Stewart - Day 2

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Stewart – Day 2 (7/10/2016)

Went this morning to explore and learn.  Stewart is a very interesting town with an amazing history.  Two miles to the west, is Hyder, AK.  Both sit at the head of a 90 mile long Portland Canal. They are surrounded by the coastal range of mountains and the Cambria Ice Fields.
Downtown Stewart, BC

At one time, the cities had the name of Portland City, and the population was over 10,000.  Mostly living in tents, some homes were built on pilings over the water.  They are still visible today.  The mainstay for both communities has been mineral exploration.  Many mines are still active today as well.
In the early 1900s the Stewart brothers came to this community and formed the Stewart Land Company and changed the name that it bears today by 1905.  In 1915, the US Postal Service changed the name of Portland City to Hyder, AK since they felt there were too many other cities with the same name.  Incidentally, the town of Hyder keeps the same Pacific Time Zone as the rest of BC, but the single Post Office within the town, maintains the same time as the rest of Alaska.  (gotta love the federal gov’t and its regulations).

Two of the best attractions in the area are the feeding (salmon fishing) bears and the Salmon Glacier.  The world’s largest road accessible glacier. 

The National Park Service has constructed walkways over the river for tourists to safely view this feeding.  Salmon swimming upstream in these waterways to spawn, are met by the bears and it is supposed to be great to witness.  Of course there has to be salmon swimming upstream.  This year appears to be a low count in the number of salmon and many rivers are seeing little activity.  Unfortunately, we were not able to see any of this feeding today.















We did travel the 17 miles up the side of a mountain (just the truck!) on a mining trail that is active today, to view this glacier.  We made it to the “Toe” of Salmon Glacier.  Since it was cloudy and very overcast, we did not continue to the top of the mountain to view the glacier fully.  Others making this trek stated that visibility due to low clouds, were making it impossible to see the glacier.
Salmon Glacier

Marmot














Beaver















The trip back down this mountain was made on 1st & 2nd gears only.  We kept praying that no other vehicles would be traveling up the mountain to avoid the tight squeeze needed to allow passage.  A nervous experience.
 















Should mention that there is another attraction in Hyder:  Seafood Express restaurant.  AKA: The Bus!  We had an excellent halibut lunch.  The kitchen is inside the bus, we ate at a picnic table outside. 
 















We also found the Hyder School.  We discovered that it’s a one room school house, with 14 students from K-12.  They have 2 teachers and an aide. 


These 2 cities are on a spur at the head of Portland Canal.  The salt water Fjord forms a natural boundary between Alaska & Canada as seen below
Stewart, BC as seen from Hyder, AK















Eagle

















We were surprised to find out that there is no U.S. customs to enter Hyder, AK.  Upon reentering BC though, we needed to stop at Canadian Customs and present our passports.  















Stewart Day 3 was a relaxing, shopping and laundry day.  Next stop tomorrow is Telkwa, BC.





Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 13, 2016 at 9:12 AM

    Is that where marmalade comes from...marmets????
    -Felix

    ReplyDelete

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