Other settlements include the villages of Akhiok, Old Harbor, Karluk, Larsen Bay, Port Lions, and an unorganized community near Cape Chiniak.

An antenna farm at the summit of Pillar Mountain above the city of Kodiak provides primary communications to and from the island.

[3]: 162–163  In 1792, the settlement was moved to the site of present-day Kodiak and became the center of Russian fur trading with the Alaska Natives.

In 1793, Grigory Shelikhov, with the help of the governor-general of Irkutsk, was given twenty craftsmen and ten families of farmers with the obligation of paying government taxes for them, for promoting successful development of Russia-America settlements and the establishment of shipyards and factories.

[4] In 1784, Shelikhov, along with 130 Russian fur traders, massacred (see Awa'uq Massacre) several hundred Qik’rtarmiut Sugpiat ("Sugpiaq people of Qik’rtaq/Kodiak") tribe of Alutiiq men, women and children at Refuge Rock, a tiny stack island off the eastern coast of Sitkalidak Island.

[7] The Orthodox mission in Russian America was authorized by Catherine II in 1793, and then was established on Kodiak Island in 1794 by a group of monks from the Valaam Monastery in Saint Petersburg.

[7] The Alutiiq suffered starvation and physical separation of families because of the able-bodied men hunting and trapping furs rather than providing food for the women, young, old, and sick as they had done traditionally.

[9] In 1837–1839, a smallpox epidemic swept through all the Russian America territory and destroyed an estimated one-third of the Native population.

[7] The remaining Alutiiq on Kodiak Island were then consolidated into seven settlements where they were more readily offered medical, educational, and religious services by the Russian-American Company.

Darkness and suffocating conditions caused by the falling ash and sulfur dioxide gas rendered villagers helpless with sore eyes and respiratory problems.

[12] The island was also hit by the 1964 Good Friday earthquake and tsunami, which destroyed much of the waterfront, the business district, and several villages.

The University of Alaska Anchorage has a 50-acre (20-hectare) campus which opened in 1968, located about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) northwest of the City of Kodiak.

[16] The Pasagshak River State Recreation Site is a 25 acres (10 ha) park with a small campground and access to some of the island's best salmon and trout fishing.