsory syllabus.
Commemorates an anchor lost during Cook's 1778 exploration. USGS cautions that Cook appears originally to have applied the name to a point farther north; avoid claiming the anchor was lost exactly at today's point.
Cook lost an anchor; the name moved.
From Russian Mutnaya, meaning muddy. USGS attributes the name to naturalist I. G. Wosnesenski about 1840.
Mutnaia = muddy.
Named by W. H. Dall of the Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1880. The descriptive name fits the conspicuous bluff; USGS records no separate naming anecdote.
Dall, 1880; the bluff.
USGS records it as a local name published in the 1950s, without explaining the word Diamond. A diamond-mining or diamond-discovery story is not established by this record.
Local name; origin unresolved.
Dall named the shoals in 1880 for Captain Archimandritov of the Russian-American Company.
A Russian captain, honored by Dall.
Homer commemorates Homer Pennock, the gold-mining promoter associated with the settlement in the 1890s. USGS records the spit name as applied by R. W. Stone in 1904 for the town formerly situated there.
Pennock → Homer → Homer Spit.
English translations adopted by the Coast Survey in 1881 from Russian names on Tebenkov's 1852 chart: Mys Ugolnoy, coal cape, and Zaliv Ugolnoy, coal bay.
Russian coal names, translated.
The city shares the bay's name. For the word Kachemak, see the regional note below: historical explanations differ. No separate city-naming anecdote was verified.
Use the bay-name note.
A descriptive label for the tidal flats in your study sequence. No personal namesake or distinct historical naming event was verified.
Descriptive, not a hidden namesake.
USGS records the Kachemak Bay river as a local name published in the 1950s. That entry does not identify a Martin. Do not assume it honors geologist G. C. Martin merely because he worked in the region.
Martin's identity unverified.
An Indigenous name recorded by Tebenkov in 1848 as Ostrov Chugachik; ostrov is Russian for island. The consulted entry does not supply a reliable literal translation of Chugachik.
Older Indigenous name on a Russian chart.
Bear Cove was recorded on a 1912 USGS field sheet by D. F. Higgins and R. H. Sargent. Bear Island was named for the cove and published in 1951. No particular bear encounter is documented in these entries.
Cove first; island inherits its name.
USGS says the lagoon was probably named for the former village of Aurora nearby; the lagoon name appeared in 1951. Keep the word probably.
Probably the old village, not a proven aurora sighting.
Named by Dall in 1880. The consulted entry identifies the surveyor and date, without a separate naming story.
Another Dall name, 1880.
Dall named Halibut Cove in 1880. The lagoon inherited the cove's name, published by USGS in 1961. The entry does not document a particular catch or fisherman.
Dall's cove; lagoon follows.
Dall named it in 1880 for Gerasim Grigorovich Izmailov, a Russian navigator and explorer of Alaska in the late eighteenth century. Ismailof is the chart spelling; Izmailov is another transliteration of the person's name.
Russian navigator remembered by Dall.
USGS records the bay as a local name from the 1940s and the point as published since 1950. These entries do not identify the Peterson involved.
Local names; Peterson not identified.
USGS records the bay's local name in 1911. Alaska State Parks links the nearby China Poot Lake and Poot Peak names to Henry “China” Poot, an Alaska Native hunter, fisherman and trapper. The bay is also linked to him in local historian Janet Klein's account, reported by Homer News. The suggested explanation for the nickname—association with Chinese workers—remains qualified.
Henry Poot; keep the nickname story qualified.
USGS, p. 211 · Alaska State Parks, p. 27 · Homer News citing Janet Klein
Named for hunting guide William McKeon, according to the Alaska State Parks management plan. The same source includes McKeon Spit.
McKeon = hunting guide William.
USGS records a local name from the 1940s but gives no naming event or namesake. Neptune is the Roman sea god, but that alone does not establish why this particular bay was named.
Sea-god association is a cue, not proven origin.
USGS says it probably commemorates Anisim, an Indigenous resident who had a cabin in the area, as reported by archaeologist Frederica de Laguna. The official point spelling is Anisom.
Anisim's cabin → Anisom, probably.
Recorded as a local name in the 1940s, under Sixty-foot Rock. Treat the number as part of the rock's name; the history entry does not establish a Light List focal height.
Rock name ≠ light height.
Dall named the Kachemak Bay island for a trader operating in the area in 1880. USGS does not give the trader's first name here. Do not substitute the history of the different Cohen Island near Juneau.
Cohen = local trader.
Dall named it in 1880 for the Coast and Geodetic Survey schooner Yukon. The immediate namesake was the survey vessel.
Yukon = survey schooner.
Dall named it in 1880 for Sir Thomas Hesketh, who visited Cook Inlet that year aboard his yacht Lancashire Witch.
Hesketh arrived on a Witch.
Named by Dall in 1880 for Sarah Eldred, wife of surveyor and geographer Marcus Baker. She is also the Sadie of Sadie Cove.
Eldred and Sadie: one woman, two names.
Dall named it in 1880 for Sarah “Sadie” Eldred, wife of Marcus Baker—the same woman honored by Eldred Passage.
Sadie = Sarah Eldred Baker.
I did not verify a literal translation in the primary sources consulted. A secondary account gives “big enclosed water,” but that should remain unlearned as fact until supported by a language or place-name authority.
Meaning awaiting confirmation.
An Indigenous name, recorded by Dall in 1883 as Kahsitsnah and later by G. C. Martin. USGS describes it historically as a Kenai Indian name but supplies no translation.
Kahsitsnah → Kasitsna; translation unverified.
Named by Dall in 1880. Nubble is a useful descriptive cue for a small knob or knoll, but the consulted naming entry does not give a specific incident.
Nubble → knoll; Dall, 1880.
The local name was reported in 1918. USGS explains barabara as a Russian term for a large Native hut—a dwelling, not a person named Barbara.
Barabara = a dwelling.
Takes its name from Seldovia Bay, whose Russian name means herring bay.
Point inherits the herring-bay name.
Seldovia derives from Russian Zaliv Seldevoy, herring bay. Watch Point was locally Lookout Point; the Coast Survey reported Watch in 1908, choosing a synonym to avoid a duplicate name.
Herring bay; Lookout becomes Watch.
USGS records it as a Kenai Indigenous name reported by the Coast Survey in 1908. The consulted entry gives no literal meaning.
Indigenous name; meaning unverified.
USGS glosses this Russian name as perilous and records it on a 1943 Coast Survey chart. Attribute that wording to USGS rather than inventing a particular wreck or death associated with the point.
USGS historical gloss: perilous.
An English translation of the Russian name on Tebenkov's 1852 chart; the Coast Survey published Dangerous Cape in 1883.
A translated Russian warning.
Named by the Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1910. The consulted entry does not identify a particular bird event or species behind the name.
Coast Survey, 1910.
Nathaniel Portlock named Passage Island in 1786 because it stood at the entrance of what he mistakenly thought was a strait leading to the sea. That supposed passage is Port Graham. No separate historical name origin was verified for the nearby mainland waterfall.
The passage that wasn't.
Portlock called it Grahams Harbour in 1786. Russians later called the harbor English Bay because of English visits and mapping; Meares called it Cool Bay. USGS does not identify Graham in this entry. Paluwik is the community's Alutiiq name.
Portlock's harbor; once called English Bay.
The name appears on Portlock's map published in 1789. USGS notes the Russian trading post at Port Graham as historical context; it does not identify one individual Russian namesake.
Portlock's map; Russian trading presence.
Nanwalek means place by the lagoon in Sugt'stun. The community restored the name in 1991. English Bay originally referred to Port Graham; the Coast Survey reapplied the translated Russian name to the smaller cove in 1909. Keep village, bay and river distinct on your chart.
Lagoon place; old bay name moved.
USGS, p. 315 · Chugach: Nanwalek · Chugachmiut: 1991 restoration
USGS lists the group as Flat Islands: a descriptive name, presumably given by Dall in 1880. Retain presumably when discussing the namer; continue using the supplied chart/light name in the exam.
Flat describes form; Dall attribution is tentative.
USGS preserves Dall's historical explanation in terms of water, cliff and a suffix meaning high or great, and lists High Cliff Bay as a variant. A historical Army Corps harbor report instead uses Smoky Bay. These are competing published explanations: the useful exam sentence is “Dall interpreted the name with reference to the high cliffs.” Do not present either as a certified modern linguistic translation.
Attribute the interpretation to Dall.
Dall named it in 1880 for Constantin Grewingk, who published an important work on Alaska's geology and volcanism in 1850.
Grewingk wrote the geology; Dall named the glacier.
For this Kachemak Bay island, USGS records a local name reported by Dall in 1895. Do not borrow the specific naming anecdotes for other Gull Islands in Alaska.
Kachemak's Gull: recorded by Dall, 1895.
Cook named the cape in 1778 in connection with Princess Elizabeth's birthday. This is background history only; it does not add the cape or its light to your 42-stop exam route.
A princess's birthday, 1778.
Most entries come from Donald J. Orth, Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, USGS Professional Paper 567 (1967; corrected reprint 1971). Links open at the relevant PDF page. The historical coordinates, soundings and population figures are not used here.
State Parks supplies the McKeon attribution and supporting China Poot history. Chugach sources supply Nanwalek’s meaning and name restoration. Indigenous places and names long predate their appearance on European charts.
“Unresolved” means a reliable origin was not established in the sources consulted. It does not mean no history exists. A probable explanation stays probable; a convenient memory association is not evidence.
Researched 22 September 2026 · 42 route stops + 4 regional/extra entries · Current chart and Coast Pilot remain the navigational references.