The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association reports that Nikolski is thought to be one of the oldest continuously-occupied communities in the world. Archaeological evidence from Ananiuliak Island, 5 km offshore in Nikolski Bay, dates human habitation to 8,500 years ago. A site known as Chaluka in Nikolski shows 4,000 years of virtually continuous occupation. Subsistence activities, sheep and cattle raising, and fishing are the main livelihoods and the latter has been traced back thousands of years by archaeologists, through analysis of midden sites and fish hook designs in the 1960s. Previous activities from the 1800s included sea otter hunting and fox farming. A sheep ranch was established in 1926 as part of the Aleutian Livestock Company and there are thousands on the island today. In the early 1900s the residents purchased a large fishing boat with money made from those activities, the Umnak Native, but it was wrecked in 1933.