Hopefully this life-size bronze statue is the closest you’ll come to a Kodiak brown bear. The statue honors Charles Madsen, Kodiak’s pioneer-era bear-hunting guide and one of the first registered guides in Alaska. It was commissioned by his son Alf in 1957, sculpted in Seattle, housed in front of the Madsen family hotel until the 1964 earthquake and tsunami, and moved here in 2010. Rededicated in 2011, it not only honors Madsen, but also the history of guiding on the island. Pioneer guides on the island were integral in the protection of the Kodiak Brown Bear, including the formation of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.
