Homer, AK 7/2

On Wednesday Chris and Judy went to the ‘quilt store’ that supposedly has the largest selection of material in Alaska!  They both found what they wanted and now have their activities planned when we get back to TX.

This place we went to is called “The Mall.’  

It has one entryway and a bunch of stores within but is basically one store and one checkout area.  The stores include the quilt store, a pharmacy, True Value, etc.  They have most everything you need (except groceries – they have a Safeway here in town).

In the afternoon we went back out to the Spit and snacks (onion rings, calamari, and fries) along with some beer of course.  

We took a walk behind the restaurant along the beach.  Quite cold with the wind coming off the water!

From there we drove back into Homer and found Skyline Drive which is a road up into the mountain with great views back over the Bay.

The Spit from another angle.

Went back to Chris and Bob’s for supper and then a couple rounds of cards!!

Thursday we all went back to “The Mall” to browse around.  Quite the place.  From there we went to the Pratt Museum and spent the afternoon.  

Excellent museum.

Their greeter!!!

Whale bones.  Judy thinks we found a small piece of whale bone back on the Kenai Beach.  Sure looks like a part of the tail.

Guess what?  Rhubarb in full bloom!

Very interesting history of this area – Kachemak Bay, etc.  Across the bay is the little town of Seldovia which originally (1920’s) was the commerce center for all of Western Alaska.  The canneries were thriving.  In the 30’s a wooden boardwalk was built along the waterfront to facilitate travel through the town.  Businesses in buildings set on pilings flourished along the intimate wooden walkway, and, Seldovia became known as the “boardwalk town.”

The 1964 earthquake changed Seldovia forever.  High tides washed over the boardwalk and into it's buildings, houses and stores.  The town was rebuilt on higher ground above the tides.  It is an active and fun community, has a school (grades 1 – 12), and attractive retirement place and supports the sport fishing industry.  But, now the fishing center is actually Homer.

A little Homer history:

• Coal, mined from seams lacing the north shore of Kachemak Bay, was Homer's first economic reason for existing. Russians reported the abundance of coal in the mid 1800s and by 1889 American companies were mining and shipping coal via Alaska's first railroad that ran 7.38 miles from shafts and tunnels near Coal Creek above old town (now the site of Bunnell Street Gallery) to a large wharf built near the end of the 4.5 mile Spit. There it was loaded onto waiting ships. 
• Supported by this industry, the first town was established at the end of the Homer Spit, a grassy finger of land "spit up" by the ocean. (Another theory is that it is a moraine left behind by glaciers retreating into the Kenai Mountains on the far side of Kachemak Bay). In those days, before the 1964 earthquake, the spit was higher and wider and even supported a stand of spruce in an area still called "Green Timbers."
• When Homer Pennock and his 50-man/one-woman crew dropped anchor at the end of the Spit in April of 1896, the Alaska Gold Mining Company took a minor role in shaping history by giving the town its name. Described variously as a promoter and "the most talented confidence man who ever operated on this continent," the town's namesake only stayed about a year, moving on to the Klondike when gold was discovered there. 
• The first post office opened in 1886 but by 1902 the coal market faded and the vulnerable spit-end company town was abandoned. A handful of remaining residents resettled on the benchland, turning to farming and fishing. 
• Shaping the direction of growth in the area, a salmon cannery was built in Seldovia, 13 miles southwest of Homer across the Bay. A school was established here by 1919 and a few churches also strengthened the social fabric. Telephones and a road secured the town's stability in the 1920s, and short-lived but intense herring and fur enterprises provided brief economic boosts around Kachemak Bay. As those industries waned, salmon fishing and processing continued to strengthen. 
• Much of the Spit town was torn down and recycled into new structures for homesteaders and fishermen and then during the early 1930s most of the remaining structures burned in a slow-spreading fire fed by coal that had washed ashore. The cabin, that is now part of the Salty Dawg Saloon, was one of the few structures that survived. 

More to come...