What makes Haines special? Majestic mountain vistas can be found all over the western United States. So can dramatic coastlines. If you know where to look, the world is still teeming with wildlife. Away from big cities, there are tiny towns and corners every bit as tranquil as this place. So what does Haines have that’s just not…
Sorting through my father’s personal affects following his death, I came across a small bible and inside, a lock of black hair, tied with a ribbon. The bible once belonged to my grandmother, but there were no clues to the origin of the lock. Was it hers? Had she sent it off with my grandfather, inside the bible, as he…
Life imitates art, they say. Take the Jan. 22 story in the Anchorage Daily News headlined, “Handgun Fired Accidentally in Coffee Shop Injures Woman.” The story said a group of friends met at a Kaladi Brothers coffee shop in Soldotna Jan. 20 and one of them, a 76-year-old man, pulled out a 9-millimeter pistol he’d brought inside, for reasons the…
“Yes and through this life I’ve wandered, I’ve seen lots of funny men. Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen.” Woody Guthrie, “Pretty Boy Floyd,” 1939. It’s ironic that 40 years ago, when Earth First! was being vilified for sabotaging development projects, a small group of wealthy people were getting to work…
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy created a ruckus last week with his draconian budget proposal, neatly sparing the oil industry while proposing to decimate Alaska’s public institutions and rain down hell on schools and municipalities. You can call Dunleavy a lot of things – Gov. Mongo, Caribou Trumpie, Wasilla’s Revenge – but don’t call him a liar. Dunleavy promised bigger…
At a recent Haines Borough committee meeting on tour regulations, operator Sean Gaffney made a statement that some people interpreted as a breakthrough or godsend: He said the borough could eliminate the 1 percent tax for tourism promotion, as far as he cared. If you’re not fond of tourism or you don’t follow local politics closely, you might misconstrue Gaffney’s…
I chatted up former Haines city administrator Tom Healy during a chance meeting on the ferry a couple years back and he got to reminiscing about things he appreciated about Haines. Healy had gone on to work many years as the municipal manager of Palmer, Alaska. The Haines barter economy, Healy said, was one of the interesting facets about the…
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…
After five weeks out, I returned to Alaska with a pocketful of Cape May diamonds* and a new appreciation for family and the people from my childhood. We are patching things back together following the death of my father, as all families do. Siblings take on new roles to fill the gap. Life goes on. My dad was good, a…
I’m back in Media, Pa., my hometown, promoted without irony as “Everybody’s Hometown.” Media has a picturesque main street lined with storefronts, featuring a trolley car and a grand theater and few stone buildings any one of which, placed in Haines, Alaska, would be crowned as an architectural wonder. Miniaturized in plastic, it’s the kind of place assembled alongside toy…