Homer is situated at the base of a narrow spit that juts over four miles into beautiful Kachemak Bay, with pristine glaciers and snowcapped mountains in the near distance. Homer was named for Homer Pennock, a gold mining company promoter, who arrived in 1896 on the Homer spit and built living quarters for his crew of 50 men. However, gold mining was never profitable in the area. Homer was later used as the coal-mining headquarters for Alaska. Today Homer is an eclectic community filled with a thriving group of artists, sculptors, actors and writers. The harbor contains both deep and shallow water docks and serves up to 1500 commercial and pleasure boats at its summer peak.