Wrangell, August 8-19, 2009

We had not planned to stay more than 4 days in Wrangell but were "loved" into the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and wound up staying 11 days. We changed our ferry schedule to a later date twice!

We first arrived at 10:30 pm on a rainy Saturday night, so we found this city RV Park/parking lot for the small boat marina & stayed there two nights. They have free water, dumpster for garbage and dump station. The facilities are also used by fisherman and visitors living on their boats. This is the view out our front window at the city park. The next two nights we spent at Alaska Waters RV Park, where we had a coupon for one night free with each night's reservation. We had full hookups there but no cable TV and no broadcast TV (no TV stations on the island).

This is the historic downtown Wrangell. I love the "western look".

After staying at Alaska Waters RV Park, since we were helping the branch here with family history, the Branch President told us we could dry camp in the church's parking lot. We had a beautiful view there of the ocean and the mountains. We stayed there & did our dumping and adding fresh water at the city park when we needed it.

This particular night we had a beautiful sunset as seen from our front window.

This Sitka Black Tailed Deer came to visit us several mornings and evenings at the church.

Wrangell has an excellent museum, which we visited one morning. This is a thunderbird totem. We learned much about the Native American culture there.

This is a dungenss crab, which we had eaten in Haines. They had models of each of the different types of crabs found in these waters.

Jim was invited twice to go fishing with Don Sherer, his son Jared, and his brother on Don's boat. This is Don on the boat with his brother, Terry. They are both members of the branch here, though Don spends winters in southern Utah. Terry lives here year around.

This is Don on the back of the boat. The first time out they caught a halibut on a long line and brought in some dungeness crabs on their trap. The next time out they did not catch anything but had a great time with wonderful scenery in the wilderness.

This is Don's son Jared by the boat at the dock.

Here is Jim in the back of the boat as they pass a tramper. No, I don't know why it is called a tramper! Maybe google it?

The red roof building is the church and the long dot in front of it is our RV!

This view of the church and our RV is from Don's boat as they traveled by in the water.

I love the sense of humor of the Alaskas! This sign is in front of a Bed & Breakfast near the water.

This is a distant view of that B & B. Notice all the flowers in front & side. Wrangell is in a rain forest so the plants get plenty of water.

Wrangell also has a petroglyth beach where we looked at many petroglyths. This particular one is found in many different parts of the world. They do not know who made them, for what purpose or how old they are. They can only guess.

This one looks quite similar to killer whales which are found on several totem poles thoughout the southeast of Alaska by the Tinglits, (Pronounced Kling-gets) and Haidas.

This is a Geodesic Survey Marker left on one of the rocks by the US government from which to do land surveys.

Lynda is sitting on a large driftwood tree stump at Petroglyth Beach! It is pretty.

One night, the Wilson Family, the Branch President's Family, invited us to a cookout at Nemo Point. This is a tiny wild berry found at the elevations there. I do not know whether it is edible, but probably not.

This a view of the mountains from Nemo Point, about 12 miles out from town.

This is another view from Nemo Point.

This is Jim with Blaine & President David Wilson as they cooked brats over the open fire. It sure was a beautiful place for a cookout. We stayed until after dark.

This is part of the Wilson Family at the cookout. Some of the others were away working. The Wilsons have seven children. They are a great family with outstanding kids!

(Much like ours! :-) )

This is Michelle & Don Sherer, some of our friends from Wrangell. They had us over for a rib dinner and wonderful gormet desset. They own a lodge in Wrangell that is not open this year. In the winter, they live near St George, Utah.

This is Michelles signature dessert, raspberry, bavarian cream crepe! It sure was yummy!

Here we are in their lodge enjoying ribs which Don had grilled. On the left is their son, Jared, then me, Mike, a friend of theirs, and Don.

We spent lots of days and evenings helping the members here learn family history. Here is Jim with the Branch President, David Wilson, at the computers. All of the members learned very quickly! It was a pleasure to teach and be with them.

The last day in Wrangell, we drove around quickly to see a few more of the sights. This is the grave of the last Chief Shakes. They had the last potlach here in Wrangell in 1940 and he was made chief then.

This is the walkway to Chief Shakes Island, where they preserved his Clan House as well as several totem poles. It is right in the middle of the main harbor.

Thses two totems were in front of Chief Kadashan's house near the turn of the last century. (1890's).
From Wikipedia.com: Another example of the shame pole is the Three Frogs Pole in Wrangell, Alaska. This pole was erected by Chief Shakes to shame the Kiks.ádi clan into repaying a debt incurred by three of their slaves who impregnated some young women in Shakes' clan. When the Kiks.ádi leaders refused to pay support for the illegitimate children, Shakes had the pole commissioned to represent the three slaves as frogs, the frog being the primary crest of the Kiks.ádi clan. This debt was never repaid, and thus the pole still stands next to the Chief Shakes Tribal House in Wrangell. This particular pole's unique crossbar shape has become popularly associated with the town of Wrangell. It was thus used, without recognizing the meaning of the pole, as part of the title design of the Wrangell Sentinel newspaper, where it is still seen today.

This is the Undersea Bear totem on Chief Shakes Island.

Here is cargo being loaded onto that tramper ship shown earlier in this blog. This occured at the port of Wrangell. The cargo is most likely fish. They just recently opened a new cannery in Wrangell.

This shows part of the main harbor of Wrangell. There is a boat in the back in dry dock for repairs.

This is the first Catholic Church established in Alaska, aroud the late 1800's.

This is the first Presbyterian Church established in Alaska, built about 1877.

This is St Phillips Episcopal Church, established 1899.

This is the 'One Legged Fisherman' totem found in Totem Park in Wrangell. It has fish figures on each side.

This totem has a man with an unusual hatof a killer whale, I think. It also is in Totem Park.

This totem has, at least, a frog, raven & beaver carved in it. These natives often raised totems at Potlaches, a feast & celebration for different reasons...great hunt, crowning new Chiefs, etc.

This is a side view of one of the totems at Totem Park.

One of the church members owns the town drug store and purchased a bunch of pirate figures at an auction. Here is Jim and I with our friend in front of Steve's Drug Store called Stikine Drugs.