Kodiak, AK
We are arriving in Kodiak at 8:00 AM on a Sunday. We will be the last cruise ship of the season as we
were for Seward. We have moved further west, sunrise is 8:42 so having breakfast at 8:00 with cloud
cover meant very dark outside while eating. It also means we do not expect much from the town.
We learned it has a maritime climate which means that the bays don’t freeze, and in the summer, 70
degrees is considered hot. Because it is located on the Ring of Fire, it is susceptible to earthquakes.
Many in Kodiak have a second home in Hawaii.
cover meant very dark outside while eating. It also means we do not expect much from the town.
We learned it has a maritime climate which means that the bays don’t freeze, and in the summer, 70
degrees is considered hot. Because it is located on the Ring of Fire, it is susceptible to earthquakes.
Many in Kodiak have a second home in Hawaii.
Kodiak Marina
The city of Kodiak is on an island—the second largest island in the USA, second only to the big island of Hawaii. It seems to be the Moab of the North due to the outdoor adventures offered here. We had low
expectations of what we might see here after the season shutdown in Seward. Oh my were we
surprised!!! Yes, some of the main shops were closed (it was Sunday), but they were in full welcome as
they sought to teach as much as they could while we were ashore. Everywhere you looked downtown
was either a placard of information or a mural. The information center was two stories of teachers who
were lecturing or one was signing books between sessions.
Kodiak has a unique history. The island has had inhabitants for the last 8000 years. The first non-natives were Russian and showed up in 1763. Kodiak became their first capital. Colonization by the Russians took a major toll on the native population of about 6500. When Alaska became a US territory in 1867 the local culture was virtually extinct.
It is important to the local native population to have schools available on as many of the island
communities as possible in order to retain their culture. A community needs to have ten children to
obtain one teacher. Then a teacher needs to be found who will come all the way up here. Recently,
even Kodiak was hurting for teachers and they were asking the retired teachers to apply for $700/day. A
creative thinker suggested that they seek out possibilities in the Philippines and that has proven helpful.
The Valdez oil spill has left its mark on this area. When a dead gray whale was found in the oil muck on
the beach, a teacher proposed that it be buried in the sand for educational purposes. Four year later,
they probed and found that nature had stripped all flesh and oil from bones. Carefully, they excavated
the skeleton and it is hanging in the info center. No teeth, just baleen.
Valdez damage
Future after Valdez
If you look at maps for Alaska, you’ll note that there are many areas set aside as refuges.
Refuge areas in the Continental US
Early on it was found that there was more money for viewing bear than shooting bear. How big is a Kodiak bear? You’ll see a photo of Jerry next to a wooden one, but not sure how true the perspective is.
We wandered through the town, went into a few gift shops that opened at noon, photographed some of the info placards and the marina filled with fishing vessels, then walked back to the ship in the mist to play a friendly game of bridge against our bridge instructor and his life master wife.
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