EPISODE 244 YUKON DIARY ESCAPE TO JUNEAU ALASKA

NOTE:  The next Episode (245) really surprised me and  I would  like to share it with you.

I felt my stories were cluttering up some of your emails so decided to prune my BCC list.

Take off the people who never responded  in any way…felt I was  bothering them. What

a response!  Dozens sent notes  of  alarm.    Did not want to be cut off as they were

reading my stories as  a  kind of isolation therapy.  Surprised me as most of them

would never have been pruned anyway.  Touching.  Needs a special Episode.

I will send their messages only using first names of course.  End result makes

me feel like a prince.   So I will continue a story every day.  Takes a lot of time

but knowing most of  you read  the stories is a big  push factor.

alan

alan skeoch

Feb.2921

THURSDAY SEPT. 13,1962

Woke up in Skagway.   Last night I figured  how  to get out of town.  That issue troubled

me  for I was travelling by the seat of my pants.  Chasing rainbows.  How would I get

to Juneau, the  landlocked capital city of Alaska.  There are two alternatives.  Either I

book a small float plane or I try to find a water taxi.  Not really a choice.  Water taxi

would be cheapest.  So I booked passage on the Blue Star Taxi … room on the launch

for five or six passengers.  And the captain provided donuts  and coffee.

His water taxi would  get me to Haines…across the fjord.

I think that is  my ferry to Junceau…the S.S. Chilkoot in the distance.  The wrecks in the foreground got most of my attention.

My water taxi in the distance.  The Spot is being rebuilt obviously…charming little fishing boat.

The S.S. Chilkoot…Alaskan state ferry from Haines to Juneau in 1962…small

enough to get close to the glaciers.

We powered our way across to Haines, an old military base that was once important when

fear of a Japanese invasion was  real.  After Pearl  Harbour The Japanese were sending  incendiary balloons

across the Pacific Ocean to set the west coast of  North America ablaze. A few actually arrived.

The Japanese also made a feint attack  up the Aleutian Chain of Islands.  Haines became  important.

As did Skagway for moving equipment to build the Alaska Highway.

Haines was a Nice clean  looking place.  

I was Enjoying my trip.  Historic events  had happened  here.

The mountains towered over us.  At Haines I was able  to board the S.S. ChilKoot, a

larger ferry bound for Juneau.  Six hour trip sitting on deck or in a small compartment .  Very few

passengers…maybe 5 or 6.   Several porpoises wanted to play tag with our ferry…bobbing

and  diving….sneaking side to side.

Had time to finish reading To Kill a Mocking Bird.  The book deserved all the praise 

it was getting.  When we reached  Juneau we were greeted by  a ferocious rainstorm.

A Tlinget (First Nations) family and I stood on the pier … confused as to our next 

step.  The city of Juneau  was high above us.   Night time.  Then one of the ferry crewmen offered

us a lift up into town.

Signed in to the Northlander Hotel at 11 p.m. Dead tired from doing nothing.  Travel

is tiring.  Still went out and  walked around the rainy streets.  Juneau is a weird place….a

city built where no city should be built….in what seems a long deep ravine running from

the Pacific Ocean to the Coastal  mountains.  If  shaken by an earthquake it seemed to

me that the whole city would slide into the sea. Stopped at a drug store for a hot dog

and root beer.  Cost surprising $1.70.  Crawled to bed.

NOTE:

I could see Douglas  Island across the channel from Juneau but I realized I  would

never get there.  Time was running out.  The great gold mine was gone anyway.,  

Well not exactly gone.  The mine had 45 miles of passageways criss crossing

beneath Douglas Island and out under the ocean.  Forty five miles!   Now a water

filled grave for the horses left below when that unusual high tide pushed up the

Channel.  Water is heavy.  A sudden influx of an extra few hundred thousand

gallons was  enough to break into a weakened fault in a  subterranean passage

triggering a race with death stalking the 300 miners scrambling to get up the shaft.

No room or time for the horses.

My Yukon boss, Dr. Norman Paterson, even sent pictures he once took in

Skagway.  His shot of the interior of a brothel is  particularly interesting as

you will see.  

All that remains of the  Treadwell  Gold Mine on Douglas Island, Alaska

The rest of the mine is still here…under the ocean filled with water.

THIS was the  Treadwell kitchen  for single men.  Lots of food made

in pots as big as  garbage pails.

NEXT STORY

I did not sleep well.