Soaking in Small Town Alaska

History truly comes alive while walking the old marching grounds of Fort Seward, drinking local beer in the Haines Brewery, enjoying salmon chowder at the Fireweed, or walking the main street of Haines and listening to the locals catch up with their old friends. It truly feels like you've been transported back to the 1970s. Back to simpler times when everyone knew their neighbor and looked after each other. Even though Haines is on the Alaska Marine Highway ferry route between two of Southeast Alaska's highest traveled tourist towns (Skagway and Juneau), the town has somehow managed to fight back the hands of time and preserve its culture and heritage. With only one cruise ship dock, Haines only gets the occasional visit from a large ship, as opposed to the other cities with their 5-7 daily cruise ships. Haines does not have a single stop light, still has a K-12 school with about 8-12 kids per class, and the local chamber of commerce publishes a paper that tells you exactly which 5 places in town sell ice! Haha! It took us 5 hours by ferry to make the 70 mile journey up the channels from Juneau to Haines. You kinda have to really want to visit Haines in order to get there, but it was soooo worth it! Our log cabin with the sauna on our own private beach notwithstanding, this place is truly special!

The former military base hospital (pictured above) is now an artist's den, hosting everything from bear tooth collections, local creations of "art" that resemble Phoebe's "Gladys" that Rachel and Monica fought to avoid (right), and totem pole carvings/repair service.

The nice old guy we met when visiting the place told us that his daughter was actually born there when it was an active hospital 30 years ago! He said back then, Alaskan law allowed for the parents to hand-write their children's birth certificates, so his daughter still has a birth certificate written by him.

This region is the sacred and long-standing homeland of the Tlingit native people. The Chilkoot tribe, specifically, inhabited the area that is now modern day Haines. You can see the influence of the Tlingits everywhere. The entire reason why the fort was built here in 1902 was because the Tlingits had established an important and valuable trade route that caused a bit of political concern between Russia and the United States. One fact that none of us remembered until we visited Alaska was that Alaska didn't become a state until 1959! That is a full FIVE years after Elvis hit the world entertainment scene with a splash!

Fortunately, the Tlingits are one of the very few native American tribes that were not confined to reservations. To this day they have incorporated lands that belong specifically to the tribe, but enjoy wide ranging and free land ownership rights in the area.

From the native wildlife that we enjoyed (bears, fish, eagles, and foxes), to the peaceful downtime sitting on our porch staring at a glacier or soaking in the warmth of our personal sauna, to hanging out with locals in the restaurant or meeting the quirky artists in the museum, we soaked in every bit of Haines and would recommend it to any traveler who likes to get off the beaten path to capture a special memory.