Karluk Lagoon

 

Karluk Village and Lagoon with old Karluk on the other side of the lagoon (to left)

Last week I went to the village of Karluk for a work related trip. For the last 15 years or so I have done a lot of archaeology up on Karluk Lake and along the river.  But I had not visited the village in over 20 years - maybe 25!

The village of Karluk is on the lagoon at the mouth of the river and it is where I spent my first summer in Alaska way back in 1985. I was a part of the Bryn Mawr College excavation at the Karluk One site. This is the excavation that basically created the Alutiiq Museum where I now work. The site was a 'wet' site and had amazing organic preservation - grass and spruce root baskets, wood masks, painted box panels, ulus with the handles attached - All sorts of amazing stuff  Today most of the artifacts on display in the gallery are from that excavation.

Since then the entire site has been destroyed by erosion. The river draining the lagoon has been slowly migrating to the southwest and it completely destroyed the site by the early 2000's. Now it is cutting into the hillside and threatening the old Russian Orthodox Church on the hill that was once behind the site (see bottom photo).

Spending a day back on the lagoon brought back many memories. I walked the same road that I had once walked every day from the village to the site. I saw the old Russian Orthodox church. But one thing I did not see was Karluk One the archaeological site I helped excavate. Where the site once was is now under water or beach gravel. The erosion since I last visited is utterly amazing. 

Patrick

River erosion threatening the Karluk Church

It was a tad buggy

Ugak Bay from the plane home

'CC 1,2,3' - the old ski route from Crown to Center

The church in 1995

me on the slope below church above river in 1985

Aerial view of Karluk from 1983 - it's eroded a lot since then

Wakefield Fisheries Symposium

 

Yesterday I presented a paper at the Wakefield Fisheries Symposium. It was a re worked version of the paper I presented at the SAA's - I cut some of the archaeology and added a few slides related to how the Alutiiq adapted to the vicissitudes of life in the Gulf of Alaska in the past. In any case, I remembered that back in the day my dad wrote a story about Lowell Wakefield and the King Crab Industry for Time Magazine. My mom and dad visited Kodiak, Anchorage and Homer back in 1967 while my dad worked on the story (photos below). So I went on the internet and tracked it down (see article below).

Lowell Wakefield became a very important man in the Alaska fishing industry and for the last 34 years every year there has been a fisheries symposium held in his honor. It's actually a pretty prestigious symposium and people come from all over the world to attend it. It's usually held in Anchorage but this year they had it in Kodiak and the theme was Marine Heat Waves. 

My dad's article is worth reading and very much relevant today. Warming oceans and declining sea food prices are hurting fishing communities. In the mid 20th century Lowell Wakefield created and marketed an entirely new segment in the fisheries industry - King Crab. Perhaps the industry could (and should!) do something similar with another previously under-appreciated type of seafood.

Patrick

My dad's story about Lowell Wakefield

My mom and family friend on arrival at Kodiak from Homer

Snow machines at the new Port Wakefield (Port Lions)

Crab boat crewman

A new canyon to ski

 

On Friday I went XC skiing up into the Russian River canyon. I checked my old blog and I don't think I've gone skiing there in almost 20 years. However, it used to be a favorite. I think I sort of forgot about it as an option when we had a run of warm winters in the 2010's. It is an area that only sets up for skiing after particularly long cold snaps.

Anyway, for old posts about the Russian River click here and here for some ski tours and here for a whitewater trip - and finally here for a post where I describe the trip along with other places to XC ski.

The old blog post linked above where I describe places to cross country skiing got me thinking (map but not descriptions shown below). I used to be pretty adventurous about places to go cross country skiing! Also I noticed that it is missing 2 of my favorite places to XC ski. These are places where I did not XC 20 years ago. 

These 2 places are the plateau and bowls above and behind the ski chalet and the big bowl on the north side of Sharatin Mountain. Both are places where I like to go skate skiing when the snow is skimpy down low. But go check out the old blog post linked above to find out more about these areas.

Patrick

I did not even see the duck in this photo when I took the picture

Upper Buskin Canyon in 1980 and 2026

 

I was going through some old photos at work and found these picture from circa 1980 of archaeologists surveying in the Upper Buskin canyon where I have been cross country skiing. The archaeologists were surveying the area prior to the construction of the Terror Lake hydro project. They were locating and identifying archaeological sites in the areas that would be impacted by the project. The Buskin River canyon is under the power lines that bring the electricity back from the dam to town - hence they needed to survey it.

It was the project that brought the notice of archaeologists back to Kodiak. Kodiak had been the locus of a lot of archaeology in the 1960's and early 1970's, but by 1980 there was not a lot of on-going archaeology. While the Terror Bay archaeologists were in town they saw amazing wood artifacts from the Karluk One site, and this piqued their interest. Eventually this lead to the Bryn Mawr College surveys and the archaeological excavations at Karluk. My introduction to Kodiak Archaeology was at the Karluk One excavation in 1985.

Anyway, because I ski up the Upper Buskin Canyon a lot I recognized exactly where the old survey photos were taken. And so earlier this week I decided to go back and take photos at the same place. Unfortunately, I did not take the actual photos with me and so had to do them from memory. I also realized later that they had about a 50mm lens on their camera and this made things look a bit different. The ones I took are a bit wider angle. 

I love the top picture of the archaeologists at work. It captures the era quite well - the shotgun in the grass, hip waders, an old school camera. I am actually sort of amazed that they got to that place and I notice that the guys pants aren't even wet. I suspect that they got dropped off in the field above the canyon by helicopter, and then hiked on down into the canyon to look for sites. A lot of the other photographs they took show the helicopter and aerial views taken from it. I am also amazed that they went up the canyon all the way to the waterfall - it is over a kilometer up river from the top photo and it is deep in places with cliffs and very rocky. Also there clearly would be no sites in the canyon. Maybe they knew this but decided it was just a cool place to explore? Or maybe the helicopter dropped them off up there too?

In any case I almost always think of them on survey so long ago when I ski past these places.

Patrick

And the other photos at the bottom of the post show how badly the ski conditions have deteriorated as the snow has sublimated in the dry air and overflow has turned to ice. We need new snow!

2026 the same view as above but just a little upriver

the waterfall in 1980

waterfall in 2026

My Favorite Pictures of 2025 - People in the landscape

 

My final favorite pictures of 2025 post. These are the landscapes with people in them pictures. I count dogs as people, and I think these are my favorite pictures of the three posts. Landscapes are just better with people (and dogs) in them. They give a sense of scale, and just make the landscapes more interesting. Tiny little people in the picture just makes the landscape seem far grander. They also create a point of focus - you immediately see the person (or dog) and it gets you into the picture.

I also noticed that not all the photos posted here fit the theme. The picture of the doe and hours old fawn is my only animal picture to make the final cut. A bear picture did not make my final favorites, and I took a lot of decent bear pictures this year. But like flower pictures, I think animal pictures are just sort of boring. Get a good lens - zoom in close and there you go. I'm actually surprised I kept the doe and fawn picture in the final cut.

And finally, I think the second picture here - the one just below - is my single best photo from 2025.

Patrick