Point Retreat & Juneau
This morning we had the opportunity to visit the Point Retreat Lighthouse. We were the only group invited to visit this year, as they are still in the reconstructing process, and not usually ready for visitors.
Point Retreat sits at the northernmost tip of Admiralty Island. It was established by President McKinley in 1901, partly in response to a number of dramatic shipwrecks associated with the gold rush in Alaska. In the late 1890s, watercraft of every description left the Pacific Northwest to make their way north. At that time, there were few aids to navigation, and persistent fog, rain, darkness, strong tides and an intricate rocky shoreline made the passage difficult for skippers who often had to rely on “dead reckoning” to determine where they were. The lighthouses built in the early 1900s were vitally important to this early maritime era.
The original lighthouse at Point Retreat was a hexagonal wooden tower, built in 1904, topped by a lantern. This was replaced in 1923-4 by the lighthouse we saw there today, of reinforced concrete in the Moderne style. Keepers’ quarters, a boat house, an oil house, and a landing wharf with a derrick were built in the same era, and all were there, white walled and green roofed, freshly restored. Lawns all around, a border of fireweed and thimbleberry gone autumn colors, a steep rocky drop to the fringing intertidal and the surrounding sea, a distant backdrop of rugged peaks and glaciers: if you had an illustrated dictionary and you turned to “scenic,” the picture might well be taken here.
The nonprofit Alaska Lighthouse Association is guardian of the station. This small nonprofit has been engaged in restoring, renovating, and improving the property ever since. Dave Benton and his wife Laurie Telfer head the organization, and do most of the work of restoring, renovating, and improving the property themselves. It is impressive how much they have done, and we were grateful they took time from their work this morning to be gracious hosts and regale us with the stories of the place.
We also took advantage of this spectacular location to do Zodiac cruises. It was a good day for looking at intertidal residents of the area going about their business just beneath the water’s surface, and we got another experience with Steller sea lions when we visited an anchored navigational bouy that they like to use as a haulout.
Barlow the dog was not the only one to be delighted by our visit.
Afternoon was for Juneau town, a tour to the museum and the Mendenhall Glacier, a guided history/local culture walk, or just a stroll around the historic downtown. We discovered that Juneau is a big city and a small town rolled into one. Big city: thousands of visitors, from all over the world. Small town: locals who called us over to say hello as we walked through their neighborhood. Big city: the only four-lane road in all of Southeast Alaska. Small town: whichever direction you go, you will come to the end; there are no roads out of Juneau. Big city: a glacier, within the city limits. Small town: locals call it “the glacier,” and it is in “the valley,” which is out “the road,” past “the bridge.” No need for real names, everyone local knows what you are talking about.
Whether we found in Juneau a big city or a small town, at the end of the day we all made our way back to our ship, and watched from inside as the Captain turned her bow to point, this time, South.
