Friday, July 11

Haines lies on another inlet at the end of the Lynn Canal, 359 miles from Skagway by land
but only 15 miles by sea, a one-hour's ferry ride . As we sailed out the Taiya inlet at 7
AM we could easily see the path that the glacier had taken in cutting out the valley and
the fjord.


Although geographically close, Haines and Skagway are and have always been culturally
worlds apart. Today Haines is a town in which people enjoy living. It lies on a narrow
peninusala between the Chilkat and Chilkoot inlets, where the two Tlingit tribes of those
names met to trade with Russian and American ships. White settlement began in 1881 with a
Presbyterian mission, and in 1902 Fort Seward was established as the first permanent U.S.
army base in Alaska. Even in old photographs, it hardly looks like a fort on the frontier;
those elegant Victorian houses on the periphery of the parade grounds served as the
officers' headquarters.


The fort served as the mainstay of the town's economy until it was closed shortly after
World War II . In 1947 five veterans and their families bought it with the idea of setting
up a new community called Port Chilkoot (now incorporated into Haines). Among their
accomplishments were the establishment of regular sea transportation to Skagway and Juneau
(now part of the marine highway) and the founding of a school to revive native arts and
crafts. Sons of two of those veterans became woodcarvers in the Tlingit style, and they
are still active in the Haines arts community. One is the director of Alaska Indian Arts,
located in the former hospital of the fort. They have an excellent gallery of graphic art
(see www.alaskaindianarts.com), and a group of native carvers are presently carving a
35-foot totem pole for a camp in the Adirondacks; we could watch one of them at work. The
other directs the Chilkat Dancers Storytelling Theater Show in a replica of a Tlingit
tribal house erected on the former parade grounds. We attended this delightful show in the
afternoon.


In the evening we enjoyed another wonderful attribute of the Pacific coast: Dungeness
crab. A young couple was selling them for $5.00 apiece from their boat in the Haines
harbor. Our camper table has never looked so festive.