Leaving the Customs station (Pleasant Camp Border Crossing) with a brochure from the Hawaiian Customs Agent, we continued alongside the Chilkat Inlet towards Haines. Primary task for us at the moment is finding lodging for the next two nights and its about 7:30 pm. Waiting until this late to start finding lodging hasn’t worked out well for us in the past.

We find a place to pull over and make some calls and see this contraption. It looks sort of like a paddle wheel or even an automated fish catching device. We later find that its a device mounted by the state to help count the salmon population.
The first place (a BNB) we called had nothing available for the two nights we needed. We tried a second call and connected with a woman who said she could accommodate us at the Ft. Seward Lodge although she wasn’t at the lodge but could meet us there in the half hour we needed to get there. She said she had to put her child down to sleep for the night and would meet us there.

We drove through the edge of Haines and arrived outside the office door to find it locked and apparently no one around. We waited a bit and then called again and the call went to voice mail. We finally saw someone going out that looked like they might work there. It turned out the young lady did work there but had also had issues with getting someone to answer the phone. She did tell us another phone number to try though which also went to voice mail. After waiting this long, we were certainly tempted to go somewhere else but there didn’t seem to be any where else to go. Eventually, the owner showed up and checked us into our room.

The Ft. Seward Lodge building had been the PX when the post was still active. This particular building had housed the exchange, a barber shop, soda fountain, bar and the bowling alley. The long wing containing our room had once been the bowling alley.
Haines, Ft. Seward, and Port Chilkoot history is like many of the towns in Alaska ranging over the Native population, the US acquisition, the gold rushes, fishing and the tourism industry.
The Tlingit Indians established the first permanent settlements around 8,000 years ago. The area is relatively temperate, has abundant food resources and geographically provides a portage opportunity to connect the Chilkoot and Chilkat Inlets. The Tlingits established trade with other groups and became wealthy. They also are recognized as the artists of some of the finest indigenous creations.

White settlement came in 1881 with the Presbyterian mission. Shortly after came salmon canneries, mines and the construction of Ft. Seward by the US Army. Due to ongoing border dispute with Canada, the US built Ft. Seward as a demonstration of might and resolve and encompassed 4,000 acres which had been deeded over from the Presbyterian church in 1902. The docks were first to be built to bring in supplies and construction materials. Italian stone masons were imported to build the granite foundations for the post and master carpenters from the lower states gave Ft. Seward style that exceeded most rudimentary construction of that era. The first contingent of soldiers arrived in late 1904 and Ft. Seward became regimental headquarters for Alaska. Ft. Seward was renamed Chilkoot Barracks in 1922.
Over the next two decades, the Army dismantled other Frontier-era forts around Alaska so that Chilkoot Barracks was the only Army post in Alaska. During World War II, Chilkoot Barracks became an induction and rest center for soldiers arriving in Alaska to form the new posts and bases needed to support the war effort.
Like many military bases, Chilkoot Barracks provided an anchor for the town’s economy during its operation but in 1946, the Army declared it surplus in favor of more strategic locations in interior Alaska. A group of WWII veterans decided to buy the surplus post and continue to operate it as a cooperative. The cooperative failed but several of the veterans established small businesses that survived serving tourists and passengers from the small cruise ships that used the old Army dock. With the infrastructure to support the post (fire department, utilities, etc), the city of Port Chilkoot was formed and merged with the Main St. area to become the city of Haines in 1970.

The scenery had changed when we looked outside the next morning. A cruise ship (relatively small) now sat at the pier. I say relatively small as it was smaller than what we had seen in Seward and smaller than the ones we saw cruising down the far side of the Chilkoot Inlet making their way to and from Skagway (20 miles away by boat, hundreds of miles by car including traveling into the Yukon Territory). We happened to hit cruise ship day in Haines when most of the shops would be open.

Haines only allows one ship per week to dock. Previously some of the larger ships had been thought to be more detrimental to the local ecology than they needed so the good folks of Haines sent them away and now the larger and more numerous ships land at Skagway instead.

We went for a ride around Haines looking for breakfast and happened upon the Chilkat Bakery and Restaurant which looked to be popular with the locals and a little far off the beaten path for the cruisers. As we paid our tab, we asked the owner how late they were open and she answered and said she’d stay open as long as we were there by closing time. We ended up there again for dinner but well before closing time.

We went back to the Lodge to park the truck and then began our walking tour of Ft. Seward. We walked up the hill of Soapsuds Alley which had been married enlisted housing and many of the wives had taken in laundry to supplement incomes. As we topped the hill, we worked our way around the parade ground counter clockwise with our first stop being the old hospital, now home to the Alaska Indian Arts which seeks to preserve the arts including carving. The non-profit foundation provides workspace for the carvers as well as preparing pieces on commission. The tour included the workshop where a totem was being carved.


Historically, the hospital provided medical care for the Army personnel and their dependents but regulations allowed the doctors to supplement their incomes by taking patients from the surrounding area.

We continued walking around the parade ground. Along the upper and longer side, the houses had been officer and senior personnel quarters which were larger and more grandiose than those on Soapsuds Alley. The far end (third side of the rectangle) had what had been the commanding officer’s quarters and the headquarters building which were large enough that they now were in use as a hotel. Filling out the third side was the firehouse with its tower to allow the hoses to dry after use without freezing.

The fourth (lower) side of the parade grounds had a large enlisted barracks building which is currently undergoing work to preserve and return it to its 1940s configuration. The granite foundation to another large barracks building sets next to the first barracks building. The second building had been destroyed by fire in 1981.


The cruise ship being in port increased the population for the day and the weekend would bring the Southeast Alaska State Fair to Haines so preparations were underway. The parade ground at Fort Seward was being prepped.

With a population just over 2500 in the 2010 Census, Haines has perhaps the highest percentage of residents involved in the artistic professions and is dubbed the arts capital of Alaska. One artist we kept running into (and met setting up his shop on the parade grounds for the fair) is Tresham Gregg. Mr. Gregg’s works are largely wood sculpture although we also found several of his designs in leather belts (made in China). He apparently owns/runs several full-time shops in Haines.

We opted for a late lunch at the Fireweed Cafe which was also popular with the cruise ship crowd. We took seats at the bar and both had salmon dishes. Also seated at the bar were a couple of honeymooners from the ship and another couple from Vancouver who were spending the summer at the RV park next to the town docks. Their conversation mentioned tales of the park, including a guest who hadn’t realized that the inlet was saltwater and had been using it for washing up. They also shared that their older teen daughter had gone over to Skagway on the “fast” (passenger only) ferry as there was just too much small town laidback-ness to keep her occupied. Fresh salmon makes for a good lunch, by the way.

After lunch, it was back to the truck to find what lay beyond our walking limits. On the Chilkat Inlet side of the peninsula is the Haines Packing Company located at what may be the oldest cannery site in Alaska. The operation was modernized in 2007 and primarily freezes, packs and ships fresh salmon with no canning taking place there anymore. The property is open to tour (self-guided) and lets one see the historic setting as well as a modern machine cleaning operation if your timing is lucky. There is also (of course) a gift shop with handcrafts from the proprietor and others and you could buy salmon and have it shipped most anywhere.

You are separated from the processing operation by windows so I was pleased to learn that I could take pictures without the glass glare by pressing the lens of the camera up to the glass. (I did learn later that doesn’t work when you have two widely spaced layers of glass.)


We went back into Haines and checked out several of the shops and the museum. We skipped the Hammer Museum. In retrospect, that may not have been such a great idea. The shops ran the gamut from imported plastic stuff that said Alaska on it to expensive handmade jewelry and carvings, not necessarily Alaska-made. The museum, actually the Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center, was small but contained several interesting exhibits in its small space. The Sheldon Family, who had been prominent citizens of Haines in the early 20th century, donated much of the museum’s initial collections.
We headed back to the Chilkat Bakery and Restaurant for dinner (well before closing time) and had excellent Thai food for dinner.

An early start the next morning was in our plans so we headed back to the Lodge for the evening where we watched the cruise ship’s intricate routine of casting off and getting underway. The main dock sticks out perpendicular to the shore. The ship is longer than the dock is wide so the bow and stern lines went to standalone bollards. A crewmember was dispatched in a small rowboat to each bollard where he climbed up the ladder to let the lines go and then climbed back down the ladder to go to the other one and repeat the performance. In this day of machinery and automation, it seemed somehow quaint to require this procedure. After loosing the lines, the ship backed away from the dock and turned its bow south and away.

The lodge owner was on the deck as we watched the cruise ship prepare to depart and shared her story of coming to Haines from Montana to marry her husband who ran a heli-skiing business. Heli-skiing refers to carrying skiers to the top of the slopes and then letting them ski down from there, places they couldn’t reach other ways. The lodge fit into that by ensuring their winter customers and friends had accommodations for their winter adventures.
She ran the bar and the lodge and told us a bit about why it was difficult to find help and run a restaurant in the lodge. Primarily, she attributed it to an inability to estimate the seating at a particular meal and the difficulty in obtaining fresh produce when much had to be pre-ordered and shipped from the lower 48.

Early the next morning, we made our way to the ferry (Alaska Marine Highway System) landing to line up for loading for the trip south.
You can see all of the pictures from this leg of the trip here.
We invite you to continue along with us and hope you enjoy the account!