Off-Grid Communities in Alaska

Aleneva is the only permanent settlement on Afognak Island, founded by Russian Old Believers who relocated north from Woodburn, Oregon in the late twentieth century. No roads connect it to anywhere…

Chicken is a gold rush settlement at mile 65 of the Taylor Highway, established around 1898 and one of the few surviving camps of that era still occupied. There is no electricity grid, no plumbing…

Edna Bay is the only populated town on Kosciusko Island and one of the newest cities in Alaska, incorporated in 2014. It has no road connection and no certificated electric utility, so households…

McCarthy sits at the end of a 60 mile gravel road inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and it is not connected to any electrical grid. Homes and businesses run on their own diesel…

Point Baker occupies the northern tip of Prince of Wales Island in a protected harbor opening onto Sumner Strait, with no road connection and no community electrical grid. The settlement is built on…

Port Alexander sits at the southern tip of Baranof Island with no roads in or out and no municipal electricity. Diesel generators run everything, which puts conservation at the center of daily life…

Port Protection is a fishing community in a sheltered harbor on the northern end of Prince of Wales Island, reachable only by boat or floatplane. No community-wide grid exists, so households run…

Skwentna lies on the south bank of the Skwentna River where it meets Eight Mile Creek, off the Alaska road system entirely. Residents travel by air, boat and snowmachine, and the community carries…

Wiseman is an off-grid community with no electric utility service, just off mile 189 of the Dalton Highway well north of the Arctic Circle. Wind turbines and solar panels power the cabins, and 29 of…