Day 93 - Haines

We Get "Museumed Out"

Once again it rained and the day began in rain and fog. It was to be another day touring Haines. Being a Monday, the businesses and museums were open. Most were closed yesterday.

Before leaving we switched sites to a long pull-through site along the lake which we could share with Harry and Sally. It would have had a better vie of the lake, if not for the rain and fog, but it did save us some money.

Today the were no bears to be seen going into town. Bears would be seen by some later.

Our first stop was the American Bald Eagle Foundation and natural history museum. The museum is a large collection of taxidermy versions of all the mammals and the major birds and fish found in Alaska. It was mostly a large diorama showing them in their native habitats. The Bald Eagle part was a small collection of eagles and owls that have been rescued but are unable to be returned to the wild. 

The foundation began as an organization to rescue eagles, as Haines has one of the largest gatherings of bald eagles in North America. About 3,500 gather on the Chilkat River every November. The river is still open and supports a late salmon run at that time. The eagles are here for the free eats. That section of the river has been set aside as a 48,000 acre eagle preserve. The foundation still rescues eagles, but sent them to rehabilitators elsewhere in Alaska.

Next we were off to visit Alaska Indian Arts, a workshop on Fort Seward where artists and carvers create totem poles, masks, boxes and other works. Unfortunately, there was no one working while we were there and there were no totem poles in progress, but we did get to tour the workshops and see a nice collection of smaller works, both contemporary and older traditional works. 

Haines is known for its totem poles. There are many erected in the town and their carvers create them for location all over the Northwest. We've seen only a few, the most memorable being the one outside the library. It was created especially for the library and has both traditional and contemporary figures. One is a figure holding a book. The carver obviously has a sense of humor...the title of the book is "Totem Carving for Dummies".

By the time we finished at the workshop, it was time for lunch. We decide to try another restaurant today, the Lighthouse Restaurant on the waterfront. The food was good, but not as good as the Bamboo Room. The floor and walls in the section we sat were a bit off-kilter, as if the restaurant had settled a bit, but I think the table was level.

Right across the road was the Haines Sheldon Museum. This was the local history and native arts museum which was started from a personal eclectic collection. It had some good native blankets and lots of historical photos and artifacts including the fresnel lens from the Eldred Rock lighthouse, which marked the entrance to Lynn Canal.

Our final museum was the Hammer Museum, right across the street from the Sheldon Museum. Yes, it is a collection of hammers, 2,000 of them. Entrance came as a package with the other museums. In some ways it was really fascinating. It is a personal collection. All the hammers are mounted by type and they are all different. Who knew there were so many specialized hammers and this collection has an example of almost all of them. Harry stumped the staff, a young woman who seemed to know quite a bit about all the hammers and their usages. He wanted to know if they had an optician's hammer (He used to be an optician). She had not heard of such a tool. It was evidently used to peen over the pins that hold the arms to the frames on a pair of glasses. Not seen today as they are usually connected by screws...that occasionally fall out and get lost.

Finished at the museums, we made a quick stop at the local IGA market for some groceries before returning to Chilkoot Lake. Harry and Sally returned ahead of us and while we stopped to look at scoters in Chilkoot Inlet they were looking at bears in Chilkoot Campground--close up!

We just missed the action in our campsite. As Sally was about to take Nina for a walk after getting their van setup in the campground, they stepped around the van only to see one of the young Brown Bears standing on top of the dumpster right behind the site. After retreating back into the van, the bear came up and peered into the back window were Sally was watching. She did the obvious thing, hid her face with a pillow. We missed all of this, but the whole episode is recounted in Sally's blog, Chisholm Trails .

Needless to say, we had dinner inside tonight, not only bears in the campground, but it is still raining.