The two ladies who ran the (school) bus tour, the teacher and the driver who deals with children all the time, treated us as somewhat errant middle schoolers but were funny and very proud of their tiny community. The Baranov Museum is just an old housed filled with Aleutiq, Russiaqn and late 19th century American memorabilia but it is lovingly restored and is staffed by enthusiastic volunteers who would love to sell everyone Russian nesting dolls and Kodiak Island tee shirts. As there are only twenty cruise ships that visit during a season, up from none a few years ago, they have only limited opportunities to show off their wares.
Kodiak Island was founded as the capital, really an outpost, of Russian America in the early 1700's. It exists today because of its fishing fleet, canneries and a huge U.S. Coast Guard station. The most interesting cannery is an old WWII Liberty Ship that has been cemented into a wharf and converted for processing fish. The fish processed depend upon the season. The salmon season is just finishing and they are now canning and freezing haddock and rock fish. The crabbing season starts soon.
We saw the Russian Orthodox church, the Alutiq Museum and the Abercrombie state park and took a leisurely drive through the three main streets. I didn't see any traffic lights. There was, however a lake with a float plane landing, a Safeway and a Wal-Mart, not the super center, just a small one.
The state park is located at a point overlooking Marmot Strait. The views of the nearby volcanic islands are impressive. The US Army constructed a bunker and installed cannon during WWII. The local veterans have carefully restored much of the equipment and created a pretty good museum on the site. There were a number of military installations on Kodiak Island. The former air and naval base is now the Coast Guard installation, the largest in the western U.S. No shots were ever fired in anger from Kodiak, just a lot of practice. The island was fortified because of fears of an attempted Japanese invasion of mainland Alaska. That never happened although the Japanese did occupy the islands of Attu and Kiska at the very end of the Aleutian island chain and did bomb Unalaska/Dutch Harbor.
The tour ended with a performance by a youth group rum by a Bulgarian Orthodox priest and his wife. They take in at-risk teens and teach them self respect through good works and the performance arts. The kids were pretty good.
I think we saw all the sights there are to see on Kodiak Island. It was certainly not the usual tourist experience.
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