Port Walter is located on the southeastern side of Baranof Island in Sitka City and Borough, Alaska. It is made up of two parts: Little Port Walter and Big Port Walter. Little Port Walter was the home of a herring saltery during the turn on the century and the ruins can still be seen. Little Port Walter had a small community at one time but has been replaced by a research station that studies the life cycles of several species of salmon. There is a staff of 3–15 state and federal employees running the research station year-round. There is a dock, and the harbor itself is a safe anchorage.

Climate

Little Port Walter has an oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) that borders a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc), with only four months having average temperatures above 50 F. It receives an average annual precipitation of over 226 in and as such is the wettest permanent settlement in the United States and among the wettest in the world with lengthy climate records. As many as seventy-eight days per year see over 1 in of rain and/or snowfall per year, while in October 1974 69.23 in of rain fell and in January 1985 61.67 in. The record daily precipitation was 14.84 in on 6 December 1964. The driest month was February 1989 with 0.63 in, while the hottest day on record was August 12 of 1990 with 88 F and the coldest January 2 of 1966 with 0 F overnight. The heaviest snowfall in a month was 94.2 in in December 2001.

Demographics

Port Walter appeared once on the 1940 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village of 21 residents. This was actually referring to "Big Port Walter." It has not reported again on the census, and was later annexed into Sitka.