Entering Tar Inlet before heading into Glacier Bay has a sobering effect. Earlier days on our cruise of the Alaskan waters had been sunny but it was cold and spitting rain as we awoke the morning of May 18.
We were struck by the grandeur of the 200+' face of the Margerie Glacier. But for the sounds of calving, the silence was deafening.
The next day we visited Ketchikan, which has a monument to the persons and professions that made it what it is today (a pleasant tourist trap with some fishing on the side):
While the occupation of the Victorian-garbed gal on the right gazing upward might not be apparent from this picture (schoolmarm, perhaps?), the small print near the top of the sign at the beginning of nearby Creek Street should give it away:
Apparently the working girls provided hard cash to an otherwise credit-based economy in the days before the military influx during World War II. Important enough to convince the city fathers they deserved a representation on the monument. Which is more than can be said about the late 19th-century Presbyterian missionaries brought in at government expense.
No comments:
Post a Comment