Forty years ago, before there was a Haines tourism department, before there was a 1 percent tax for tourism, before there was even much of a tourism industry, there was an idea that the annual eagle migration to the Chilkat Valley could become a tourist attraction.
That potential, in fact, was one of the arguments prompting the State of Alaska to create a bald eagle preserve in Haines. Scientists came to study and determined Haines hosted the largest congregation of eagles anywhere. After a battle with the timber industry to protect 48,000 acres of eagle habitat from commercial logging, the state created the preserve in 1982.
Haines took note. The Haines Chamber of Commerce changed its motto from “Home of the Chilkat Dancers” to “Valley of the Eagles.” Businessmen, most notably Dave Olerud but also tour operators like Bart Henderson and Dan Egolf, poured resources into businesses to capitalize on the preserve and the fall eagle migration.
Eagles were a no-brainer. The national symbol, up close or in flight, is an awe-inspiring sight. Haines had thousands of them each November, right there by the side of the highway. Anyone with a car and a pair of cheap binoculars could get their fill of eagles and come back for more. All the town needed to do was put out the welcome mat, keep the stores open, and warm up the cash registers.
Indeed, eagle viewers and photographers started showing up each November. In 1995, the Haines Chamber of Commerce launched the first Alaska Bald Eagle Festival, a celebration of the bird that included art exhibits, Native dancers, festival author Bob Armstrong and festival photographer John Hyde.
Release of a rehabilitated eagle into the wild wowed visitors. The event drew 220 paying participants, a “smashing success,” said tour guide Egolf, who helped organize it.
The festival built on its early success, adding attractions like an annual festival artist, who created a fine art print to commemorate the celebration. Former Gov. Jay Hammond, whose administration fathered the eagle preserve, spoke at the Chilkat Center to a jam-packed house. Guest biologists and researchers invited to make presentations on other species and natural history topics helped draw in residents already knowledgeable about eagles.
Over the years, the festival featured dances, comedy acts, art workshops, even a talk by Apollo astronaut and moonwalker Edgar Mitchell.
Truly, the eagle had landed in Haines. The festival rightly capped the eight-week gathering of birds, and sweetened the pot for attracting potential visitors from Alaska and beyond.
But the rest of the world got wise. Sitka launched a whale festival, and Wrangell, a bear festival. Cordova created a shorebird festival, of all things, and people went to that.
The American Bald Eagle Festival had competition for the nature-watching crowd. When the festival should have been growing, or at least holding its own, it started shrinking. Withdraw from the event by the Haines Chamber of Commerce left the festival solely to Olerud’s American Bald Eagle Foundation to organize.
With its limited staff, the foundation made a valiant and laudable effort to keep the event afloat, but it was a tall order and crowds shrank with fewer festival events. As crowds declined, restaurants shuttered for winter rather than wait for festival crumbs. Numbers of guest biologists declined, eroding resident turnout.
While covering the festival as a reporter about seven years ago, I chatted up a festival-goer, a school principal from Mexico City who was warming up over a cup of cocoa at Klukwan’s ANS Hall. He’d spent the previous hour in the cold at 19 Mile, where a village elder in regalia and a skin-drummer made a presentation on Native culture.
I asked him how his festival was going. “One drum,” he replied. “Are you kidding me? I came from Mexico City for this.”
His comments rang true. The Chilkat bald eagle migration – a world-class attraction – was now being celebrated with a low-energy, half-hearted festival. Apparently, the word got out, and festival attendance kept slipping.
There’s no one person to blame for the festival’s decline, and it’s going to require many of us, working together, to rescue it. But the festival deserves a rescue. Haines is still the world’s eagle capital, and we still get the main attraction for free.
The Haines Borough should lend a hand in promoting and organizing the festival. And the chamber should get on board, too. Like other small-town events like Petersburg’s Little Norway Festival, the eagle festival would be best as a three-day event, each day and night packed with activities.
Organizations like the Haines School, Sheldon Museum and public library could be asked to pitch in. Similarly, area businesses and non-profits should be encouraged to host festival events at their venues. An eagle parade down Main Street would be an easy and fun place to start. Festival beer and liquor tastings could be held at the brewery and distillery.
Even routine town events like Friday night open mic and karaoke could be gussied up and spun as festival events to visitors. Eagles are the stars of the festival show. Putting together side acts to keep visitors busy and happy should not be difficult. It’s just a party, after all. And we in Haines know a thing or two about throwing parties.
Viva the eagles and the festival. Let’s get on it. For Haines to be regarded as a serious tourist destination, this is one show that needs to be a hit.