This community of 2,347 is situated on the edge of the wilderness, just south of Wood-Tikchik State Park, the largest state park in the country. Dillingham is located 327 miles southwest of Anchorage and is surrounded by rolling tundra with ridges of spruce and birch trees.
Dillingham is a full service community that welcomes both the commercial fishing industry and a sizeable number of tourists during the summer. Visitors are drawn by the recreation opportunities in Wood-Tikchik State Park and the area’s reputation for having some of the best sportfishing in Alaska. All five species of Pacific salmon along with freshwater rainbow trout, arctic char and Dolly Varden are abundant in the Wood and Tikchik systems of lakes and rivers.
Wood-Tikchik State Park is spread over 1.6 million acres and named for its two separate systems of large, interconnected clear-water lakes. Bordered by the Nushagak lowlands on the east and the Wood River Mountains to the west, the two systems of lakes span a variety of terrain and are renowned for their diverse beauty. Other than 11 fishing and hunting lodges in and around the park, Wood-Tikchik is an undeveloped wilderness that attracts kayakers, canoers, rafters and boaters. Visitors are usually totally self-sufficient and reach the park by air taxi from Dillingham or charter boat from the village of Aleknagik on Lake Aleknagik, 25 miles north of Dillingham and connected to the city by road.
Also famous for walruses is Walrus Islands State Game Sanctuary, a group of seven craggy islands and their adjacent waters located in northern Bristol Bay southwest of Dillingham. Best know among the Walrus Islands is Round Island, the largest haul-out grounds in Alaska, where each summer 15,000 male walruses haul out on exposed, rocky beaches to stake out their territory for the upcoming mating season. Other wildlife is also plentiful on this remote island including Steller sea lions, migrating whales, orcas, puffins and thousands of other seabirds.
Strategically situated at the head of Nushagak Bay and along the mouth of the Wood and Nushagak rivers, Dillingham has become the economic and transportation hub of western Bristol Bay. Thanks to the rich fisheries of Bristol Bay, Dillingham is the fastest growing community in the region, supporting 230 commercial fishing licenses and four fish processing plants whose workers double the city’s population in the summer.
Dillingham is also the hub for many of the air taxis that operate within Togiak National Wildlife Refuge. The 4.7-million-acre refuge encompasses pristine rivers, clear mountain lakes and steep sloped mountains, stretching from the restless Bering Sea to the treeless tundra uplands of the Ahklun and Wood River Mountains. The main activities in the refuge are float trips and sport fishing as Togiak offers some of the finest salmon and trout fishing in Alaska as habitat to all five Pacific salmon species. The refuge also provides habitat for at least 201 staging, migrating or breeding bird species while brown bear, moose and caribou attract sport hunters to the area. Along Togiak's coastline up to 12,000 male walrus may haul out on Cape Pierce at one time.