Cantwell, AK/Anchorage, AK (7/2/2017)

Day 19
1964, the Plan: Rancheria, YT to Fort Nelson, BC.
1964, the Actuality: On Tuesday, August 4, the Explorer Scouts were still in Cantwell, AK. Apparently the engine block arrived and the mechanical engineers helped install the engine after the Explorer Scouts rigged up a hoist.

1964: Installing the new engine (KSS)

Sunday, July 2, 2017
We took advantage of Betsey's services for one more day. She took us to the Potter Marsh, part of the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge, that was created in 1916 -1917 when the railroad blocked several streams to construct an embankment for the track. In doing so, they impacted the tidal habitat, but also created a freshwater marsh.

Potter Marsh; the rain kept away some wildlife as well as most people

Birdhouse boxes hang on the boardwalk

Kent looks for salmon, we could barely see a couple,
at Rabbit Creek, the one stream with access to Cook Inlet;
note the arm farther on the boardwalk

This fellow was sticking his GoPro camera into Rabbit Creek,
but didn't have any better luck finding salmon

We saw a Canada Goose family, many Mew Gulls, Mallards,
Green-winged Teals,  probably Greater Yellowlegs,
and possibly Short-billed Dowitchers

Moose track

After lunch at the Bear Tooth Theatre and Pub (Betsey also took us on a BrewPub tour!), Kent and I went on our own to the Alaska Native Heritage Center, using a 20% discount coupon from Betsey! Many thanks!

Alaska Native Heritage Center (1999) shares the heritage
of Alaska's 11 major cultural groups

These major Native groups are the Athabascan (Interior Alaska), Yup'ik and Cup'ik (western and west coast Alaska), Iñupiaq and St Lawrence Island/Siberian Yup'ik (northern and north coast Alaska), Unangax̂ and Alutiiq/Sugpiaq (Aleutian Islands, Kodiak, and western south coast Alaska), and the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian (eastern south coast and inner passage/southeast Alaska).

Raven the Creator (1998, by John Hoover),
with the face in the belly symbolic of Mother Earth

Basket by Pauline Dushkin of the Ununagax̂

It is interesting to note that traditional Native crafts were for functional or ceremonial use, and it wasn't until the arrival of non-Natives when the Natives learned to make crafts for sale to the non-Natives, such as these coiled grass baskets, beadwork (using trading beads from the non-Natives), dolls, paintings and prints.

Models of kayaks and kayak frames

Crafting a kayak at the Alaska Native Heritage Center

A post-non-Native Athabascan dwelling

Athabascan village smokehouse

The smoker

Here moss is used to chink the logs of the building

The Yup'ik and Cup'ik dwellings were partially subterranean,
with separate quarters for men, and women and children;
the large entrance to the left was cut for tourists!

Box Drum (2014, by Susie Bevins-Ericsen and
Lawrence Ahvakana of the Iñupiaq)

The real entrance to the Iñupiaq/St Lawrence Island
Yup'ik dwelling (except the security door is not authentic!)

The long, low entrance to the Iñupiaq/St Lawrence Island
Yup'ik dwelling, which was similar to the Yup'ik/Cup'ik
 dwelling, and also had a tourist entrance

The so-called tourist entrances were not just for convenience, but also because of law requirements for emergency exits!

Whale bones framing Lake Tiulana and the Center

Skeleton of a grey whale

Tourist entrance to the Unangax̂ and Alutiiq dwelling, which was also
mostly subterranean, and is entered through a hole on the roof

Kayaks that may have been built by students in summer camp at the center

The clan house dwelling of the southeastern Native groups

A performance of Native sports; here the one-foot high kick,
where you have to jump off both feet together, kick the
ball with any part of the foot, then land on the kicking foot only

A performance of story-telling (KSS)

Dinner was at Chilkoot Charlie's, with Betsey,
Betsey's sister-in-law's sister and friend (Carol and Pat)

Inside one section of the two-floor complex

The floor was littered with pull-tabs

I bought a pull-tab for $1, pulled the tabs,
and lost my dollar!

Kent went to the restroom and tried the knob
on the right and the door would not open;
it didn't take him long to figure out that all he had
to do was push on the left side of the door!

Then once inside the restroom, this was above the urinals

Upon request by Betsey, we were allowed to explore the other areas of Chilkoot Charlie's.

Upstairs was the Russian Bar

Tsarist items?

This was the Ice Bar (in the dark the shimmering sheets
above and below the bar are silver-colored)

Betsey opened the cover to show us the actual ice bar
(or rather a packed-snow bar!)

Despite being a rainy day, we had a great time! Thanks again to Betsey!