THURSDAY,
JUNE 20:
Woke up
with a start when we realized that it was 8:15; we’d wanted to get to town
early to catch a guy who sells freshly-caught shrimp in the harbor a couple of mornings
a week. Scott (our LeConte Glacier
guide) said that it was Thursdays & Sundays. So we quickly got dressed, skipped breakfast,
and drove to town. Went down to the dock
where Scott said he would be, and looked for his boat, the Saga. We asked a couple of
people; they all knew exactly whom we were looking for, even his name. One person thought he had been there
yesterday. So maybe he varies his
days. Anyway, he wasn’t there today.
Walked to
the ferry terminal & booked passage from Sitka to Juneau. Then drove into “downtown” to find a nice
Scandinavian bakery for breakfast. The
closest we could find was a a coffee shop with a few baked goods.
Then started exploring the town on foot. The town was founded in the 1898, several
years later than Wrangell, by a Norwegian who saw an opportunity in commercial
fishing & processing (especially salmon), with the natural harbor and the
ice up in LeConte Bay. The town still
proudly exhibits much of its Norwegian heritage, and is often referred to as
“Little Norway”; the high school moniker is the Vikings.
. It’s
likewise proud of its long history with the sea.
Is this sign a Norwegian joke??
The seafood processors employ about 1,100 people
during the summer season. Scott told us
that hundreds of seasonal workers come here to work in the main cannery. They used to be largely Eastern European
(e.g., Lithuanian), but alleged mistreatment in another part of the country
recently put an end to that Visa program.
So now, they’re depending on some of the same source for workers as
California’s inland valley (i.e., Mexican migrant workers). They work 12+ hour
shifts, on their feet, doing nothing but
cleaning & slicing fish, for minimum wage.
Plus, they’re required to live in company-sponsored housing (like
dorms). Sounds like a throwback to the
meat-packing days, albeit with much tighter safety regulations.
Walked a
short trail which started in town and went through some forest &
muskeg. It crossed a road, and we were
just starting to cross over when a car stopped, and the driver wanted to make
sure we knew where the trail was headed.
Then she just invited us to jump in, and she’d drive us to the other
end, and we could walk our way back here.
She’s been here in Petersburg since 1960, she said. She certainly looked like she could be
Scandinavian – blue eyes, light complexion. Lots of lovely gardens in her
neighborhood – the long hours of sunshine surely make for some beautiful
blooms!
Was a
nice walk back. Cooler today than the
last couple, and with lots more cloud cover – not much blue sky today. We wonder if the nearly 2-week stretch of
beautiful weather we’ve enjoyed in Southeast is coming to an end.
Bill
picked up some smoked salmon at a small processor, and then we got on the recumbents
(1st time on this trip) and rode down the dedicated bike path along
the coast and back. Was about 2 miles
one way, and a nice ride next to the Wrangell Narrows. Felt great to be on the recumbents again!
On the drive home, saw a beaver crossing the
road! Was he lost?? Also a Black-tailed Sitka deer (we’ve seen
several). Just as we got back to the
truck, a few raindrops were starting to fall, so our signal to head home.
Overall,
the town of Petersburg itself isn’t as charming to us as was Wrangell (it’s
natural to compare the two towns, since they’re so relatively close to each
other, nearly the same size, etc. Even
Scott acknowledged that they had a kind of rivalry thing going on.) On the whole, the people aren’t as warm and
friendly (could that be their Scandinavian heritage??), although there are
certainly exceptions, such as the lovely woman who picked us up today. The town seems a little more prosperous and modern
in some ways – e.g, many larger and more
well-kept boats in the harbor, both commercial and pleasure. However, we couldn’t help but notice that many
of the homes, even some of the very nice ones, seemed to think it just fine to
keep all kinds of junk around the yard – boat parts, all kinds of metal pieces,
oil drums . . . . That seems out of
character with Norwegian cleanliness and orderliness. In any case, it’s been fun and very
interesting to nose around the docks, and see a really busy working harbor.
As we
rested a while before getting dinner, heard the light rain falling.
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