Kenai visitor center revitalizes peninsula’s ‘rich history’

Published 9:30 pm Tuesday, January 14, 2025

The Kenai Cultural Center, a museum-like exhibition space inside the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center, opened a new exhibition this week for the first time in more than 30 years. The revitalized vision for the space describes monthly rotation of exhibits and a speaker series.

In the center this month is an exhibit titled “Early Kenai from 8,000BC to 1,700AD.”

Filling the space are displays of tools, clothing, baskets, animal bones, a model home and more with roots in Dena’ina culture, the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, and other Alaska Native populations from the Kenai Peninsula and beyond.

Next month the center will showcase “Russian Alaska,” then coming months will cover education, fish, business, mushing, the military, oil and others.

Each month will also feature a speaker, kicking off Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. with Dr. Adam Dunstan, professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College. He’ll give a presentation titled “Water and Land Connections in Pre-Colonial Kahtnu.”

Since July, Danielle Lopez Stamm has served as the cultural center coordinator at the chamber, work that she said Wednesday meant updating and digitizing files, identifying archived items that lacked key information, upgrading storage and developing new exhibit and lesson plans. Her position was added and funded by the City of Kenai in a new contract with the Kenai Chamber of Commerce for management of the Kenai Visitor and Cultural Center, which was approved by the Kenai City Council in March and extends for three years, with the option to extend for five, through June 2029.

Among the important considerations to be taken when organizing exhibits in the cultural center, Stamm said, is that the items and depictions are appropriate, accurate and respectful to the local tribes and other organizations.

“Our mission is to preserve and promote the diverse history, culture and art of Kenai and throughout Alaska,” she said. “Items that can be found in our collection include archaeological artifacts — many of which you’ve seen on display today — oral history transcripts, early homesteading tools, taxidermy pieces, geological samples, photographs and much more.”

Stamm said she holds a degree in anthropology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and specializes in oral history — which is set to be the focus of May’s exhibit where she’ll be the featured speaker.

Another addition to the cultural center spotlighted by Stamm is an increased focus on children — who often aren’t interested in a museum. The cultural center includes a “kid zone” with activities for kids and Stamm said she has ensured that exhibits include items for children — like this month showing “what children their age would have been wearing and doing during that time.”

The center is working to receive museum accreditation and to organize as a nonprofit educational entity, Stamm said. Before this week’s opening, the last “true rotation” of exhibits in the center was in 1993.

Samantha Springer, executive director for the chamber, credited the work of revitalizing the cultural center to Stamm.

“This is 100% her work and her dedication to doing something that was unattainable for a long time,” Springer said. “There are over 4,000 artifacts in this building that have not rotated.”

Kenai Mayor Brian Gabriel said that there was an effort to see more done with the cultural center when he first joined Kenai’s city council over a decade ago. That effort began and ended with taking inventory of the items in storage — which still weren’t displayed.

“To see this come to life is very gratifying for us,” he said. “The City of Kenai and our visitors, the people that come here, want to know the rich history that we have.”

For more information about exhibits and speakers, find “Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center” on Facebook or visit kenaichamber.org/cultural-center.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/peninsulaclarion.

2025 Cultural Center exhibits

January: Early Kenai from 8,000BC to 1,700AD

February: Russian Alaska – Arrival to Present

March: Later Kenai from 1800AD to Present

April: Education in the Kenai Peninsula

May: Oral Histories and Biographies of Kenai’s People

June: Fish, Water, and Maritime Legends and History of the Kenai Peninsula

July: Businesses in Kenai: From Fur Trapping to Canneries and More

August: Mushing Throughout Kenai’s History – From Mail Runs to the Iditarod

September: Food and Subsistence Throughout Kenai’s History

October: Kenai’s Natural History

November: Military Presence and History in the Kenai Peninsula

December: Oil and Gold in Kenai