Ketchican, Alaska - June 29, 2018

Let's talk about Alaska for a moment. First, Alaska is big, really big; I never truly grasped that. Everyone knows it is the USA's largest state. But actually being in Alaska causes one to get a more realistic understanding of its size. Its footprint is twice the size of Texas but most of the area is uninhabitable. Much of the mass is ice and rugged, and its unsurmountable mountains magnifies the feeling of big lands. In the vast expanse of Alaska only a little over 700,000 humans make it their home. The big mainland is what we normally conger up in our minds but its entire west coast is made up of islands. On our "Alaskan" cruise, we stepped foot on mainland only once in Juneau. The other ports were island towns and our entire "inside passage" cruise took place amidst a string of islands on the very most southern part of Alaska. We were barely out of British Vancouver.

In the early times, mining and fur trapping/trading were major industries. But these endeavors are things of the past. The intense demand for the rich, sea otter pelt caused Russians to nearly wipe out the breed in the late 1700's. Honestly, I can almost understand the over-trapping; the fur is fine, dense, and extremely soft. The fur trade business ultimately ended. Like in California, the gold rush came and went. It ended in the earl 1900's. Of the cities we visited, Juneau was the most prosperous, fueled, I think, mainly by state government affair offices. The other town/locations were a bit sad. Yes, fishing is an important industry still today, but there are no canneries or processing plants so income/employment sources are narrow. Primary industries today are commercial fishing and tourism. Towns like Sitka and Ketchican depended on forestry for many years in recent times. Their primary market was in Japan and the Japanese took all they could produce. Towns thrived. Then in the 1990's the Japanese said, enough; we have enough. The industry died and so did the jobs.

There is government help. All residents of Alaska who have lived in the state at least one calendar year receive annual payments from their oil wealth trust fund. The payments can vary but they average around $2000 as the annual payout. Although it is impossible to live on $2000 per person per year, the Alaska Permanent Fund helps to keep some Alaskan residents out of poverty. How do people get along in this beautiful but harsh and expensive place? People work, they hunt and they fish. People here eat what they kill or catch and they shop just like everyone else - it's just that their stores have limited supply. People we talked with take great pride in smoking their salmon, making their own wild huckleberry and salmonberry jams and putting up their own food.

Over the course of our entire cruise, we saw only a tiny corner of Alaska. It was just an introduction. There is so much more there and I hope to return to see the other side of the state and get to view the magnificent Denali someday. I have high school friends who live in Anchorage far to the west and north of the places we visited. Still they are on the far south of this enormously great state. I can tell from her photos their weather is less rainy and far more conducive for growing vegetables. She posts photos of cabbages as big as basketballs and beets like softballs. On clear days, she also can see Denali from her window. Yes, I want to see that, but unlike some places that one must see before it goes away or changes in character, I have a feeling the state will always be the "last American Frontier;" rustic, rugged, and Mother Nature in fine glory.

Ketchican was our last Alaskan port. What a cute but sad little town. Hit hard by the demise of the forestry industries, people and stores are leaving the town. I think their current economy is based on government work, commercial fishing and tourism. Thank goodness for cruise ship visits, I guess. As we drove through town, our tour guide kept pointing out empty building after building, saying that used to be this; or that building used to be that. Looking for wildlife, he took us first to an area near a salmon fishery. Smart guy, when there are lots of young fish, there are lots of animals who thrive on fish. Talk about eagles! They were almost like crows or even buzzards! A flock of about 15 or so bald eagles were in one tree and counting others on nearby trees, we saw probably more than 20. Some were just perched in the tree calling to each other; some were maneuvering from branch to branch looking for the best spot for spying on prey or just to be king of the hill. Some were soaring. Speaking of their call, I always imagined the bald eagle call to be bold, powerful and frightful. Nope, they chirp and tweet like sparrows.

As we watched the eagles, someone whispered "bear." We all moved to the vantage point on a nearby bridge. Below the bridge, across the meadow and on the other side of a creek in tall green damp grass sat a black bear! It wasn't huge so I think it was probably a young one. He stayed in the area a good while just sitting and meandering around perhaps looking for a snack of insects in a log. We watched. After a while, a group of noisy tourists who had no idea they were approaching a bear, rounded the corner and scared him away. But what a thrill!!! Over the course of our Alaskan journey we encountered humpback whales, minke whales, an orca, white sided dolphin, sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions, eagles, a family of mountain goats, a salmon being caught by an eagle and now, a bear! What a thrill!!!

Next we visited Potlatch Park, an out of the way reproduction of a Haida Clan house and totem poles. It is said to be the best collection of totem poles around. Potlatch Totem Park features its own large clan house, flanked by four smaller clan houses and a totem carving shed. All the exhibits were tourist friendly in that visitors could actually touch the totems and walk through the clan house reproduction and smell the aroma of smoked cedar. Entire family clans lived together in these clan houses and each interior was hand-carved in an intricate fashion and colored, depicting history and nature. Made to be mobile, when the clan regularly relocated for better hunting or better weather, the clan houses were dismantled and reconstructed in the new place.

There were plenty of totem poles throughout, too, with the tallest reaching a height of 42 feet - that's big. Many were painted, but we were told that originally, totem poles were not colored. Most totems depict crude animals that symbolize guardian spirits who watched over the clan.

Back in town, we took advantage of a bit of time left and our last opportunity to have real Alaskan King crab. Ouch! One would think that locally caught crab might be less expensive than crab shipped to Georgia, or in place in continental USA. Wrong! It was the most expensive, delicious "appetizer" we've ever had!!!