June 7: Petersburg, AK

We pulled into Petersburg, Alaska, "The town that fish built" this morning; it is located on Mitkof Island.  The sun was out, and by the afternoon there was not a cloud in the sky.  Temperatures eventually rose into the 60s, and it felt like summer in Alaska.  Petersburg is a fishing community; there are two large fish processing plants here, and one smaller fish processing plant. The town used to be the world's largest shrimp producer.  Petersburg has the largest halibut fleet (the most halibut boats) in the world. Their second largest economic producer is government; the US Coast Guard and park service are here, as well as fisheries, US wildlife enforcement, Alaska Fish and Game, and more. The third economic producer is visitors, but the town does not have a port for huge ships.  The town also has a strong Norwegian heritage, and Norwegian flags fly all over town, with signs of this heritage present in everything from murals to the Chamber of Commerce.

I started the morning in Petersburg on the Haa Aani cultural tour; I learned so much about Tlingit history, including that their language is being taught at the University of Alaska Southeast and that Tlingit is the largest tribe in the state of Alaska.  Petersburg is 20% is indigenous and Alaska now has voting ballots available in native languages.  On our hike we learned much cultural history, and I also learned about the economics of Petersburg; for example, milk is nearly $9 a gallon because everything must be shipped in and gas is nearly $5 a gallon. There are no midwives or doctors who can deliver babies on the island, so women expecting babies go stay in Juneau or another larger town.  I also learned about the wildlife here, such as the Sitka black tail deer we saw driving to our hike; they are small compared to the deer I see at home, growing only up to 120 pounds.  The Haa Aani cultural tour guides brought along their daughter, who is in high school.  She explained that when the school sports teams have games against other teams they have to fly to their games; the neighboring island schools host the sports teams on weekends, with the visiting teams spending the night at the school facilities and then flying back when the weekend games are over.  I passed the town airport on our afternoon bike ride; the community really depends on regular Alaskan Airline flights in and out of town, as there are no roads/bridges to other areas of the state.  There really is so much to learn about life in rural Alaska.    

After the cultural tour and lunch it was time for a guided bike ride around Petersburg, and the weather was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT; sun, warmth, everything you could wish for on a bike ride.  We stopped at Sandy Beach, where petroglyphs and fish traps that are hundreds of years old are visible at low tide (we were visiting at high tide).  The views from Sandy Beach were truly something from a painting, and I just kept being so thankful for the gorgeous weather and the never-ending scenery.  After the guided bike ride I explored the shops of Petersburg, also stopping into the Chamber of Commerce where they gave me some free materials to take back to my classroom.  I also went to the town museum's gift shop, where the woman running the museum talked to me about life in Petersburg.  After a day spent exploring we boarded Quest for a crab feast dinner; looking forward to tomorrow's adventures!