Steel - Anchorage the centre of the Steel Horse

Alaska Railway Company - First train and headquarters building

Steel

With Coal and Steel in this and my last post title you might think we were in South Wales not Alaska, but not so, today we travelled from Homer to Anchorage. So it is steel, and particularly what Thoreau calls the steel-horse that is our theme. But before exploring Anchorage's major link with the railways let us briefly explore our day's journey.

Breakfast

I woke at 6am and began to write the blog post for yesterday. Writing in such a beautiful place is distracting, with the sea crashing on the pebbly beach and the mountains emerging from the morning mist and people, with or without dogs, wandering by. 

Drew woke at 7am and I made coffee for us both. I finished the blog post abluted and went down to breakfast at 9:00 am

Bacon, Elk Sausage, eggs, tomatoes and home fries

I had european-cut Bacon, Elk Sausage, eggs over hard, tomatoes and home fries. The bacon was like the bacon we would have at home. Not thin like US bacon or gammon like as what is called Canadian bacon here tends to be. It was a nice change. The Elk sausage was mild and not noticeably different from any other sausage. The little tomatoes were a joy, sweet and juicy, a lovely treat. 

Drew had the same, without the home fries, and he had his eggs sunny side up. He enjoyed his breakfast too, and also commented on the tomatoes.

A poem about this place - at reception - Land's End Resort, Homer

We returned to the room after breakfast, and packed and left the hotel at 10:15am. We have really enjoyed our stay and will miss this lovely place.

The Road to Anchorage

In the way out of town we stopped for petrol at the Chevron petrol station in Homer the price was $3.129 per gallon 70 cents cheaper than in Kaua'i. We left the petrol station at 10:33am. 

Given we have a good gauge of the journey, as it is the same as Tuesday’s but in the reverse direction, we decided we would stop off on the way and chose to visit the third of the Russian Orthodox Churches, the one in the delightfully named village of Nikolaevsk with its patronal Church of St Nicholas. 

A wooden bridge, and quiet road, on the way to Nikolaevsk

Along the route many of the houses had Russian names and the forest began to develop pine trees, perhaps to remind the locals of their Siberian roots. Or perhaps to make sure St Nicholas (Santa Claus) is well supplied at Christmas!!

Church of St Nicholas

We stopped at the beautiful church of St Nicholas and saw the development of the new Church they are building here. I would say to go to Flickr to see the photos, but they won't load at the hotel we are at tonight, so you may be a few days before you can see more than the few I can add to blogger.

New Church Tower

We went down the North Fork Road and come back to the AK-1 seeing places we traveled past on Tuesday. For the most part we didn’t take photos of places we had already taken then, instead we took some from the other side of the road (i.e. the passenger side). These are largely of lakes and trees, not the mountains of the other side of the road. 

Forest with mountains behind

At 12.50pm we stopped for a coffee at Fred Meyer’s supermarket in Soldotna. We both had a Venti Americano while I had a Turkey, cheese and basil panini and Drew had a sweet confetti cookie. 

Welcome to Freddy's

Sweet confetti cookie

Turkey, cheese and basil panini

We left the supermarket at 1:50pm and rejoined the AK-1 on our way to Anchorage. As we travelled north it got warmer. Our morning 62°F was now 80°F. 

No smoke without fire

As we approached Swan Lake where we had seen the fire on Tuesday it was clear that it was less under control than it had been then. The smoke was significantly wider and we could see flames as we passed. 

We continued to Cooper’s Landing where the AK-1 joins the AK-9 but puzzlingly remains the AK-1 even though we have to go to a stop sign and turn left, while the people on the AK-9 just carry on and their road name changes!

Portage Glacier

We began to pass mountains and the Portage Glacier on our right as we travelled and these will be reflected in the photos when you are able to see them. The Portage Glacier once came all the way down to the road, now you can only see glimpses on the top of the mountain.

Comfort Inn, Ship Creek, Anchorage

We arrived at the Comfort Inn, Ship Creek, Anchorage at 4:40pm. Drew having driven all the way from Homer.

Anchorage

McKinley Explorer - from our room window - Comfort Inn

We unpacked the car and got to our room, took photos, and before we could do anything else we were interrupted by a very loud sound. The amazing sound of a train right outside our room. It turns out that this hotel as well as being up Ship Creek (please spell carefully) is right next to the railway tracks in the centre of the Alaska Railway Capital. 

Alaska Railway Company

The whistle of the trains, especially the cross-country ones can be heard throughout downtown as we strolled along.

Alaska State Memorial

We left the hotel and walked through Buttress Park and on to the Eisenhower State memorial, which celebrates the President at the time Alaska (and Hawai'i) become states in 1959.

Captain Jack and Captain Cook meet again

We next strolled the few blocks to Resolution Park, and here we meet an old friend of Jack's. Yes that famous Yorkshireman, Captain Cook. His attempt to discover the North-west passage which had led him to Kaua'i also led him here to Anchorage, hence the inlet that runs from here down to Homer and beyond is called the Cook Inlet. 

Town Square Park

We moved on to the Town Square Park and quickly became aware that Anchorage is not a busy City. Indeed we were able to take photos of empty streets in what in most US cities would have been rush hour.

Rush Hour in Downtown Anchorage

Down the road from the Town Square Park we came to the Old City Hall Park and across from there visited an odd but pleasant shop called Grizzly's Gifts.

Scary Creature on the right - Grizzly Gifts

We came back to the hotel at 6:45pm to start to edit photos. This is when we realised that the hotel's internet access provides great download speeds, but is limited in its upload capacity - hence no photos on Flickr, even though a few will go up on blogger. 

Dinner

The Bridge Restaurant

It was then time to go out for dinner. Our choice tonight is the Bridge Restaurant. This restaurant, though outside the hotel, was nearer our room than last night's restaurant that was part of the same hotel! It is just along Ship Creek.

Alaska Plate - Bridge Restaurant

To begin we shared an appetiser, the Alaskan Plate  which had salmon, smoked salmon, salmon spread, elk sausage, cucumber and bruschetta. The cooked salmon was in a sharp lemony vinaigrette. Wow how lovely. The Elk sausage, served cold was much richer than this morning's variety. I felt I was eating Elk and enjoying it. The smoked salmon and salmon pate (or spread as they called it) were also lovely, but they were familiar flavours not as special as the Elk and lemony salmon. 

Haydn's Salad selection - Bridge Restaurant

With mains there is a large salad bar available, full of lovely things. Though Watermelon salad was a bit too far for both of us we did enjoy the Beetroot Salad, Potato and arugula salad, greens (lettuce) with a feta ranch sauce and the Rice Tabbouleh salad. Each of the salads were crisp and tasty.

Cioppino - Bridge Restaurant

For Mains I had Cioppino. This was very different from the San Francisco version. It included crab, salmon and rockfish simmered in a thick and herby tomato broth. Salmon, rockfish and crab are less messy to eat than lobster, mussels, clams and cockles. While breaking the crab legs did splash Drew and a gent on the neighbouring table (he had ordered crab legs for his mains, so was able to reciprocate later) the whole dish was easier to eat and the meaty salmon and rockfish flaked very easily on to the spoon. Tasty, but not the original cioppino of San Francisco.

Salmon Steak

Drew opted for a Salmon Steak, this was cooked pink in the classic steak round cut, simply grilled. It looked wonderful, I was reminded of my salmon from last night, which had been great. 

Anchorage - The History

Miles and Miles of Steel

At the beginning of the post I promised to provide an update on Anchorage's history. Most of this become clear as we walked downtown, where the signs point out the details.

The Dynamic Trio

As I said earlier, Anchorage owes its existence and development as the largest City in Alaska to the Steel Horse. The 1914 Alaska Railroad Act was passed by the US congress to authorise the construction and operation of a railroad in Alaska. A route from Seward, on the coast, seventy one miles north to Kern Creek had been completed in private ownership by 1910. But it became clear to President Wilson that to exploit the vast natural resources of Alaska a railroad needed to be built up to Fairbanks. Congress voted the President powers to locate and build the route for the push North and Wilson selected a route via a place then called Ship Creek for the railroad. Ship Creek became the centre of the Alaska Railroad Company and an original tent settlement was set up in 1914 near the mouth of Ship Creek. 

Tent City

A town site was outlined in 1915 alongside the bluff to the south of the Creek. So, Anchorage became for decades a company town for the Alaska Railroad at the centre of all its developments and operations. In 1923 President Harding traveled to Alaska for the formal opening of the Seward-Fairbanks line and Anchorage begins to boom. 

The Second World War saw the next big period of growth for Anchorage. Its position as the nearest US territory to Japan apart from Hawaii made it strategically significant, when after the War, the cold war with Soviet Russia began Alaska was again the perfect location for major defence installations. So Anchorage, the rail and steel town, became a defence town too. In the 70s and 80s oil came to dominate, but more of that as we move into the areas further north in the state.