Set on the saltwater in the Bay of Pillars on Kuiu Island, this rare 1.8+/- acre (78, 335+/- square feet) waterfront parcel offers an outsized sense of space in one of Southeast Alaska's most storied and seldom-traded corners. Bay of Pillars lies on the west side of Kuiu Island where it opens to Chatham Strait, surrounded by the raw, protected landscapes of the Tongass National Forest and the broaderAlexander Archipelago, giving you true "boat-access Alaska" with the kind of privacy and natural grandeur that simply cannot be recreated. What makes this offering especially compelling for a buyer who can afford to build is the combination of usable acreage and uncommon freedom: there are no building restrictions to limit your vision, allowing you to design a private retreat, a refined owner's residence with guest quarters, or a boutique lodge concept that's scaled intelligently to the site. On 1.8 acres, you can still do it rightthoughtful placement for views and weather protection, room for support structures and storage, and the ability to create a dock-and-landing experience that feels intentional and high-end from the moment guests arrive. In a market where many remote coastal sites come with constraints, this kind of flexibility is a quiet luxury, and it's the difference between simply owning waterfront and shaping a destination. The land also carries authentic history that money cannot manufacture. This shoreline is part of the old Point Ellis cannery district, where salmon packing took hold in the late 1800s; historical chronologies place Astoria & Alaska Packing Company's cannery operation at Point Ellis beginning in 1890, followed by a fire in 1892, after which the site is widely described as shifting into a saltery and later becoming associated with Pillar Bay Packing Company. Records tied to the Pillar Bay Packing Company reflect the industrial scale of that eraone licensing document for Point Ellis lists the business as a cannery and notes 30, 866 cases for the 1907 calendar yearan indication of just how significant the operation was in its time. Today, the old, dilapidated structures on the land and the weathered remnants out in the waterpilings and offshore traces of the old saltery workslend the property a rare atmosphere: a genuine Alaska sense of place, where the past is visible from the tideline and becomes part of the story you tell your family, your guests, or your clientele. Opportunities like this in Bay of Pillars almost never come up for sale, especially in a size that's manageable yet still substantial, with waterfront presence, historic character, and the freedom to build without preset restrictions. If you've been waiting for a parcel that can become a private legacy property or a polished, small-scale lodge in a bay that has been drawing working boats and wilderness travelers for well over a century, this is the kind of offering that doesn't circle back once it's gone.
