Seward Harbor is located on the State of Alaska's Kenai Peninsula about 200 kilometers south of Anchorage. Lying at the head of Resurrection Bay, while Seward Harbor is just 82 kilometers by air from the Port of Whittier, it is 185 nautical miles around Montague Island. Seward Harbor is also about 180 nautical miles northeast of Alaska's Port of Kodiak. In 2007, over three thousand people lived in Seward Harbor.

Seward Harbor is one of the richest fisheries port in the United States, and its ice-free port is important to the movement of freight to interior Alaska. Alaska Railroad ends in Seward Harbor, and the railroad maintains a dock for cruise vessels and a shipping terminal for shipments of coal from the interior. Seward Harbor is also the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park, and it also is near Chugach National Forest.

Seward Harbor was established in 1903 to serve as a supply base and terminus for a railroad that reached into the Yukon Valley. Since 1913, the rail line has operated as Alaska Railroad.

Seward Harbor was named for the US Secretary of State that negotiated the purchase of the Alaskan Territory from Russia. William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of over 1.5 million square kilometers for $7.2 million in 1867. Some critics called the event "Seward's Folly."

In 1964, the Great Alaska Earthquake and subsequent tsunamis destroyed almost all of Seward Harbor, including the railroad terminal.

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