July 28 Wrangell Alaska

 Wrangell is a tiny town located along the string of Alaska that's adjacent to Canada (as was true of all the Alaska we visited during this trip).  This was another case of online deja vu because I had used Google Street View to "walk" along the town tour we had found.  Won't need to go anywhere soon -- just use Street View and you're there.

Wrangell as seen while docking.  That's pretty much all of downtown in this picture.

We left a fair amount of money here.  I was interested in Wrangell's economy and looked it up. Logging, fishing and tourism generate over a third of the economic activity.  Figuring each dollar earned there is multiplied by 4 to 5 as it flows through the local economy, that's pretty good.  Except for winter, this place is doing well.

We walked along the main street on a busy Friday morning.

Prices not bad for a spot way out in the hinterlands.  But then again, Alaska is an oil producing state.

We've seen these bears scattered across Alaska.  Vancouver did something similar during their 2010 Olympic run up, although those bears were posed slightly differently.  Everyone paints their bears to reflect their location/culture.  This one has a map of the Alaska panhandle.  I'm not sure who got the belly button, and points south of there.

 

The Stikine river runs through the area, so everything is named Stikine.  This is one of the old buildings on the tour, but old is relative in Alaska.  This was a 1920s building IIRC.

Totem Park, a staple of all Alaskan towns seeking tourists.

Just a cute house.

The bridge over to Shake's Island.  Very ceremonial for the indigenous population.

The ceremonial house on the island.

The Wrangell Post Office, and previously the customs house.

Yet another original VW in Alaska.  As everyone has to go to the Post Office to pick up their mail, our admiration of the car quickly turned into a conversation with the owner.  He just wants to fix it up and get it running correctly.  And he's got his eye on another one when this one is fixed.