Unique Alaskan Experiences

Tucked back about a block from the edge of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, and not very far from the junction with the Glenn Highway, in Palmer, Alaska lies the most unlikely of unique Alaskan experiences. This is the home of the West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. This center was established in 1967 as a result of the devastation caused in Alaska by the great earthquake and tsunami of 1964. The great Alaskan earthquake of 1964 was the largest earthquake in North America and the second largest ever recorded.

As part of an international cooperative effort to save lives and protect property, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service operates two tsunami-warning centers. The Alaska Tsunami Warning Center ATWC) in Palmer, Alaska, serves as the regional Tsunami Warning Center for Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The other is in Hawaii.

This center’s objective is to detect, locate, and determine the magnitude of potentially dangerous earthquakes along the west coast of the United States and Canada, and to disseminate information regarding any probable tsunami activity. The center in Palmer offers free tours on Friday afternoons.

The Friday that I visited the tour began with an AV presentation given by one of the scientists on duty. The presenter was an oceanographer recently arrived from the east coast of the USA. (Scientists of many disciplines staff the center.) She still had a bit of acclimation to Alaskan geography to master but did an excellent job of explaining how quakes occur and how they can cause tsunamis.

She showed some interesting pictures and discussed information about the great quake, and subsequent tsunamis, that hit Alaska in 1964. She also showed some interesting pictures and discussed information regarding the recent tsunami in Asia.

As the tour continued she explained how data is collected at the source and how the data is transmitted from the source to the center for collection. She explained the current tsunami warning system and how the data is disseminated if the potential for a tsunami is thought to exist.

You might not be surprised to learn that everything is highly automated in this center, with alarms that ring if activity reaches a certain level. There are at least 2 IT technicians on site at all times to keep the systems up and running. (They were debugging some corrupted data coming in from a particular satellite feed the day I was there.) In addition to the incoming data being recorded to several electronic mediums, believe it or not, every quake is logged, with a pen, in an official logbook. The answer to my inquiry as to why this is done considering that there are so many redundant systems in place in the center was pretty simple. I was told that since the center operates 7/24/365 it is easier for a new shift to scan the written activity log when they take over than to review the tapes and other media. Seems the old way may still have some valuable advantages in this highly automated environment.

Perhaps the most interesting, and most surprising thing of all may be that there are small quakes occurring all along the west coast, and particularly in Alaska, literally daily. There was a 2.0 magnitude quake near the Denali Visitor’s Center the day I visited the center. There have been several just this week including a 6.3 magnitude quake that occurred near Talkeetna on Tuesday. Most of these quakes are not even felt by ordinary citizens.

If you would like to monitor the west coast and Alaska quake activity from the Tsunami Center, an RSS feed is offered or you can simply check http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/ periodically to see what is going on.

For a very interesting and totally unique Alaskan experience take advantage of one of the free Friday tours at the West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska.

Gold! A magic word that time cannot tarnish; a soft metal with the strength to forge history. Gold was the magnet that drew thousands of adventurers to the last frontier.

Robert Lee Hatcher discovered and staked the first lode gold claim in the Willow Creek Valley in September 1906, and others soon followed. But lode mining was expensive for an individual operator; it required elaborate tunnels and heavy equipment, so companies merged to pool resources and reduce expenses.

What is now called Independence Mine was once two mines: The Alaska Free Gold (Martin) Mine on Skyscraper Mountain, and Independence Mine on Granite Mountain. In 1938 the two were brought together under one company, the Alaska-Pacific Consolidated Mining Company (APC). With a block of 83 mining claims, APC became the largest producer in the Willow Creek Mining District. The claims covered more than 1,350 acres and included 27 structures. In its peak year, 1941, APC employed 204 men, blasted nearly a dozen miles of tunnels, and produced 34,416 ounces of gold worth $1,204,560. Today 34,416 ounces of gold would be worth $17,208,000. Twenty-two families lived in nearby Boomtown, with eight children attending Territorial School in the new bunkhouse.

By 1942, the United States had entered World War II, and the War Production Board designated gold mining as non-essential to the war effort. Gold mining throughout the United States came to a halt, but Independence Mine continued to operate because of the presence of scheelite. Scheelite occurs in quartz veins along with gold, and is a source of tungsten, a strategic metal. But because Independence Mine's scheelite production was low, the exemption was short-lived, and in 1943 Independence Mine was ordered to close.

The wartime ban was lifted in 1946, but gold mining was slow to recover. After the war, gold could be sold only to the U.S. government at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce. Postwar inflation raged, and gold mining became an unprofitable venture. Finally, in January of 1951, after mining nearly 6 million dollars' worth of gold, Independence Mine was closed by APC, and a chapter of Alaska's gold mining history came to an end.

In 1974, Independence Mine was entered into the National Register of Historic Places, a list of cultural resources significant to American history. In the late 1970's, 271 acres of land were donated to the Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation for establishment of Independence Mine State Historical Park. On January 16, 1980, title to the acreage was transferred to the State of Alaska.

For me, a visit to this mine was like a trip back in time with a history lesson attached. I really was not aware that so much gold had been taken from this part of Alaska as late as the early 1940s. The Alaska Department of Natural resources is in the process of renovating all the old buildings including the bunkhouses, warehouses, commissary and administrative offices, the "new" mess hall, an apartment building, assay office, the now collapsed mill, and the tunnel entrance. Interpretive signs along the walking tour help give you the feel of the camp as it was in 1941.

The manager’s house has already been totally restored and today serves as the visitor center. I discovered in a conversation with Park Specialist, Rob Czarnezki that the son of the manager of the mine had retired to the small town in Pennsylvania where I grew up. I now have a search on to see if Josie Stoll is still living there. Rob told me that Mr. Stoll had come back to Alaska to assist the Parks Department in putting together the excellent interpretive signs used along the route of the walking tour.

The drive up to the mine from Palmer offers many scenic vistas of the mountains in the distance and of the Little Susitna River as it tumbles from the mountains and runs along the roadside for many miles. There is an especially nice pull off area, right before you enter the park, with a little deck built out over the river where you can stop and enjoy the fresh air, the rushing water and the peaceful beauty of the place. I was there in late August in the rain and I was the only one there. It was magical.

The visitor center at the mine is open from June through August. Guided tours are offered twice daily on weekdays and thrice daily on weekends and holidays in summer. There is a day use parking fee and a separate tour fee. The visitor center is closed during most of the winter although some of the area is open for non-motorized winter sports.

Enjoy two unique Alaskan experiences in one: The drive up to Hatcher pass and the Independence Mine.

Some information for this article taken from: http://www.alaskaone.com/asp/inmi.htm and from http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/units/indmine.htm

Mocha surveys the crowd

Rustle up some of the best BBQ chicken in the state of Alaska with all the trimmings. (I am a Texan so I know of what I speak when it comes to BBQ.) Add a whole yard full of congenial “dog” people and you have the makings of one fine fundraiser for Dr. Eric Rogers and his team.

Trish and Dale Keefe, professional caterers, put on one fabulous spread at their beautiful Eagle River, Alaska, home with all the proceeds going to Eric and the team for Iditarod 2007. Trish and Dale, owners of Northern Restaurant Group, LLC, are new corporate sponsors of R Northbound Dogs, which is Eric’s kennel. Dale has also volunteered to prepare Eric’s meals for the trail in 2007. (Marti, Eric’s wife, is very grateful!). Trish and Dale also run the restaurant at the Golden Lion motel in Anchorage. If you are in the vicinity stop in for a meal and say “hi”.

Eric brought his dog truck, his sled, and 7 of his canine companions for everybody to meet. “My girl” Mocha was there along with Bass, Platinum, Throttle, Picard, Lycos, and Mocha’s sister Rosemary. I am Mocha's sponsor and helped her celebrate her second birthday on August 18th.

Kate Tracy, from The Alaska Star, was in attendance and ran a nice story on Eric that included the BBQ with pictures. Check it out at http://www.alaskastar.com/stories/083106/new_20060831003.shtml

To help support Eric and the Team for Iditarod 2007 join in on the next fundraiser if you are in the Anchorage area. If not, you can sponsor a dog (There are some sweet ones just waiting for you to "adopt" them.), join Rogers Rangers, become a corporate sponsor or simply make a donation at www.RNorthboundDogs.com

There he was; the four-time champion of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, Martin Buser, enjoying a sunny August day in Big Lake, Alaska, and whistling a happy tune as he darted about the dog yard with his pooper-scooper picking up before the 2:00PM tour.

As I arrived, just a tad early for the tour, all his housedogs came out to greet me. There was a big brown friendly guy, a hyper little Jack Russell and a small Dachshund. Martin gave me a wave and told me I could enjoy the view from the fire pit at the end of his parking lot while I waited for the tour to begin. The dogs accompanied me to the fire pit. We were enjoying the view and looking for THE Mountain, in the wrong direction at first, when Martin came over and pointed out where it would have been visible if the clouds had not been blocking the view. This was a rare sunny day in what had been a week or torrential rains and flooding in the Mat-Su Valley.

The tour began with a walk through the dog yard to a really nice AV room where Martin has all his trophies on display (impressive to be sure…) at the front of the room. Draped over the trophies are all the yellow roses given to the lead dogs at the end of the race. Impressed at how well the roses were preserved, I inquired as to just how that had been accomplished. Martin suggested that I touch them. They are all silk!!!…no preservation required!

Martin began the tour by screening a very nice film about running the Iditarod, which he himself narrates and interjects clever bits of humor into…boys on the left and girls on the right so everybody does not have to stop and pee on the last tree going up the mountain…

While the film was running, Martin slipped out and came back with three of the sweetest puppies you can imagine. They were just 3 1/2 weeks old. He handed me one and put the other two in a basket at my feet. I was finished! The tour could have ended right there and I would have been eternally happy. The three sweet puppies and I sat on the floor of his AV room and played as I watched the rest of the film.

Next the tour moved outside to an area where Martin has erected a complete replica of the Cripple checkpoint. He has erected a tent, complete with a smoldering fire, to show what the checkpoint is like. He has outfitted the checkpoint with appropriate communication gear, appropriate interior fixtures and places for the mushers to sleep. There is a display of all the sleds he has used from the early wooden models to the sled he used last year with the small seat on the back, known as the tail-dragger. He showed me the way he packs booties for the dogs, the required gear that must be carried in the sled and the medications he uses to keep the dog’s feet in good condition. He talked about the accident last year, just prior to the Iditarod, in which he cut off part of several fingers on a saw and how he had managed to compete under these difficult conditions.

During the busy summer season, fans come by the busload to learn about the Iditarod and to meet the Champion and his dogs. I was lucky enough to be the only person on this late season tour and had a chance to have a really nice, up close and personal, conversation with a man clearly happy with his life and madly in love with his dogs. He would like to win “just one more” and will be competing in Iditarod 2007.

If you would like to meet an Iditarod Champion and his dogs, and learn more about sled dogs and running the Iditarod, a visit to the Happy Trails Kennel of Martin Buser is a unique and totally enjoyable Alaskan experience.

To learn more about Martin Buser and his Happy Trails Kennel click on http://www.buserdog.com/

As summer wanes and August arrives in Alaska, everybody’s attention turns to the Alaska State Fair. This old fashioned state fair runs the last two weeks of the month winding up the summer season on Labor Day. It offers a myriad of activities and literally has something for everyone in the family.

This year I had the good fortune to be in the Mat-Su valley at just the right time and had the opportunity to enjoy a day at the Fair. Even though August 2006 went down as the third rainiest in history in the Mat-Su Valley, a little rain never deters a good Alaskan (or a hearty Outsider…) bent on experiencing this once a year treat.