Old Photo Albums > Our First Year in Fort Yukon (107)
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Stephanie climbs aboard a twin engine Piper Navajo with Warbelow's Air Ventures... Fairbanks to Fort Yukon. Flight time: one hour.
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Our pilot
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To give you an idea of how close we all were... that's the pilot, Stephanie's hand on the left, and Brian's knee on the right.
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The Yukon River braids and spreads across the land.
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The Mighty Yukon River. One of the largest river systems in the world, and the Yukon is a totally natural river. It is not dammed or channeled anywhere on its length. It is a highway through the enterior of Alaska, a source of subsistence with most Native villages along its banks, and a rich history of gold minder and Paddle Wheel boats like those on the Mississippi in Twain's time.
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Our first glimpse of Fort Yukon
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that's the red school roof on the left, the green gym in the center, and the AC Store on the right... I didn't know that at the time.
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final approach... (see the runway out the front window)
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and touchdown
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The Fort Yukon regional airport terminal
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The most oft photographed object in Fort Yukon: the sign. "Fort Yukon Inside the Arctic Circle"
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This is our driveway... our house is the green one on the right. On the left is a little cabin that we use for storage.
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Our humble abode.
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looking out of our living room window
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our living room... it got a lot better... there are those comfy blue camp chairs.
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Stephanie suddenly realizes what she has gotten herself into.
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It's fascinating to look back at this picture and see what we purchased on our first trip to the AC store. A bucket, pine sol and a sponge for cleaning our place, a can of Pringles and a cheap sauce pan for which we paid $30. I'll never forget that pan.
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Our front yard was filled with crap... old scrap pieces of wood and trash. I burned non stop for two full weekends.
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burning, burning, burning
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A much cleaner looking front yard
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this is a cache (prounouced cash), a traditional storage building in our front yard. The house is just to the left.
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Four views of our house... with a little more furniture and homey feeling.
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Infamous bush pilot "Frenchy"
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cranes gathered at Creamer's Field bird sanctuary in Fairbanks
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Geese gather together by the thousands and prepare for their migration. We watched them depart in waves of hundreds at a time, and this was in September, heading for Texas, Louisianna and Mexico.
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This was a Yukon River Tribal Watershed meeting in Fort Yukon. From L to R: Timble Gilbert, Episcopal Priest from Arctic Village, Mardo, Episcopal Priest from FYU, and Adlai, the then First Chief of Gwitchy'aa Zhee, aka Fort Yukon
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Trimble Gilbert blesses water from the Yukon River
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Native drummers sing traditional songs
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Trimble walks to the river with a couple of Native youth
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...and returns the water to the river while a raven flies overhead
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The menu on the door of the community hall list the food items for the potlatch
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The community gathers. We had our first moose head soup
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Girls zip by on a four-wheeler, the primary mode of transportation in the summer
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A neighbor shot a black wolf that had wandered too close to town
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The wolf is skinned. A wolf skin can sell of $300 or more.
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I heard several people mention that the carcass would be taken out and dumped rather than fed to the dogs as most animal carcasses are, because if the dogs at wolf meat, they would become wild like the wolf. I doublt this, but who am I to say.
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This is how we most commonly get wood. When the rivers melt and swell in the spring, they carry an almost unlimited supply of wood that is deposited on gravel bars. This is Pettet's boat, with Neubert on the left and me by the boat.
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"Hey, look at me! I've been an Alaskan for two months!"
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This is probably 300 or more silver salmon aka chum salmon aka dog salmon. These are hung to dry by a dog yard, and they will feed 12-15 dogs through the winter.
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Wright Air's Cessna Grand Caravan lands in Venetie as locals come out in groups to gather mail, packages and passengers.
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Everyone in the village can hear the plane come in for a landing, jumps on 4-wheelers, and comes running.
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This is Arctic Village and the foothills of the Brooks Mountain Range.
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Arctic Village has about 150 people. The people of Arctic have retained much more or therie cultural and traditional way, depend heavily on caribou, and have the most to lose from oil exploration and harvest in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
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Students stand on a small bridge over the Chandalar River with the Arctic Village school in the background.
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The Arctic Village School. Four teachers. About 45 students.
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On a ridge overlooking the valley.
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Stephanie and I took advantage of a free afternoon to motor up to a ridge above the town. A beautiful view, and the only sound was the wind that blew gently.
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Brian eats dried pineapple on the alpine tundra.
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Caribou antlers and rocks stand
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Fiddle music that was imported by Irish gold miners has been embraced as local fare, and fiddle music is now considered traditioal Athabascan music.
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A map of Alaska superimposed on a map of the contiguous US. You can see it extends from Atlantic to Pacific.
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This was pretty much the first snow, and I got excited. Here is the school district office, where I work every day.
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District office on the left and the Baptist church on the right.
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This is my office. It's actually changed a little over time. I should post a new picture of what it looks like now.
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The view outside my office window. The world takes on this blue look that can be seen in other pictures as well
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Stephanie stands in my office door moderately bundled
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Here are some scenery shots of my walk home from work. These 8 shots were taken during my lunch hour. And here is that blue color I was talking about.
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On a Saturday walk, Brian returns with frost on eyelashes, scarf and hood.
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