AS WE LEAVE - A Background of the Kenai Peninsula

On Monday we leave Deep Creek Beach to continue our journey once more. Before we leave this area, though, we thought you might like to have a thumbnail sketch of what we have learned while we've been here. So here goes...

This is a country of stormy seas and jagged mountains, glaciers, tundra, and forest. Native Alaskans – member of the Alutiiq people - have been in the Kenai forever – a good 10,000 years or so. The Elders say, “This is the land that we belong to, not the land that belongs to us.” They existed, and still do, by fishing, clamming, and hunting salmon, seals, sea lions, caribou, moose, and bear. Their diet has traditionally been rounded off with the berries and other wild foods they collect.

This people built sod houses which were lit by stone oil lamps. They hunted sea mammals from skin covered kayaks equipped with sophisticated harpoons. They wore waterproof clothing stitched from seal intestines, beach grass, and sinew. And they used the exceedingly soft, warm skins of the sea otter (members of the weasel or mustelid family) for their outer wear because of it's very thick fur. (In fact, at 850,000 to one million hairs per square inch, sea otters have the thickest fur of any mammal. Their fur actually consists of two layers, an undercoat and longer guard hairs. This system traps a layer of air next to their skin so their skin does not get wet – good insulation for humans, too.)

Before the Russian conquest of the Alutiiq people in the late 18^th century, they lived in dozens of large villages under the leadership of hereditary chiefs. Russian fur trading companies stayed until 1867 when the United States bought the territory from the Russians. The Alutiiq suffered under Russian rule and the population was severely reduced by smallpox and other diseases – much like the native populations of the lower 48 states. Over time, Russian language, foods, customs, and Orthodox religion became a part of the Alutiiq life.

This area, however, remained a wilderness – basically undeveloped until our lifetime. Alaska offered homesteading in the 1930s but it was a difficult thing to “prove up” a homestead over the required three year period. (They had to live on the land for three years. – They had to build a house, clear the land, and plant crops to feed themselves in this time period.) There were not a lot a survivors.

In 1947 Alaska once more began to push for homesteading this part of Alaska. Veterans of World War II were offered homesteads with their service times used for the proving period. The first homesteaders after WWII landed in Seward, took the train to Moose Pass, and then walked across the Kenai to what is now Soldotna because there were no roads to get here. The first roads into the lower part of this western area next to the Cook Inlet were only cut in the early 1950s. When Alaska says it is the “last frontier” it is truth.

Our time here in the Kenai has been a good time. Although Bob and Ruthine are not physically or mentally equipped to live in this area for long, we have the utmost respect for the folks who have lived and are living here now. These are the most polite people we have ever met. Whenever we had to ask them to do something in the campground, their response was repeatedly, “Thank you, we will” - and they did. They are a friendly, generous, and strong people. And we are happy we have been able to learn a little bit about them and this area they call home.