Haines and Sitka

Haines, Alaska.  Another small southeast Alaska town, with less than 3,000 hardy souls.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haines,_Alaska

A pretty little town which boasts three museums, The Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center, the American Bald Eagle Foundation, and last but certainly not least, The Hammer Museum.  The Hammer Museum is not named for someone named Hammer, no it is named for mankind’s oldest tool, the hammer, The museum boosts 2,000 hammers on display, and claims to have thousands more in storage. A museum to one man’s obsession with hammers.

Don’t miss the Hammer Museum when you visit Haines.  Leave enough time, you will need at lest 20 minutes before you get terminably bored.  How many hammers can you look at?  Anyway, worth a few minutes.  Haines from the ship.

And a sketch  of the harbor at Haines.

Fort William H. Seward or the remains of same is located near Haines. From Wikipedia: Fort William H. Seward, also known as Chilkoot Barracks is a site atPort Chilkoot in Haines Borough, Alaska, about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from the city of Haines. It was the last of a series of 11 military posts established in Alaska during the gold rush era, and was Alaska’s only military facility between 1925 and 1940. It provided a policing presence for miners moving into the gold mining areas in the Alaskan interior, and a military presence during negotiations over the nearby international border wit hCanada. The fort is named forWilliam H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State who oversaw the Alaska Purchase. Between 1921 and 1925 all other military installations in Alaska were shut down; in 1927 Fort Seward was manned by a force of 255. The fort was formally deactivated in 1945, and sold to the Port Chilkoot Company. The property has been developed as an art colony; it includes housing and art galleries, and accommodations for tourists.

The town of Sitka is located on two islands on the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean.  It was first settled by the Tlingit Indians 10,000 years ago, and was called New Archangel under Russian rule.  The population in 2010 was a little under 9,000 people.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitka,_Alaska    https://www.travelalaska.com/destinations/communities/sitka.aspx

Sitka from the Oceania ship:

 

A view of Sitka harbor from a whale watching boat.

 

We didn’t see many whales that day, but did catch an eagle and some sea otters.

The sea otters are the heaviest weasel and the smallest sea mammal.  They send most if not all their lives floating in the ocean and having a merry old time.  I guess.

 

On a walk through a  preserve in Sitka, we saw some totems.

 

I remember seeing an entrance to Middle Earth in Ireland, and indeed found an entrance exists in Sitka as well:

 

We ran into this fellow on our walk.  I remembered the instructions on how to cope with an angry bear, so I pounded my chest, made as much noise as possible.  He didn’t seem to care, after all he knew I couldn’t hurt him, he was protected by a fence.

 

More to come from Alaska.