| Fort Seward was founded
in 1898 to help maintain order amongst the gold miners on their way to the
Klondike. A number of houses were built for the officers and their families.
Between 1925 and 1940 it was the only active military post in Alaska. It was
decommissioned in 1949 and bought by a group of WWII veterans. |  |
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There are two old cars parked in the fort. This looks like a Morris but is
probably American of some type. |
| Another display car, also
unnamed. My guess would be a Ford. |  |
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This was in a vegetable garden but we were unclear if they were cropping the
rhubarb or just regarded it as an ornamental plant. |
| There are a lot of art
shops in Haines. But it was the weekend so most of them were closed. We
spotted this in a window. |  |
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We went to the museum which was open in the afternoon despite the visitor
centre telling us it was closed. This map was drawn by Tlingit chief Kohklux
in 1869 for George Davidson who was exploring the area. It shows the trade
routes across the Chilkat mountains and is very accurate in scale. The scale
used is a day's travel. |
| Occasionally pieces of
art catch our eye. This is very colourful. It is called Raven's Stash and is
made of all sorts of tiny objects such as a raven might gather. |  |
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There is a separate display of marionettes of superheroes called the Seven
Virtues. They are made by a native carver called Debi Knight Kennedy. |
| Up here what else would
one expect except a dog sled. I wonder if they take it down and use it in
the winter. |  |
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A classic stuffed American bald eagle flies from the ceiling. There are
others on display and there is a display centre up the road (closed at the
weekends). |
| There is a lot of art
using walrus ivory, and cribbage boards are surprisingly common. When we
asked if this was a native game, we were told no, it was an Alaska game -
what else is there to do on winter evenings? |  |
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We passed back by the hammer museum and spotted this on the lawn. |
| The ferry runs from a
port about 4 miles out of town. A bit further along that road is Chilkoot
Lake and the river which runs from it to the sea. This is a salmon river and
will be much frequented by bears in a few weeks' time. |  |
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This is a walkway across the river. This is also used to count the fish.
Since salmon always return to the river they were spawned in, scientists are
anxious to monitor any changes in the annual populations. |
| We eventually reached the
lake but the road was too small for us to go further. |  |
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This is obviously a place to retire to for the wealthy. There are some very
smart and very new looking houses on the edge of the bay. |
| Back at the port we
spotted this demountable RV on top of a container. We suspect it is on a
flat container and is being shipped perhaps because it has broken down. |  |
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We were catching the ferry from Haines to Skagway which saves us about 400
miles of poor road much of which we have already travelled. That is us
parked behind this serious RV. This is a Newmar Essex. A cool $650k. Now you
understand why our 30ft RV is called a mini. |
| Our ferry arrives from
Juneau (only an hour late). The MV Malaspina is about 9000 tons gross. |  |
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It is nearly three times the size of the last ferry we travelled on. |
| The Newmar only just
fitted in. It is about 45ft long but the crew told us that they had a 75ft
unit on last week. Must be towing or a fifth wheel. |  |
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The crew casting off. This boat travels from Skagway to Juneau and back
every day. The round trip takes just over 12 hours. |
| It is almost 2200hrs and
we are arriving at Skagway. It is very quiet because there are no cruise
ships in. That will change tomorrow. Our campsite is 100yds from the ferry
terminal. |  |
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