Alaska 2024 - Day 5 Wrangell
13 August 2024
We headed out into the North Pacific, then through Sumner Strait, arriving at Wrangell, at 8:00 a.m. Seas were calm with swells that nicely meshed with the size of our ship to provide a slow, gentle up and down motion while we were in the open ocean, reminding us we were on a ship, but without the discomfort of heavier seas.
Wrangell is a small town on the northern tip of Wrangell Island. The population of about 1,200 is heavily augmented when a ship pulls into port, with several hundred passengers making their way into the town for the day.
Our first stop on the Wrangell highlights tour was a fairly small museum packed with a lot of informative, well designed, attractive displays. It would have been nice to have more time there. We only had about 30 minutes, but had the option of going back after our bus tour ended if we wanted.
Our tour guide, Bella, was a Tlingit High School student at Wrangell High School. She said her Tlingit name for us. It was incredibly long. It includes her tribes going back for generations. It seemed like it took her over a minute to say. It wasn't that long, but was probably 20 seconds.
Her Mother crafts jewelry using locally sourced material to sell to tourists. Bella let us all know any jewelry she was wearing was made by her Mom and was for sale. She's also going to be a wrestler on the Wrangell High School Wrestling team which really impresses me. It's always nice to meet a fellow grappler. I'm a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Skills that will serve her for a lifetime!
The next stop after the museum was an area by the ocean with many petroglyphs etched into indigenous stone in the tidal zone by the ocean, at Petroglyph Beach State Park. Some were clearly visible and easy to make out. Others were kind of faded due to erosion from water, sand, and the elements.
A petroglyph, if you haven't worked it out already, is a picture carved into stone. The ones in Wrangell are believed to be from 8,000 years ago! Some were quite clear, while others took some focus and imagination to see. Here's one I thought looked like an impression of a fish.
According to Bella, the depictions were believed to have been carved into the stone using bone. Other stone native to the area would have ground up while trying to carve the lines.
Bella also told us about how they rely on frequent deliveries by boat to keep shelves stocked year round. Sometimes, ships are kept from reaching them due to weather, and the grocery store can run out of stock quickly.
Our tour then took us to the small Wrangell Airport. Flight schedules aren't too reliable due to weather. The residents still have to use it, as it's often the quickest way to get somewhere.
Just North of the airport is a tiny island called Dead Man's Island. Because the dead can't be buried in the winter, which lasts much of the year in Alaska, people who died were transported out to Dead Man's Island until the thaw, or were simply left there. There are rings from barrels believe to have stored corpses and some human bones still on the island.
We headed back to the place we started, near the pier in Wrangell, thanked Bella and our bus driver, and headed into town to walk around a bit. It was a clean, tourist friendly town with a bank, restaurants, souvenir stores, and clothing stores.
On the way back to the ship, we saw a pop-up stand for the jewelry store operated by Bella's Mom, Bonnie Ritchie. Her jewelry store is called Ritchies Rocks©️. Galina found a pair of ear rings she liked made from silver with dark garnets and fuzzy white puff's made from mink fur. She bought them and they look very nice on her. Online or in person, Ritchies Rocks©️ is worth checking out.
You can read more about the Ritchie family in this Alaska Magazine article about them.
After we bought Galina's ear rings, we headed back to the ship to relax, eat, and prepare for day 6 of our cruise, an at sea day through the Inside Passage.