For a seemingly quiet little port about 40 miles from Wasilla, Port MacKenzie has a lot going on. From hosting participants in a military training exercise to being the jumping-off point for construction projects in western Alaska, the port maintains a hum of activity.
With large projects looming in Alaska—including a possible LNG pipeline from the North Slope; the West Susitna Access Road that would open up state land west of the Susitna River; a possible coal mine near Skwentna and other, nearer-term critical mineral mining efforts in the West Susitna area; and the completion of a railroad spur line from the Houston area south to the port—supporters hope that hum will soon sound more like a steady roar of activity.
“The exciting thing about Port MacKenzie is that we’re, in many ways, a diamond in the rough,” says Matanuska-Susitna Borough Port Director David Griffin. “We’ve barely scratched the surface of our possibilities.”
A Solid Bench
Last year, during the international military training exercise Arctic Edge 2025, roughly 200 military members from the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard camped at the port for about four weeks, Griffin says, training for disaster relief operations…