The Year of 1938

Off For King Cove

The first of a series of letters of a King Cove School Teacher

By Kenneth L. Cohen

Each fall nearly five hundred teachers take up their work In Alaska schools, many in remote villages, under frontier conditions. Few Outsiders know about life in such places, because they are far off the regular routes of travel and are but rarely visited.

The everyday life these teachers live, among Indians and Eskimos and rugged Alaskans, is often unique and full of interest. The following is the first of a series of letters detailing such experiences written last year to friends and relatives in the States by a teacher who went to King Cove with his wife to teach a (in the) Territorial school. King Cove is near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, six hundred miles southwest of Seward.

Dear Friends:
Well, as some of you know, we left Juneau Thursday night, August 31, and the following are a FEW of the interesting events which have since transpired. Soon after the steamer Alaska pulled out we went into the salon and danced to the music of the ship's orchestra, composed of young women. Then we ate ten o'clock lunch and danced some more until eleven, when we went to bed. We didn't get up until the following afternoon. You see WE COULDN'T. The boat was in the Gulf of Alaska. Rose fed the fish and I got very dizzy. About four o'clock the boat leveled off and we were soon in Yakutat.

We arose and found that this village had typical Alaska weather-it was raining. Yakutat has a fish cannery and most of its inhabitants are Indians. The most interesting thing about the village is the railroad which is about ten miles long and the only commodity it hauls is fish to the cannery and that only in the summertime. We reboarded the ship and talked to the purser. He told us that there were over one hundred school teachers aboard the ship, all going to their posts in various parts of Alaska. Soon after leaving the purser, we decided to eat our first meal of the day. Very fearlessly, we walked down to the dining room. In the meantime the boat had left the dock and headed out again. Rose thought that the braised beef on the menu looked good to her. I knew that breaded sweetbreads should taste fine after my fast, so we ordered.... But before the waiter had a chance even to repeat our orders to us, we left the table. You see, we were back on the Gulf.... Back to our bunks, the two of us returned. Poor Rose! She couldn't even undress-she just flopped. After a while we heard a knock on the door. It was Roberta Dooly of Juneau. She was on her way to Cordova. Roberta had come to visit us. Her visit consisted of helping Rose to undress....

THE next morning we awoke on a much calmer sea. We got up and had a good breakfast, then went on deck and basked in the sunshine. We met Mr. and Mrs. J. Gerald Williams who taught at Unga last year. Unga is only about eight hours by water from King Cove and we learned a little about our future home from them. Mrs. Williams used to be Miss Harriet Sey of Juneau. This year they are teaching at Hope, Alaska. We always thought that the scenery around Juneau was beautiful. We had been told, however, that we hadn't seen natural beauty unless we had been farther north and westward in Alaska.

As we neared Cordova we realized the truth of that statement. I will try to describe it. The ship steamed into a wide channel on each side of which was a low range of small, tree-covered mountains and rising back of them a larger range of snow-capped peaks . . . but words really fail to describe what we saw-you have to see it with your own eyes to appreciate it. We arrived in Cordova shortly after lunch, and since the town is about a mile from the dock, we walked. We could have taken a taxi, but we decided that we needed the exercise. We found Cordova a modern Alaska town with wide, but unpaved streets. It is nestled on a low bench on well-sheltered Orca Inlet, an arm of Prince William Sound. It has several canneries and a number of others in the vicinity and is the terminus of the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad which runs to the copper mine at Kennecott, a distance of 190 miles toward the Interior. They say Cordova is the sportsman's paradise. Trout swarm in nearby lakes and streams and large brown bear are found on the coast south of the town and on nearby islands. A jewel in a giant setting of green is mountain-guarded Lake Eyak, near which is the beautiful and unique Nirvana Park, built by one man as a hobby. We walked to the edge of the town and the park, then slowly back, breathing in the scenery and the fresh air. WE STOPPED at the Cordova Drug Store and visited the owner, George McDonald, whom we had met in Portland when he went there for medical treatment. He was very much surprised, but pleased to see us. In the course of our conversation, Rose told Mr. McDonald that before we left Juneau she purchased some Mother Sill's Seasick pills and that they had not prevented her from getting seasick.
Mr. McDonald said that he had some pills that he wished she would take when she got on the boat. He declared that if they did the trick his fortune would be made. Rose took the box of pills and we both said we hoped that he would become rich-for our sake and his. We next went on a short ride around Cordova and saw the airport which had been made by the simple expedient of tearing down the side of a hill and leveling off the bottom. We left Cordova late in the afternoon and steamed between some more beautiful islands and sparsely wooded, snow-covered mountains.

Now we were bound for Valdez. The water was very smooth, so we were able to dance. While in the dance salon we met two teachers, man and wife, who were to teach in different schools. Their meeting on the boat was quite by accident, the wife told us. Then there was the blond woman who had just returned from Europe. She was on her way north to Join her husband. They had evidently been separated for some time. At Cordova she received some sort of news which appeared to displease her. The news distressed the woman so much that she went to the bar room with a young man she had met on the boat and there picked up the bar card and started ordering from the top. She tried to drink each drink that it had upon it. By the time the boat reached Valdez all her troubles were gone, but her equilibrium was very poor. WHILE we were waiting for the boat to dock at Valdez I talked to a Catholic priest from Cordova. I asked him if he knew Rev. Ralph Peterson, the Presbyterian minister of Cordova, and he said, "Yes, very well." I told him that I couldn't find the Rev. Mr. Peterson when we stopped at Cordova and that I would like to have him say hello to Peterson for me. When I gave him my name he remarked that Peterson had told him of me and that he had said I was the person Peterson always met wherever he went. I remarked that I hoped we would meet in the hereafter. Odd, wasn't it, that a Jewish man should be giving a message to a Catholic priest to deliver to a Presbyterian minister! As we stepped off the gangplank at this city which was so prominent in gold rush days, the first person that we met was Alex S. Dunham, the principal of the Juneau High School. Alex had just returned from his usual summer's work at Mount McKinley Park. He was surprised to hear that Byron Miller would not return to Juneau to teach music in the schools, but would teach at Centralia, Washington. It was quite late when we docked, but we walked up the unlighted pier a quarter of a mile to the town of Valdez. We strolled around the town and talked to some people who were to take the bus the next morning to go over the Richardson Highway to Fairbanks. This highway is over four hundred miles in length and is the longest road in Alaska. We dropped in at the telephone office about midnight and looked at the board and the list of about one hundred subscribers. We did not see very much of it, but understand Valdez has some of the most magnificent scenery in the world, including Columbia Glacier and historical Valdez Glaciers, Keystone Canyon and Thompson Pass. Back on the Alaska we learned that one of the teachers on board was a cousin of J. C. Stauffer who taught chemistry to me in high school some sixteen years ago.The next afternoon found us in Resurrection Bay which is the harbor of Seward. As for the beauty of this bay, I will not attempt to describe it. After doing so poorly with my description of the entrance to Cordova I KNOW that I cannot do justice to Resurrection Bay. I will say this: Naples, Italy, is supposed to be the most beautiful bay in the world and Resurrection Bay next. Well, I just cannot imagine what Naples must be like. Seward, like Cordova, has wide streets, is at the foot of mountains, and is a very clean-looking town. We got a room with a bath at the Seward Hotel, left our luggage, and departed for the steamship office to find out about the steamer Starr.

We would now have to change to this little vessel to get to King Cove. It was Friday afternoon. We learned that the Starr was due at 9:30 p. m. and should sail the next day at 1:00 p.m. Saturday we again went to the office and this time got our reservation -for room 10. The sailing of the Starr had been set ahead to 9:00 a. m. Sunday. We went back to the hotel and there met W. K. Leise who is principal of the Bay View School which is about three miles out of Seward.

He took us in his car to the Jesse Lee Home. It is an orphanage for Alaska children. The matron conducted us through it. Rose wanted to keep two of the babies-both of them were Indians, but I said, "No, it wouldn't look right." For once I was boss. Then Mr. Leise took us to his school. In the front of it were several pig sties. We saw about ten fat pigs which interested us as they were the first we had seen in Alaska. Seward is the coast terminus of the Government-owned Alaska Railroad which runs into Fairbanks and we saw one of the trains. The city is a little less than two thousand miles from Seattle and is the distributing point for Western Alaska and the port of entry for passengers and a vast tonnage of freight destined to go over the railroad into Interior Alaska points. They say the weather in Seward excels that of any other town on the Alaska coast. The mercury seldom gets down to zero in the winter, and in the summer it hovers around seventy above.

Back at the steamship office, we learned that the latest report on the sailing time of the Starr was that it would pull out at 1:00 p. m. Sunday. The delay upset three of our future fellow passengers: an Indian Office teacher and his wife from North Dakota who were bound for Perryville, and a Government dentist who was going to Dutch Harbor. All of us decided to go to the dock where the Starr was loading freight, to take a look at it, inside and out. We had heard many unfavorable stories about the ship, but everyone always had a good word for the crew. We found that the Starr was built In 1912 and that it was a halibut boat back in the days when "company boats" and dory fishing were the vogue. It is 131 feet in length and 31 feet wide, with a gross tonnage of 535. Anyone who knows about ships will realize that isn't very large for a freight and passenger steamer.

On going up the gangplank we discovered that all the staterooms were below deck. The first thing we saw down below was the dining room. A red-checkered table cloth covered the fifteen-foot table. There were eleven chairs fast to the floor and we were informed by the genial mess boy that the crew ate first. The staterooms opened into the dining room. They were about four feet wide and in each were three bunks, one above the other. There was a space of about twenty-four inches between the bottom and top of the bunk, so we saw that it would be a bit difficult to get into bed. We learned that our stateroom, Number 10, was the best because it had a small seat in it. On the wall was a wooden shelf with a water jug and two glasses. Six inches from the floor was another shelf, this one enclosed with protecting boards on three sides. It contained a pitcher for water. Above it was the wash basin. No, we would not have running water-not unless we left the small port open, but in a OH, yes, before I forget-the toilets also opened into the dining room.

The first mate told us that once a lady failed to hook the door on the inside and when the boat took a dive, she slid out on the dining room floor with her dresses over her head. They didn't see her again that trip. After we had seen most of what there was to see and had made suitable remarks concerning things in general, we went back to the hotel to wait for 1:00 p. M. Sunday.

That evening we had a milk shake and found that milk in Seward was twenty-five cents a quart. Bread was twenty-five cents a loaf. In Cordova milk was thirty-five cents until another dairy started operations and dropped the price to twenty-five cents. Then the first dairy cut to fifteen cents and the war was on! We bought three dollars worth of fresl vegetables so that we would have fresh greens for at least a week at King Cove.

At noon Sunday we took our bags and boxes to the dock. Since we did not have room in the stateroom even though our Number 10 was called the bridal suite-we put the boxes in the hold and the crate of greens in the cool room. Our suitcases were placed in the upper bunk. When one o'clock came the ship was still being loaded, mostly with lumber and coal on the deck. She would now sail at two o'clock, they said. At 2:00 we got on. She left th3 dock at exactly 2:43 p. m., Sunday, Septembcr 5, 1937, A. D. As the ship left port, we sat out on deck, on the lumber. Some of the passengers leaned on the lifeboats. The day was clear and the sea was calm.... IN ABOUT an hour we viewed a glacier about a mile wide. It had a discolored streak about fifty feet wide, called a medial moraine, evidently made up of rocks and earth, running down the center of it. We learned that the name of the glacier was "Bear." The Starr, we found, was an easyriding ship, but she should have been, with such a huge load. She was deep in the water. So we went to bed, thinking that we must have been misinformed regarding the riding qualities of the Starr.

Rose had picked the middle bunk. To get in, she had me lift her up level with it. Then she slid in on my arms. I had the bottom bunk. The motions I used to get in were a twist, a squirm, and a slide.

At five o'clock the next morning we reached Portlock. Since they didn't have a dock there, a dory came out to get the freight and mail. It was raining, and the people in rain clothing reminded me of the pictures I'd seen of sturdy New England cod fishermen. I may mention here that throughout the trip, no matter what time of day or night it happened to be, I always got up when the boat reached a port. I was kidded about my curiosity a great deal by both passengers and crew.

The next stop was Seldovia, at the head of Kachemak Bay. Here we got off and took a walk. Milk was twenty cents a quart. There were two cows here, but they milked only one. Back at the boat again, we had lunch. My, but the food was good! The red table cloth had been covered with a white one. The passengers had paper napkins, while the crew had napkins of cloth, each one marked with a napkin ring. You see, the Starr did not have space for very much linen.

That night, as we neared the Barren Islands, the fun started! The ship began to perform. First she would dive bow foremost, then drop back on her stern. While she made this change she would roll to an angle of 45 degrees to one side, then the other. We thought sure, when we heard a fearful noise, that we had hit the rocks, but we found that it was caused only by one of our suitcases sliding out of the upper bunk, to the floor. In falling it knocked the shelf off the wall, broke the water jug and glasses, and ripped out the light switch! Right then, too, we realized that Mister George McDonald could kiss goodbye any dreams he may have had of a fortune from seasick-prevention pills! I told Rose to be careful up in the second bunk-I was down below! Was she sick!

The next morning the Captain said that it really hadn't been very rough just a little head-wash. Just the same, he had changed his course to a new one which would require more time. WE LEARNED that the Starr would make two stops at Kodiak, and between stops it would visit several nearby places.

We both got off at Kodiak. Rose decided to stop there until the boat came back, while I stayed with the ship. I wanted to see what I had heard was the first Russian town in Alaska, Old Harbor. Rose took a room at the new hotel. It had five rooms at only $1.50 a night, all with electric lights and running water. We got to Old Harbor, but much to my disgust there was no dock there. Besides, it wasn't the first settlement in Alaska-that was Three Saints Bay -and we didn't go there. If we had gone, we wouldn't have seen anything of the town except some old piling!

At Port Hobron I saw the whaling station. They reported a rather poor year-only 120 whales had been brought in. Then we went to McCord Landing and there viewed millions of salmon in the water. Most of them were on their way up the creeks to spawn, but many, having spawned, were dead. Jack McCord got on there. He said that he had one thousand head of sheep and 260 head of cattle. He performed some card tricks for us which were very clever.

When we stopped at Ouzinkie a Russian priest got on. He was a black monk and reminded me of a teacher I had in college. He had a beard and no necktie, a really old coat, and carried a staff. ON THE way back to Kodiak, for an hour before we arrived, the Starr had one of her "merry-go-round" spells. When I got off Rose said that I looked very pale. Rose had a very interesting visit at the Russian Church. Perhaps the most interesting of many interesting treasures in the church was a gold service made in the fifteenth century.

Rose wasn't thrilled about going back on board the boat. We got to Kanatak at 4:00 a. m. The surf certainly was rough, but some men ashore finally succeeded in launching the boats and came out to the Starr. An Indian who was very sick from T. B. got aboard. He was en route to the Government hospital at Unalaska, they said. The trip during the rest of the day was over smooth water, but that night the Starr really acted up. If you have ever ridden in a wheelbarrow and the person pushing it wasn't very strong you have a good idea of what it was like to ride in the Starr that night. First we went from side to side, then up and down, then both ways together. You think it is going to tip over every time it gives a lurch, but by the grace of God it doesn't. That's the Starr. Everyone was in his bunk that night but Dr. Baxter. I could see him walking in the dining room looking like a small boy who had lost something. One woman passenger said that she had ridden the Starr for twenty years but that was the first time she had ever been seasick. Another passenger, a Miss Klein, en route westward to be married, wanted to put on her life preserver, but Dr. Baxter reminded her that it would be a bit difficult to get in and out of her berth with it on. Rose was so scared that she started to confess her sins, but after two hours she stopped even that. I didn't know until then that I had married such a wicked woman. I told people on the boat the next morning about Rose confessing so long, but Rose said I lied. You know me real well, so use your own judgment!

The Captain said that it hadn't been rough, just a side-wash and that Shelikof Strait was often much worse. It was certainly bad enough for us. The next stop was Chignik. We saw lots of dogs and cats at this cannery town. The sick native had died during the night, so his body was put off here. will not tell of those. I forgot to mention that the Johnsons got off at Perryville. Perryville is not a very old village. When Mount Katmai erupted in 1912 and covered so many villages with a coat of ash the Government instructed a Coast Guard Cutter to take a number of natives aboard and find a suitable place for them to live other than their former place of abode which was nearly buried. The story is that the Captain stopped at several places, but at each suggestion for a suitable place to found a village the natives put in an objection. They enjoyed the trip on the boat and wanted to continue to ride. Finally the Captain became disgusted and put them off at the place which is now Perryville. It was named after the Captain. His name was Perry.

SUNDAY morning we arrived at King Cove. After two attempts to dock, we finally made it. Then the fun of unloading and getting ashore began! All the passengers and part of the crew gave us a hand with our bags and boxes. They wanted to see the Cohens' new abode and school, so up to the building they walked, one by one, each one carrying something. After a bit of delay I got the key and unlocked the building. My, it was nice! Much better than the school and living quarters we had seen at Sand Point. We had a kitchen, dining room, bedroom and bathroom in the building which is about sixty feet long by twenty wide. But-the bathroom does not have a bathtub. We therefore use the bathroom as a pantry. We certainly need the pantry, for we bought $300 worth of food. If there's another maritime strike, don't worry about us....

After the end of the first week at King Cove we like it a great deal. Thus far we have had only one bad wind. It shook the house a little. We understand King Cove is noted for its severe winds and the woolies which come down the mountains.

I have a nice group of youngsters and they all like school. So far, 23 are enrolled, but I expect more next week. Will end this letter by saying that we forgot to take our fresh vegetables off the Starr. Of course, she will be back in two weeks, but I don't think they will be edible by that time.

-Kenneth.

The second in this series of letters by Kenneth L. Cohen will appear in the January number.

1937 © The Alaskan Sportsman