'Tis is the season where you tie ribbons around things for no real reason.
December 29, 2017
The Eldred Rock Lighthouse was first lit in 1906.
The area has played a part in some of Alaska's worst shipwrecks: the Princess Sophia went down in 1918. When the vessel ran aground, the Captain decided to wait out the tide instead of evacuating. By morning, the ship was gone. All 343 passengers and crew died.
The ship joined the Clara Nevada, which sank in 1898, after witnesses from tens of miles away saw a fireball engulf the ship. Local rumors alternate blame between shoddy boilers, dynamite intended for Juneau mines, and a ruinous Captain who blew a hole in the Clara Nevada's side, sending 75 passengers to their death while he made off with $14 million in as-yet-unrecovered Yukon gold.
Some think the gold is still buried in the forest margins of Lynn Canal.
December 28, 2017
Mud Bay Christmas Progressive 2017 warms up the old-fashioned way.
December 27, 2017
The Pioneer Bar adds aubergine to winter nights.
November 4, 2017
November 3, 2017
October 28, 2017
New home, new views.
October 22, 2017
Alaska Day
Alaska Day -- October 18 -- is marked in Sitka like nowhere else.
In 1867, Russia sold the territory of Alaska to America for two cents an acre. In a ceremony in Sitka, Russia's flag went down, and the flat of the United States went up.
The U.S. gained a glut of resources from the purchase, the scale of which couldn't be recognized at the time. From timber, oil, fish, and minerals, to Cold War radar stations, modern missile defense, and a geopolitical presence in the Arctic, Alaska has returned America's $7.2 million investment many times over.
It was the beginning of a new era of colonialism in Alaska. The sale changed the lives of the indigenous people irreversibly, disenfranchising them from their land without compensation, and refusing them civil rights.
The federal government still owns more than two-thirds of the land within Alaska's borders. Most of it remains wilderness.
Though the anniversary is overlooked by most of the state (let alone country), Sitka marks Alaska Day each year, with events from a period costume ball and parade, to commemorations of loss and Kiks.adi sorrow songs.
After 150 years of American occupation, Alaska's history is still very raw.
