I Ate at The Brick!!!

The last 500..or 800 miles ( I loose track) have been fun but uneventful. Low mountains and river valleys. Again I usually take smaller back roads which are slower but go through the various communities and are more interesting.

I stayed at some great campgrounds. N'Kwala State (BC) Recreational Area had a beautiful display of the night sky with it's millions of stars. As a public campground it had no electricity and therefore no lights to dim the stars. I sat for hours watching the sky. It was great.

Another campground, Atla Lake State Park, Wa. had a great swimming beach and a cool deep lake. I got 2 swims in. Since it has been in the mid-90s around here the last few days the swims felt really good.

I was surprised to find that southern British Columbia and most of central Washington are high desert country. Heat, rocks, sand, sporadic pine trees and sage everywhere for 100s of miles. It sure does smell good though.

There are river valleys, however. You will be driving for an hour in sand and rocks and then all of a sudden there is a verdant green valley in front of you. Irrigation. Where they can irrigate there are beautiful fields of pretty much all fruit, especially grapes. Northern central Wa is very much wine country.

I was driving up a mountain pass but there was mountain on both sides of me. I go around a bend and...whoa there is a 500 foot drop off the side of the road with no guardrails. Great view of the valley though.

 

At a rest stop/historical stop. Built in 1867. Moved to it's present location in 1892.

(front)

(back)

 

OK, enough of the travelogue. You have probably seen enough river valleys, glaciers and log cabins to last you until next summer. Now let's get to the important part.

 

In everyone's life there are certain key events, mileposts, breaks (good or bad) that define one's personality and character.  A job, marriage and children are certainly key events but there are others.

 

As a young person, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show and Mad Magazine were defining materials for me. As a high school, college, law school student it was Mad Magazine, Star Trek, rock n roll music and Bob Dylan, The Byrds and Neil Young.  As a young father, it was the Homer Simpson Show (sorry daughters).

 

As, can we say, a more mature adult, "Northern Exposure" came on the TV and blew me away. For some reason this show really resonated with me. The beautiful Alaskan scenery, Joel's attempts to fit in, the issues that were brought up: Chris' black half brother, the fact that Roslyn and Cecily may have been lesbian lovers, native/herbal medicines vs Joel's reliance on empirical data, the 2 gay guys that bought the bed and breakfast house from Maurice, Maurice dealing with age, attempts by modern man to exist in the wilderness, protecting the wilderness vs the benefits of development. Remember this was back in 1990-1995. The first season only had 8 episodes. The show lasted 6 seasons.

 

The TV show was set in Cecily, Alaska but was filmed in Roslyn, Wa. I arranged my Alaskan road trip route so that I would come through central Washington and be able to visit that fictional city of Cecily, Ak. to fully complete my Alaskan journey.

 

For some reason, I have felt that Cecily/Roslyn were my psychic centerpoint and that it was necessary for me to make a pilgrimage here. Just as Richard Dryfus was called to The Devil's Tower in "Close Encounters", so I have I been compelled to make this visit to Cecily.

 

I have found the that there are actually 3 Roslyns.

 

1. The historical Roslyn. It became a town in the 1880s because it lies near (and on) a huge deposit of coal. Roslyn was a major coal production area until the 1960s. There is a lot of the old town around and a lot of history here. Four-fifths of the coal is still in the ground. It lies right under the city and therefore became too difficult/expensive to mine. A memorial to miners killed in the mines was erected right in front of Chris' KBHR radio studio in 1995 after Northern Exposure stopped filming.

 

                                                   

                                 An example of the "trains" used to haul the coal out of the ground.

 

                         

The cemetery area. It is locally considered that there are 25 separate cemeteries but all located in the same area. The miners and people in the past were buried according to their ethnicity or the lodge that they belonged to. The mines brought in people from all over the world. There are 24 different ethnicities represented in the 25 "cemeteries". 

 

The Miners Memorial is now in front of the KBHR studio which is behind the trees on the right.

 



                                                          

 

2. The present day Roslyn. This area (Cle Elum, South Cle Elum and Rosyln) are kind of the hub to recreation in the lakes and mountains around here. Rosyln is still a very active city. The four restaurants in the downtown area were all busy last (Friday) night.

 

 

3. The fictitious Rosyln known as Cecily, Alaska.

 

Cecily is the town I came to visit and it was exciting to see that the main buildings used in the TV show are still present. The downtown area isn't a whole lot different than it was in the show. I was concerned that I would find that everything had been torn down.

 

Friday I had wondered around for an hour taking pictures when a production group began to shoot a commercial for REI. That was fun to watch. I have been a member of REI since 1970 so it was fun that these things came together while I was there.

 

If you remember the show, you will remember:

 

Roslyn's Café.

This wall was used in the opening credits with the moose walking by. The show added a " 's " to Roselyn's name. It was removed again after the show ended.





 

The front of Roslyn's Café.

The Brick Tavern.

The Brick Saloon is an interesting story in it's own right. It began in the late 1880s and is the oldest, continually operating bar in the State of Washington. The actual bar was built in England in the early 1900s and sailed around Cape Horn to arrive in Portland and is over 100 years old. The table that I sat at to eat was wide wooden logs and purchased from Sears and Roebuck over 100 years ago. There were several such tables and chairs in the bar.

The Brick was the central location for the show. The outside is the same as shown in the show. They did not use the inside of the bar. The inside bar scenes in the show were shot in a production studio.

Joel's Office.

                                   
I was surprised to find that there is no reference to the TV show in tourist literature handed out for Roslyn and no reference as you drive into town. But while I was there (and I'm going back again) there were always a dozen or two people walking around taking pictures. I talked to several that came to Roslyn just for the same reason I did.

Except Joel's office. This is now a gift shop. Marne, will tell you that I avoid going into gift shops at all cost, but I had to here. I spoke to the owner. He is a fourth generation Roslyn-ite. He appeared in 54 scenes in the series. He is friends with all of the actors and keeps in contact with them.

He told me that the other buildings are owned by people that came after the TV series and that they do not have any ties to the show.

The first show was over 20 years ago so there is not a big demand for Northern Exposure stuff but the owner of the gift shop is the sole licensed seller because he is the last one still doing it. He was pretty interesting to talk to.

KBHR Radio/Minnifield Communications.


The radio studio was left just as Chris used it on the show. His chair, phone, microphone, albums and 8 track tapes are just as he left them.

Ruth Ann's Grocery Store.

Ruth Ann died in 2002.

 

Main Street

 Village Pizza is the far right building. It was "Village Pizza" in the TV show and still is. It was very busy last night.

 

I could add many more pictures but it is just too slow downloading them outside the DQ store.

 

Well, flounders, that's it for me. This is the last blog entry. My Alaskan trip (real and fictional) is now complete. Now I just get on I 90 and point my car east. I will do some camping on the way home but you have probably driven this route yourself so you don't need me to tell you about it.

 

Thank you for the time you spent reading. It has been a great trip! I'm going back to The Brick for dinner tonight and maybe have a beer and go over the last two months and remember the all the good sites and scenes.

 

If you are so inclined, the closing song in the last episode of Northern Exposure was "Our Town" by Iris DeMent. If you find it, cue it up here. The main refrain is that all good things never last. It is time for me to head home no matter how much fun this trip has been. It is time to see Marne and Allie and Liz! Oh, and I suppose, it is time to get back to work also.



 

See you in Glencoe!

 

 

+

 

 

 

 

Cassiar Hwy, Stewart and Hyder...Bears and Glaciers

I have strived mightily in this blog to keep the educational and intellectual content extremely high. In that context, I give you the following necessary information:
In Canada, at least western Canada, Hostess Ding Dongs (happily back in production) are called: "King Dons".

Mmmm, good!

The Cassiar Hwy heads south from Watson Lake to a main east/west highway #16. It's a distance of about 450 miles. It's more like a county road than a highway. It is a little narrower and the northern half doesn't have much for shoulders. My speed was usually 45 to 50. But it is a nice drive and scenic in that you are in woods almost the entire way. The Cassiar is a less traveled route and there was little traffic.

The north 50 miles was caught in a massive forest fire in 2010. Most of the trees are skinny black spruce. The fire burned off the branches and burned the bark but left all of the blackened trunks standing. There are millions of standing black tree trunks.

The good thing about a forest fire is that the new growth is more succulent and provides good food for bears, moose and other critters. Part of the cycle of life of a forest.

Speaking of bears, I probably saw a dozen along the Cassiar Hwy. All mothers and cubs. (Allie, these were all just outside my car.)

One night I camped at a beautiful little campground on Boya Lake. This was the view out the back edge of my campsite.

             This picture does not show it well, but parts of the lake were a deep emerald green.

 

At the south end of the Cassiar I took a spur road to the small communities of Stewart and Hyder. Stewart is in British Columbia. Hyder is in Alaska. The two towns are just a couple of miles apart. Driving to Hyder there is no need to go through US Customs because there is no where to go. Going back to Stewart you have to go through Canadian Customs.

 

The original home of D J Rainey built in 1898. His home site is pretty much the location of present day Stewart.

 

Originally a branch of the Bank of Montreal. Later it was a Sears store.

Main street, 5th Avenue, Stewart

Originally the Bay View Hotel built in 1925

Built in 1928 as a "transfer" business-hauling goods.

 The "Kate Ryan" building. Built in 1920 for the "real" Klondike Kate, Ms Ryan.

Now it is the "Toaster Museum Café".

 

The "Gunnanoot Place". A "house of ill repute" in the 1930s. I had to shoot into the sun so this picture doesn't show the bright yellow and orange colors.

 

The Empress Hotel built by a railway in 1936 for $100,000.00. It's for sale now but needs a LOT of work.

 

 

The fire hall built in 1910.

 

I talked to the lady in the Visitors Center. She and her husband moved to Stewart in the mid-70s so he could work in the mines (copper and gold). She told me that Stewart was quite an active community because it is out here all by itself at the end of the road (except for Hyder). But when the mines mostly closed, a lot of Stewart closed also. There was one mine open until this year. It closed, at least temporarily, for lack of financing.

 

Stewart is at the end of an estuary. The town has built a long boardwalk into the estuary for visitors.

 

Stewart is surrounded by mountains.

 

 

And then there is Hyder. I said that Stewart is at the end of the road. Well, Hyder is a few blocks past the end of the road.

 

I had to advertise for Coca Cola.

An old Greek Orthodoxy Church. No longer in use.

 

The two towns are far less visited by tourists and give you more of a feeling of the real towns in rural Alaska/Yukon/BC.

 

So why visit Hyder? Two reasons. Just on the other side of Hyder is the Tongass NP. They have constructed a bear viewing area along a stream where the salmon lay their eggs and die. This is a major bear feeding area. (I only caught the backside of one bear disappearing into the woods when I was there.) There were hundreds of dead salmon in the creek. There were still live salmon also laying their eggs.

 

 

 

The other reason to drive through Hyder is the Salmon Glacier. There was a nice paved road to the bear viewing area but once you got past that it was nothing but a rough wash board pot hole gravel road for 15-20 miles. All straight up the side of a mountain with no guard rails--just looking down the side of the mountain below you.

As you drive up you see the end of the glacier which has been the usual view on this trip.

But once you get to the top,

the view of the main body of the glacier is spectacular!

 

I know this looks fake, like I was standing in front of a picture of the glacier, but I was really there.

 

                                      

 

Saturday I left Stewart. At the end of the Cassiar Hwy you get on Hwy 16 which is called the "Yellowhead Highway". I have no idea why it is called that. I drove for 11 hours to reach Prince George. It was a day to put in miles. I don't have much to report. I did stop in Gitanyow which is a First Nation community known for their totem poles.



 





    





 

 



 

My blogs will be less frequent now. I am just working my way home. I don't know what I'll find. So stop back once in awhile but the "exciting" days of Yukon/Alaska are behind me. Time to get back home.

 

 

 



Haines v.2

 

 I am really enjoying Haines. It really has the small town Alaska feel to it. It is 150 miles from the Alaskan Hwy so it doesn't get the heavy tourist traffic. It has dock for the larger cruise ships but it only gets a small percentage of the cruise ships. Most cruise ships go to Skagway because of the railway to Whitehorse and other reasons.

Think of Ely with a branch of the ocean attached to it (the Lynne Canal). I told Marne it was like Grand Marais because it has a man made small boat harbor but Grand Marais is more "upscale". Haines is more blue collar like Ely. Haines is a little bigger than Ely but has a lot of the same feel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hammer Museum (Randy's favorite place!)

Before there was a Haines there was Fort Wm Seward. The fort got started in 1898 to provide  law and order for all of the gold rush miners. At first it was just a tent encampment. Wooden buildings were first built in 1902.

The fort lies just on the outskirts of the city. Many of the buildings have been saved and are in use today. Most of the original drill field remains. The houses and other building were built around the drill field. The fort was closed after WWll. In 1978 it was listed as a National Historic Landmark.

 Two units are built together. Only the Commanding Officer and Surgeon had their own residences. This is one of the Officers buildings.

This was the headquarters building, now used as a house. This building has not been maintained very well.

The Officers' housing as seen from the drill field.

Sunday I hiked to the summit of Mt Riley. Every hike in Alaska has a mountain attached to it which means a long uphill hike. It was drizzling and grey and cloudy but I made the summit. There was no view at the top. I was in the clouds/fog/drizzle so I wasn't able to see any view. I imagine the view of the Lynne Canal would have been spectacular.

 

 

Haines also has a section called "Dalton". This was part of the set of the "White Fang" Disney movie made in 1990. In 1991 many of the buildings from the set were moved to Haines and this little Main St was set up.

 

 

 

                                   

 

 

For a holiday it is very quiet here today. The tourist season is pretty much over. My RV park is at best a quarter full. Tomorrow I start the actual trip home. I had planned ahead as far Haines. I do not have any specific stops on the way home now until I get to Roselyn, Wa.. I'll just camp when it gets to the end of the day. I do hope to be somewhere with TV service next Sunday so I can watch some of the opening football games. If you look at  map, I'll be taking the Cassiar Hwy which will go south from Watson Lake down through Prince George and Kamloops BC.

The clouds finally cleared out today so I could take a few more photos of Haines showing the mountains.