The Last of Alaska!

On Wednesday the rain returned with gusto. With the scenery cloaked in heavy clouds and the colorful harbor grayed by the drizzly weather, we decided to take in the Valdez Museum. This museum offers the history of the Valdez area beginning with the Native Alaskans who used the Keystone Canyon as a trading route through the 1989 oil spill by Exxon. Little is known about how long the Valdez area and port were used by Athabascans, but evidence exists that show their ancestors have lived nearby for at least 8000 years. We saw exhibits of native artifacts like a seal gut raincoat, a traditional baidarka (kayak) paddle and a spear with a copper point.

Gold rusher's cabin

Next we found a log cabin exhibit displaying the typical furnishings of a turn-of-the-century gold rusher's camp, complete with a cloth-covered stump used as a chair. The Valdez Glacier route was touted, like other routes, as being easier and faster to the Klondike gold fields. Actually, it was neither. John Bourke, one of the first gold rushers through the area, noted that Valdez was no more than a few tents staked down on a snowy bank next to the water when he first arrived. Within three months, however, the population soared to 4000 people, mostly transients on their way to the gold fields. The path took gold rushers zigzagging up the steep icy slope of the glacier and then up an almost vertical wall of ice. Many either gave up and sold out, turned their attention to the copper deposits nearby or died trying.

After the end of the gold and copper rushes, Valdez settled into a quieter town of people mostly making a living either from the bounty of the sea, freight handling at the docks, or in transportation to the interior. By 1964, several hundred people lived in Old Valdez when the earthquake struck on March 27th. With the violent shaking of the water-saturated ground underneath, Old Valdez dropped in elevation some 9 feet and shifted about 30 feet sideways. After sinking, the high tide began to flood the streets and the buildings every 6 hours, causing more problems for the citizens, until the town was condemned and subsequently moved to the new townsite in 1967.

Pinzon bar

We saw the original Pinzon bar from the Old Valdez Hotel. The beautiful wood bars were built in the late 1880s and eventually moved to Valdez in the 1920s. During prohibition holes were drilled for the installation of soda fountain pumps, which were quickly covered with a brass plating after the repeal of prohibition. The huge, ornately carved bars, made by the Brunswick Company (better known for their pool tables), were generously donated to the museum for preservation when the hotel was abandoned.

A fair portion of the museum described the causes for and aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in 1989. The captain of the oil tanker had been drinking and passed command of the ship over to a 3rd mate not authorized to guide it through the area. While trying to avoid large ice chunks in the shipping channel by changing course, the 3rd mate inadvertently steered the ship too close to the islands to the east. It struck Bligh reef, causing the largest oil spill in North American history.

Exxon Valdez oil spill

With the gale force winds of a hurricane coming only 3 days later, the extent of damage quickly escalated as the oil drifted westward along the Alaskan coastline. Millions of birds, sea otters, sea lions, whales, and other animals were immediately impacted and either died soon after or during all the handling while rescue workers rushed to clean and save them. Of those that were released successfully back into nature, little is known about their survival rates though most opinions are grim. According to a film we watched at the museum, the rift in the community is still raw between those that worked for the oil company and those that believed Exxon paid too small a price for the accident and clean up.

We returned to the RV for dinner and spent the rest of the evening watching the Olympics on TV and the rain outside. Not only did we not see the moon tonight, there was no sun all day either. Boo. Hiss.

On Thursday morning, we loaded up the car and readied the RV in the rain, of course. As we drove north through Keystone Canyon and over Thompson Pass, the fog accompanied us the entire way. About an hour and 50 miles or so later the rain slowed and we could make out some of the features of the landscape around us. Once we reached Copper Center, the road began to follow the western edge of the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park.

Athabascan Fish Wheel

We stopped in to the park's visitor center just south of Glennallen since it had been closed when we were on our way south a week ago. We first toured the Ahtna Heritage Foundation Cultural Center, an exhibit and explanation of the culture and significance of the area to the Ahtna Athabascan people. We learned about how the salmon is a staple of their diet, as well as about how various plants are used as medicines or food. Just outside the building is a fish wheel, an ingenious contraption introduced to the Athabascans at the beginning of the 20th century. The fish wheel operates by the flow of the river turning its two baskets, much like a waterwheel at a grist mill, only slower. The salmon, unable to see because of the glacial silt in the fast moving river, swim into one of the baskets which then drops them into a hopper when that basket is next lifted into the air by the turning of the wheel. Only Native Alaskans who live by subsistence fishing may use a fish wheel, which is a good thing since they are very efficient.

Salmon lifecycle exhibit

Next, we watched the park film 'Crown of a Continent', a sweeping view of the grandeur of the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park. Within its 13 million acres of land, the Malaspina Glacier is larger than the state of Rhode Island, just one among the thousands of other smaller glaciers. According to the park brochure, the Malaspina carries so much glacial silt that plants and trees grow along its extremities only to topple over the edge when it melts. And, of the four major ranges that traverse the park, the Wrangell Mountain range is larger than the state of Connecticut. The entire park is larger than Switzerland and with taller mountains, and it encompasses the largest complex of protected glaciers on the continent. Beyond that, over 1000 miles of free-flowing glacial rivers crisscross the park. Wow.

Display about glacial flour

Mining history of the Copper Valley Basin

The exhibit hall's displays highlight the animals, geology, and human uses of the Wrangell-St.Elias area. Mining interests and subsistence hunters share the park's land with Dall sheep, moose, bears, pika, ground squirrels and bald eagles, while the subduction of the Pacific plate under the North American tectonic plate cause the park's mountains to inch skyward. Wrangell Mountain is the only active volcano in the chain, last erupting in 1900, but continuing to vent steam even today.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

As we continued north after our lunch in the parking lot of the visitor center, we could barely make out the Wrangell Mountains through the drizzle and under the thick blanket of clouds, not nearly as scenic as we had seen only a week ago. Farther on, the rain cleared and the sun began to shine, illuminating bits of the green hillsides. Braided rivers and small streams snaked their way through the spruce, alder and cottonwood trees. Little pools of water and small lakes dotted the greenery with the reflection of the cloudy sky. As we neared Chistochina we could see a kaleidoscope of greens blanketing the landscape. What a view it would be in sunshine.

Pancake tossing

We pulled into Tok at the Sourdough Campground where we had stayed 5 weeks ago. Determined to participate in the pancake toss this time, we headed out at 7pm to do just that. Dave, the owner, explained the rules after lugging out a tray full of cold pancakes for the crowd to throw into a bucket. The rules were loosely applied and Dave offered a third throw to several folks, and everyone had a great time. Neither Ken nor I were successful, like the overwhelming majority of the pancake tossers. The silver medal for Olympic pancake tossing was split between a Canadian woman and a German woman, with the gold medal going to 8 year old Molly from good old USA. The bronze went to a 16 year old German guy who dunked his pancake on the first throw (which doesn't count, according to Dave's rules, though he gave him a token anyway). Each of these sporting folks won themselves a free breakfast of sourdough pancakes and reindeer sausage, though I imagine many of their families will pay for the breakfast and join them, as will we.

Pancake selection

We returned to the RV for dinner and then headed back to the bonfire for marshmallow roasting. With the blood letting swift and unrelenting, we limited ourselves to one each before running back to the safety of the RV from the mosquitoes. (Even Dave said one bit his leg through his jeans. Yikes.)

As we readied the RV to leave Alaska in the morning, we reminisced about our 6 weeks spent in the state. We've had so much fun, covered so much area and seen and done so many things here. What a great trip (though we're already scripting 'Alaska 2.0 -- The Sequel'). Yay!