FRIDAY, JUNE 14

FRIDAY, JUNE 14:

     Woke to another cloudy, cool day.  Went into town to the Parks & Rec building, where they have an indoor swimming pool and an adjacent shower room.  They allow users of the RV Park to use those showers, since there are none at the campground.  I couldn’t stand my dirty hair any longer, so we took advantage.  For sure an inconvenience to drive into town to take a long hot shower, but a small price to pay for our fantastic campground site.

    We were so impressed with the facility – a huge (Olympic size?) pool, a large weight/exercise room, and a racquetball court.  All for this town of 2,400!  They offer lots of classes and activities – Water Aerobics for Seniors, Family Pool Night, Swim Lessons for Kids, etc.  And non-pool activities:  organized group hikes and bike rides, for example.  I mentioned to the employee on my way out that Wrangell must have a very healthy tax base to be able to support such a nice facility.  She said that their general sales tax in town if 7%, but they’re having a vote this year to reduce it to 5.5% - she said they’d definitely be impacted if that passed.  She said that they have a lot of volunteers, which helps, and she added that almost every place in Alaska is heavily subsidized by federal and state funds.  I, for one, don’t begrudge any of my tax $$ going to isolated communities like this, if it helps keep them viable and healthy.

    As we were leaving, we saw about a dozen or so little kids, with a couple of young adults,  marching down the sidewalk in line, all with water clothes and life jackets.   Later in the morning, we saw them in kayaks around the harbor and bay.  Southeast Alaska’s version of  a daycare outing!

     Then went to the library again to do some more internet stuff, and got lunch again at the IGA to eat on a park bench.

    To our surprise, a small cruise ship was docked in the city dock.  Apparently some smaller (this one held 650 passengers) cruise ships do stop here for the day.  Two street corners across from the dock were dedicated to grabbing the passengers’ interests & $$ - a far cry from the multi-block assault in places like Ketchikan!  And a few little stalls were set up for kids to sell garnets they had gleaned from Garnet Ledge here outside of town off of the Stikine River.  I’d read that someone had bequeathed that area, which used to be commercially valuable, to the Presbytery of Southeast Alaska, with the stipulation that only children would be allowed to extract the garnets.  How Norman Rockwell is that!!

     Drove over to see Chief Shakes Island.  You get there by just walking over a boardwalk.  This is where the last of the Tlingits moved when the “tall ships” (European) started appearing; the Tlingits were hoping to counteract their growing presence & influence.  Chief Shakes was the revered leader of the tribe.

      In 1940, the CCC re-built the Clan House, along with some of the totems . . . the same program we saw in Ketchikan, in which Native Americans were employed to do most of the work; the longer-term goals being to generate tourism in these communities, as well as create opportunities for sustained work for Native artisans.   When completed and dedicated, it was a big deal – a huge celebration/potlatch for the entire community; outsiders arrived by boat to join in.  Then, just this year, another renovation was completed and dedicated, since the harsh Alaska climate had weathered the 1940 structure way down.   Again, descendants of the Tlingits did the work, and used traditional methods.

 

     We’d arrived just in time for a show/program which was going to take place inside the House.  The price was much more reasonable than the one we bypassed in Ketchikan - $15 each.  They didn’t take credit cards, and we had no cash with us, but the woman in charge said that she hated for anyone to miss it (they only give shows sporadically, it seems, when the cruise ships come), and we could drop by the money in a crack in the door tomorrow.  Again – a parallel universe from a different time and place!

     The show itself was comprised of some traditional singing, chanting, and dancing, along with some explanatory narrative.  Lots of emphasis on strong drums.   It was ok – nothing great.  But nice to see young people getting involved, mixing in with some older ones.  They were clearly proud of   what they were doing.  (They allowed no photos taken inside.)

     Went to a lovely little park nearby Chief Shakes Island, with 3 or 4 totem poles.

 

 

 

 

          

  Unlike Ketchikan, where there were 3 or 4 places where the totem poles were concentrated, Wrangell’s totems are scattered throughout the town.  A nice one by the Post Office (which residents see a lot, since there is no street delivery of mail here – everyone picks up their mail at the  Post Office.   Norman Rockwell lives on!

     Came on home.  The clouds has mostly broken up by now.  Fixed a simple dinner, and walked Pappy.  We saw 2 or 3 boats which were loading up crab traps – lots of them, so obviously for commercial trapping -  and ran into a couple of guys who were just getting off crabbing boats.  One said that the “best part of the year was just starting.”  So this must be the start of crabbing season. 

     Someone had left a bunch of firewood in the fire ring here, so we made a little fire.  Didn’t fix s’mores or pie, though – just enjoyed the fire on a chilly Alaskan night, with the clearing sky turning a soft pink.