Editing Excursion Inlet, Alaska (section)

==History==
Excursion Inlet was originally an [[Alaska Native]] settlement, one of several locations where the Huna Tlingit<ref>{{Cite web|date=February 3, 2019|title=Early Peoples of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve|url=https://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/historyculture/early-peoples.htm|access-date=December 9, 2021|website=National Park Service}}</ref> dispersed around 1750 ([[Little Ice Age]]) when the glaciers of present day [[Glacier Bay Basin]] advanced into Icy Strait.<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 21, 2017|title=Glacier Bay's Glacial History|url=https://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/nature/glacier-bay-s-glacial-history.htm|access-date=December 9, 2021|website=National Park Service}}</ref> Excursion Inlet has had a fishing [[cannery]] since 1891. The current plant, constructed in 1918, still functions to this day. It mostly processes pink and chum salmon, as well as salmon roe, salmon caviar, halibut and sablefish. It is located near the mouth of the inlet, about {{convert|40|mi}} west of [[Juneau, Alaska|Juneau]]. Its seasons run from late June to mid-September. Excursion Inlet Cannery is one of the largest fish canneries in the world and was acquired by Ocean Beauty Seafoods in 2003.

[[File:Cannery of the Pacific American Fisheries, Excursion Inlet, ALaska, June 11, 1911 (COBB 155).jpeg|thumb|Pacific American Fisheries cannery at Excursion Inlet, June 1911]]
During the early stages of American involvement in [[World War II]], the [[United States Army]] built a major [[barge]] terminal at Excursion Inlet. Capable of handling large ocean-going cargo ships and intended to be manned by thousands of soldiers, the terminal was built to serve as a logistics base for the Army's [[Aleutian Islands Campaign|efforts to liberate the Aleutian Islands]] from their Japanese invaders. However, by the time the terminal was completed in late 1943, the Aleutian Campaign was effectively over, and the terminal had no evident future purpose. When the facility's existence became public knowledge in early 1945, newspapers decried it as a wasteful boondoggle, and the Army opted to quietly shut it down. German [[prisoners of war]] were later brought in to dismantle the base and salvage usable materials. The docks and some of the buildings were sold to the cannery and remain standing today.<ref name=SITNews>[http://www.sitnews.us/Kiffer/POWCamp/021715_prisoners_of_war.html "German POWs helped dismantle SE Alaska's 'White Elephant'"]. Kiffer, Dave. [[SITNews]], February 17, 2015</ref>