Tuesday, July 1 - Touring the Area (Ninilchik, Alaska)

 

Again this morning we just hung out around camp. I got some pictures of the building in the campground.

The owners lives in the upstairs. I thought it really neat that the posts have bears carved into them.

Cabins for rent

A duplex for rent

Laundry and bath house

Fish cleaning station

Office building

The campground is for sale 4.47 acres for $350,000. Who’s ready to make an offer??

Bob was going on a guided fishing trip today and we saw him just as he was leaving the park area.

Then Jesse and I rode around the town. We wanted to see the Ninilchik Village.

Before the arrival of Europeans in Alaska, Ninilchik was a lodging area used for hunting and fishing. The name Ninilchik probably derives from Niqnilchint, a Deni'ana Athabaskan word meaning "lodge is built place".

The first people who would permanently stay in the village were Russian colonists who moved there from Kodiak Island in 1847 before the Alaska Purchase. They were Russian Grigorii Kvasnikoff), his Russian wife Mavra Rastorguev, and their children.

Their dialect of Russian as spoken in the mid-1800s (plus a few words borrowed from Alaska Native languages) was the primary language spoken in Ninilchik long past the purchase of Russia's interests in Alaska by the U.S. in 1867. A few speakers of the Ninilchik Russian dialect are still alive in 2013, and Russian and American linguists are documenting and cataloging the language.

The 1880 United States Census listed 53 "Creoles" living in Ninilchik in nine extended families.

In 1896, a school was built and staffed by Russian Orthodox priests and laymen. In 1901, the local Russian Orthodox Church was redesigned and constructed at its current site. In 1911 the first school sanctioned by the U.S. government was started and early in 2011 the community celebrated its 100th anniversary of the Ninilchik School.

In the 1940s, a number of homesteaders came to the area. In 1949, Berman Packing Company began fish canning operations at Ninilchik. In 1950, the Sterling Highway was completed through Ninilchik.

The village has mostly old buildings that are in disrepair. Some people still live in.

We also drove to the fishing area. The tide was out so notice the boats are siting on ground. The boats on the end’s are sideways and leaning on the boats next to them. These were taken around 1PM today.

 

Saw an eagle sitting out on a rock.

We also saw this area we found very interesting, but I will write about it in tomorrow journal.

Janet made spaghetti squash for dinner with white sauce, mushrooms and shrimp. She served it with garlic bread and a toss salad. It was my first time having spaghetti squash and Jesse and I really liked it.

After dinner Bob returned with 4 king salmon.

He had cleaned them but still need to filet them

Once we had finished with getting the fish bagged and sealed Jesse and I rode back to the fishing village to see what it looked like with the tided in. No rocks can be seen only water. It’s about 7:30pm.

Look the boats are all in water now.

Clam beach, although no clamming is allowed.

We saw these eagle’s, just sitting in a yard.