It was on this day, March 17th, 1912, that after 33 years, the contingent of Marines stationed in Sitka, would be pulled out. The reason for the Corps abandoning their station there was that the Navy had stopped using the location for a coaling station. Feeling that there was no further direct need in the territory, the station was turned over to the local government.

In the Corp’s time in Sitka, a barracks had been built to house them. With no further use for the barracks, in the next year, the building was repurposed as the Sitka Pioneer Home.

The Marines would leave the territory and not return until 1939 as tensions in the Pacific began to heat up prior to WWII. A Naval Station was built on Japonski Island.

  barracks, marines, sitka