Dutch Harbor Trip Report

Unalaska Island sits about midway down the Aleutian Chain, around 800 miles southwest of Anchorage. It is the second largest island in that chain. On the island is the City of Unalaska and the International Port of Dutch Harbor.

I believe the population of Unalaska is approximately 4000 people. In addition to the major port at Dutch Harbor, the island also has an elementary school, a junior/senior high school with competition indoor pool, a library, 2 post offices, two hotels, a Safeway grocery store, a police and fire station, 2 baseball fields, 2 museums, a small boat harbor, several other marinas, a handful of restaurants and bars, a bajillion blueberries, and a long rocky coastline.... It also has a WWII history which is evident all over the island.

I was scheduled to teach a class through the week, M-F. However, my flight was scheduled for Saturday afternoon in case my flight did not fly for some reason. As it turned out, the flight was merely delayed for 3 hours, but I did manage to make it to the island by late Saturday evening. It's a 3-hour flight from Anchorage on a plane the size of a small school bus with wings. There are 29 passenger seats, one flight attendant, and 2 pilots. Other than the flight attendant, I was the only female on the flight to Dutch Harbor. It was filled with fishermen.

Sometimes people think of Alaska as consisting of more men than women. This isn't really true for the most part, but it is certainly true in Dutch Harbor. A large portion of the population there consists of fishermen coming and going in hopes of making their millions, or at least making a living in the fishing industry. However, the non-fishing portion of the population is made up of your standard mix of men and women.

So, I ended up having all of Sunday to myself to explore the island. I had a rental car which had been left, unlocked, keys in the ignition with my name taped to the window in the airport parking lot the night before due to my late arrival. There are perhaps 5 little cars on the island, this rental car being one of them. Everyone else drives a pickup truck.


I drove my little car all around the island. I wanted to visit the boats at Dutch Harbor. I don't watch the Deadliest Catch very often, but I hoped to see some of the boats from that show. The actual crab fishing season doesn't start till mid-October. And the only boat docked there during the off-season was the Northwestern.

While at the spit dock which is alongside the spit that forms Dutch Harbor, I noticed a steep switchback road climbing the mountain along the harbor. I decided my little rental car could handle it and headed to the top, where I found a WWII historic site complete with an underground battery and lots of remnants of bunkers and gunsites. The view from the top of that mountain was spectacular. And even more spectacular was the concept that a group of men got all those supplies up there in the 1940's to build that battery to protect the US from Japanese invasion. Aside from Pearl Harbor, Unalaska is the only US soil that was bombed (and heartily!) during WWII. There was a massive relocation of the native populations from the Aleutians to down around southeast Alaska (near Juneau). The people were somewhat forcefully relocated to what basically amounted to concentration camps. They were allowed to bring minimal belongings and lived in these camps for several years in poor conditions. Many died due to the conditions. It's a pretty sad story that, as far as I know, does not get taught in history classes. Certainly not as openly as Pearl Harbor anyway.

During the week, I taught my class during the day and either explored a little or hung out at the hotel during the evening. Because Unalaska is in the same time zone as Anchorage (all of AK is in the same time zone), but it's so far west, the sun rose and set about an hour later than it had at home. This threw me off a little! But it was nice in the evening when I had a little more daylight by which to explore.


I did have one incident during the week where some drunk fisherman attempted to impersonate a hotel staffperson to gain entry into my hotel room for unknown intentions. So I got to meet some of Unalaska's Finest and filed an incident report. They questioned and somewhat detained the individual. The officer on the case was tree-like in stature. He assured me that the perpetrator would not be bothering me or anyone else with such antics. I took him at his word.


There are 2 very nice meals in Unalaska each week. Both took place at my hotel, the Grand Aleutian, and both were attended by me. There was the Sunday Brunch and the Wednesday night Seafood Buffet. Both were huge spreads of absolutely fabulous food! Each cost around $30, give or take. And each was well worth it! Those are by far the best meals I've had in Alaska, ever.....

Later in the week, I got a chance to go blueberry picking with a couple involved in my class. We went up on the hill behind the quarry. They lent me a blueberry picking scoop and we tackled the soggy hillsided loaded with berries! Everyone in Unalaska owns a pair of XtraTuff boots and wears them almost daily. I do not own a pair, but they would have definitely come in handy on the hillside. But I did okay with just my Danskos, sticking closer to the base of the slope and avoiding really wet spots as best I could.


I took a ton of photos during my week stay. A few of them are in this post, but many more can also be seen in an album I posted on Facebook. See link below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=215511&id=523908158&l=59f9a81c19

Off to Dutch Harbor

In a few hours, I'm flying to Dutch Harbor on Unalaska which is one of the Aleutian islands for the week. I'll be staying at the Grand Aleutian Hotel and teaching a GIS class M-F to City of Unalaska staff.

They've scheduled my flight two days early just in case weather concerns make it difficult to travel. Apparently, this is very common as the Aleutians are known for be very windy and rainy. But if all goes well, I might have a whole day available to just explore the island before diving into the training agenda.

Dutch Harbor is the base port for the television show, Deadliest Catch. I don't suspect they'll be filming the next season yet, but I might run into a few of the folks, unless they're spending their off season in Aruba or something! The population of Unalaska (which includes Dutch Harbor) is just over 4000.

My flight, should it leave the ground in Anchorage, will take about 3 hours on a 29-seater plane. I plan to take lots of Bonine as it's bound to be bumpy!

Tess is Now a Major

Sweet little Tessie turned 18 today. Waaaah! Seems like just yesterday we were dressing up in tutus and tiaras and dancing around the house. Oh wait? Maybe that WAS yesterday!

Well, honestly, the time has flown. We've done our best to drag her to as many new homes and states as possible in the past 18 years. Now, it's up to her to drag herself. She's currently residing in New Concord, OH in a dorm room at Muskingum University.

I mailed her a birthday box which she received yesterday. It included a cake, candles, presents, a Birthday Girl sash, and some streamers, as well as a photo album filled with pics from Alaska.

She and her new college girlfriends went to Olive Garden for dinner tonight. That's a luxury we don't have here in Alaska as there is not a single Olive Garden in the state!


So Happy Birthday Tess! I hope this first year away from home is filled with lots of great new adventures and that you return safely to us over Christmas and Summer breaks...