A history of Homer,
since 1964
Postcards, papers and photographs of Homer from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Tiller digs indicate that early Alutiiq people probably camped in the Homer area, including on the Homer Spit, although their villages were on the far side of Kachemak Bay. The area has been inhabited by humans for around 8,000 years.
Coal was discovered in the area in the 1890s. The Cook Inlet Coal Fields Company built a town, dock, coal mine, and railroad at Homer. Coal mining in the area continued and was the main pillar of the economy until World War II. An estimated 400 million tons of coal deposits were still present in the area as of 1959.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Homer’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
3 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewTown of Homer, Cook Inlet, Alaska…, 1899: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Homer
See all 5 →
Homer, decade by decade
1950s
1990s
1 historic place in Homer
1 place in Homer is on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Town of Homer, Cook Inlet, Alaska, June 1899 (1899) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.