Homer

History

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. Homer was named for Homer Pennock, a gold mining company promoter, who arrived in 1896 on the Homer Spit and built living quarters for his crew of 50 men and one woman. However, gold mining was never profitable in the area. Another earlier settlement, Miller's Landing, was named after Charles Miller, who homesteaded in the area around 1915. According to local historian Janet Klein, he was an employee of the Alaska Railroad and had wintered company horses on the beach grasses on the Homer Spit. He built a landing site in a small bight in Kachemak Bay, where supply barges from Seldovia could land and offload their cargos. Miller's landing was legally considered a census-designated place separate from Homer until it was annexed in 2002, but has always been locally considered part of Homer. Commercial fishing became an important economic activity in the early 1900s, and today halibut and salmon sport fishing, along with tourism and commercial fishing, are the dominant industries. Homer co-hosted the 2006 Arctic Winter Games. The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve co-host a visitor center with interpretive displays known as the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center, and a cultural…

Geography

Homer is located at 59°38'35" North, 151°31'33" West (59.643059, −151.525900). The only road into Homer is the Sterling Highway. The town has a total area of , of which are land and are covered by water. Homer is on the shore of Kachemak Bay on the southwest side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its distinguishing feature is the Homer Spit, a narrow long gravel bar that extends into the bay, on which is located the Homer Harbor. Much of the coastline, as well as the Homer Spit, sank dramatically during the Good Friday earthquake in March 1964. After the earthquake, very little vegetation was able to survive on the Homer Spit. As with much of South-central Alaska, Homer has a moderate subarctic mediterranean climate (Köppen: Dsc), which causes its weather to be moderate compared to interior Alaska. Winters are snowy and long, but not particularly cold, considering the latitude, with the average January high only slightly below freezing. The annual snowfall averages per season, falling primarily from November through March, with some accumulation in October and April but rarely in May. Homer receives only about 25 inches of rainfall annually due to the influence of the Chugach Mountains to the southeast, which shelter it from the Gulf of Alaska. As of 2023, Homer falls within USDA Hardiness Zone 6B. Seven days have a minimum or below annually. The coldest day of the year averaged in the 1991 to 2020 normals, while the warmest night average was at . The coldest daytime maximum on record is on January 28, 1989, while, conversely, the record warm daily minimum is on August 9, 1971, and August 23, 1963.(average snowfall/snow days 1981–2010) |source 2 = Weather Atlas (sun and uv) }} {|style="width:100%;text-align:center;line-height:1.2em;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto"…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Bald Eagle

  Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  7,561
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  6,182
• Glaucous-winged Gull

  Larus glaucescens J.F.Naumann, 1840 · Aves
  4,931
• Black-legged Kittiwake

  Rissa tridactyla (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,644
• Short-billed Gull

  Larus brachyrhynchus Richardson, 1831 · Aves
  3,596
• Black-billed Magpie

  Pica hudsonia (Sabine, 1823) · Aves
  3,149
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,997
• Common Loon

  Gavia immer (Brunnich, 1764) · Aves
  2,745

Largest nearby schools

• Homer High School
  High · Homer · 368 students · 16.7:1 ratio
• West Homer Elementary
  Elementary · Homer · 216 students · 12.7:1 ratio
• Paul Banks Elementary
  Elementary · Homer · 184 students · 12.3:1 ratio
• Homer Middle School
  Middle · Homer · 178 students · 13.7:1 ratio
• Fireweed Academy
  Elementary · Homer · 107 students · 15.3:1 ratio
• Homer Flex School
  High · Homer · 36 students · 12:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2026-10-01
  23 km NW of Nanwalek, Alaska
• M 3 — 2026-10-01
  38 km WNW of Anchor Point, Alaska
• M 2.7 — 2026-09-28
  13 km NNW of Ninilchik, Alaska
• M 3.6 — 2026-09-28
  42 km WSW of Anchor Point, Alaska
• M 2.6 — 2026-09-27
  65 km ENE of Pedro Bay, Alaska
• M 2.8 — 2026-09-23
  56 km WNW of Anchor Point, Alaska