The Klawock Heenya Corp. is partnering with Huna Totem Corp. to bring larger cruise ships to the community of Klawock, on the west side of Prince of Wales Island.
Mary Edenshaw is chief operations officer for Klawock Heenya, the village Native corporation for Klawock. She says small cruise ships have docked at the city float previously. The larger ships will tie up at an existing dock on Klawock Island owned by Klawock Heenya.
“It was used in the past for exporting logs and the huge log ships that would come in. They would dock there. And so we’re going to convert that into a cruise dock port,” Edenshaw said.
She says Huna Totem Corp. reached out to Klawock Heenya wanting to add the community as a destination, along the lines of Icy Strait Point in Hoonah, which Huna Totem also owns.. Edenshaw says the plan is to start out small with ships that carry between 500 and 700 passengers.
“This is going to be a process to include larger vessels down the road, but we will build a float that will attach to the existing structure that we have right now.”
She says some cruise lines have already agreed to add Klawock to future itineraries, but because plans are still under development, Edenshaw did not give additional details, other than that the first ships will arrive in Klawock in summer 2023.
