The Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation provides medical care to 34 rural communities in southwest Alaska. Kanakanak Hospital and its associated facilities are located in Dillingham, 327 air miles southwest of Anchorage. BBAHC was the first tribal organization in the nation to assume management of an Indian Health Service facility.

 

A view of the
Kanakanak Hospital
grounds in summer. On
the horizon are the
Tikchik Mountains, part
of the 1.4 million acre
Wood Tikchik
State Park.


Dillingham is located at the extreme northern end of Nushagak Bay in northern Bristol Bay, at the confluence of the Wood and Nushagak Rivers. Average summer temperatures range from 37 to 66; average winter temperatures range from 4 to 30. Annual precipitation is 26 inches, with 65 inches of snow.

Historically the area was inhabited by both Eskimos and Athabascans and became a trading center when Russians erected the Alexandrovski Redoubt on a bluff at Nushagak Point in 1818. The community was known as Nushagak by 1837, when a Russian Orthodox mission was established. There the first salmon cannery in the Bristol Bay region opened in 1884.

Traditionally a Native area with Russian influences, Dillingham is now a highly mixed population of non-Natives and Natives. Commercial salmon fishing has long been the focus of the local culture and economy. Many residents depend on subsistence activities, seasonally harvesting salmon, grayling, pike, moose, bear, caribou, and berries. Fur-trapping of beaver, otter, mink, lynx and wolf provides some cash income. Tourism is a growing industry throughout the region, due to its excellent sport fishing, hunting and other wilderness recreational activities.

For more information on Dillingham and Alaska's Bristol Bay region, see:

City of Dillingham
SWAMC Bristol Bay Site
Dillingham Chamber of Commerce