Kenai - A Village with a Past, a City with a Future

A Village with a Past, a City with a Future.

The city logo says it all..... the Russian influence, the fishing, the oil drilling out in the Cook Inlet, and the beautiful volcanos of Mt. Redoubt and Mt. Iliamna, 51 miles away across the Inlet.

The Kenai convention and visitors bureau gave me a good summary of the history of the town: "The first people known to have settled in this area were the Riverine Kachemak, who occupied the Kenai and the Kasilof River areas from about 1000 B.C. to about 1000 A.D.  Following the Riverine Kachemak, the Athabaskan speaking Dena'ina people came to the area, and remain here today as the modern Kenaitze.

"The Russian occupation of Kenai and Kasilof  led to the Battle of Kenai in 1797.  The Dena'ina defeated the Russians, and held the territory until the United States purchased Alaska in 1867.  Only a few Russian fur traders remained in the area.  In 1863, a small pox epidemic extinguished half the Dena'ina population.  The people adopted a version of Russian Orthodoxy that included many traditional beliefs as a way to cope with the tragedy.  In 1918, the influenza pandemic brought further losses to the Dena'ina, and many people from villages that were growing ever smaller moved to Kenai.

"In 1912 the first Libby cannery was built and commercial fisheries became the anchor industry of Kenai.  In 1959 the Kenai gas field was discovered and Cook Inlet became the oil capital of Alaska.  The discovery of oil and gas made the idea of statehood more attractive to the Federal Government and in 1959, Congress granted statehood to Alaska. "

The mouth of the Kenai River as it flows into Cook Inlet.

Mid-July marks the beginning of dipnetting season in Alaska.  Dipnetting is a popular way for Alaskans to fill their freezers with fresh salmon for the winter.  Dipnetting is open to Alaska residents only, so for us it was a spectator sport!

Scenes from the beach!

Many of the fishermen camped along the beach.  To dipnet here, anglers stand in the mouth of the river holding large nets with long handles.  When a fish swims into the net, they lift and twist the net to catch the fish. The fishermen cleaned their fish in the river and the gulls were ready to feast on what was left behind. This fishing frenzy is a sight not to be missed!

A man with a fish in his net.

Alaska has "personal use" laws for its residents which regulate their taking of fish, shellfish or aquatic plants for consumption as food or use as bait by an individual or his immediate family.  In the Kenai River, the yearly limit for dipnetting is 25 salmon for the head of the household and 10 more salmon for each additional household member.  In Soldotna we met a young man who catches 75 salmon each year by dipnetting.  His only complaint was the length of time it took him to clean them all!  Of course these same people can also go salmon fishing and get their limit everyday until the fishing season ends.

By law, a person may not possess salmon taken under a personal use fishing permit unless both tips of the tail fin have been immediately removed.  That means before the fish are put into the ice coolers that stand at the ready.  This law prevents the sale of these fish and protects the commerical fishermen's livelihood.

Fishing frenzy.

The fishermen cleaned the fish in the river and the gulls were ready to feast on what was left behind.

Nature's beachcombers.

When we were there the tide was going out so many fish parts which had been thrown into the river earlier were now strewn around on the beach as the tide receded.  There were fish parts and skeletons all over and we had to watch where we walked.

Fireweed was in bloom on the bluff.

After our beach experience we walked around Old Town Kenai.  The outstanding landmark there is the Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox Church which sits on top of the bluff.  The plaque outside the church states that, "This church has been the principal and most enduring representation of Russian culture in southcentral Alaska from 1841 until the present. For the Kenaitz Indians it was the major institution for the assimilation of western culture when the Russian fur traders first came to the area.  The church also served as the first school on the Kenai Peninsula educating the local Kenaitze children and young adults to read, write, grow vegetables and learn basic building methods.  It served as a judicial center acting as arbiter between the officials of the Russian-American Fur Trading Company and the Natives.  The church also provided the region's first access to public health with the introduction of smallpox vaccine after the first epidemic desimated the local population."

The Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox Church

There was a welcoming sign on the church steps so we went inside.  There we met Father Targonsky.  He is 80 years old and has served the parishes in this area for many many years.  In talking to him I could not detect an accent, so I asked him where he was born.  He told me he was born in Connecticut and had spent most of his summers as a boy in Springfield, Vermont. That is my hometown! How well I remember the Russian Orthodox Church on top of Park Street Hill.  It was just down the street from where my Grandmother Woodbury lived.  Next door to the church there used to be Hoskivich's Grocery Store.  My oldest brother and I used to go there to buy popcicles to share.  Father Targonsky told me he used to go there too.  It was fun to think that maybe we had both been there at the same time, years ago, slurping popcicles on Hoskivich's front steps.

Yours truely and Father Targonsky.

The day we walked around Kenai was 65 degrees and sunny.  It was the most beautiful day we had seen in weeks, and we just soaked up the warmth and the charm of this little town.

The "onions" are the symbol of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The town of Kenai seems to have two mottos.  One I saw on the welcome sign as we entered the town  and have used in the title of this post, "Kenai - A Village with a Past, a City with a Future". The other is written on their visitor brochure, "Kenai - Where the River Ends and Adventure Begins".

One motto seemed to define our experience in the church and the other, our adventure on the beach!

Clam Gulch

Practicing digging for razor clams at Clam Gulch.

Clam digging for razor clams is a popular sport along the sandy beaches of the western Kenai Peninsula, from Anchor Point to Kasilof. The Milepost reports that "many thousands of clams are dug each year at Clam Gulch," so Peg and Craig, David and I, and Harold and Ruthanne (RVers parked next to us) decided to try our luck. 

Waiting for the low tide.

Clamming is best if you have a tide of -3 or -4.  On the day we went there was a -4 tide, so that was very auspicious.  However, we got to the beach a little early and had to wait for the tide to go out. 

In this photo you can see Mt. Redoubt in the background, across Cook Inlet. "Redoubt" is the Russian name for an ungarrisoned  fort. During the time the Russians controlled a good part of Alaska, they had five redoubts on the Kenai Peninsula. The Dena'ina word for Mt. Redoubt, Bentuggezh K'enulgheli, means "One with a notched forehead".

This volcano erupted in 2009 after 20 years of silence.  The Alaska Volcano Observatory reported elevated levels of seismic activity in January, and in March Redoubt had its first eruption.  It sent a plume of ash 50,000 feet into the air.  There were several more eruptions in April and then they subsided in June.  Mt. Redoubt has been quiet since then, but of course the monitoring is on-going. The alert level has dropped to yellow.  However, having three active volcanos visible from the Kenai shoreline keeps you aware of the power of Mother Nature!

David with a clam shovel and Craig with a clam pipe.

By law you must have a sport fishing license to dig, so the guys dug and we gals were their assistants. It is amazing how fast the clams could move, so we had to be quick to grab them.

The bag limit is 60 clams regardless of size and you must keep the first 60 you dig. At first David and I kept breaking the shells in our hurry to catch the clams.  We joked that we were digging for minced clams!

Success!

We dug up one butter clam, and about 30 razor clams.

Back at the RV we all had the "fun" of cleaning the clams.  By the time we were finished I couldn't think of cooking them, so we had a salad that night and saved the chowder for the next day.  

Cleaning clams.

Many people in Alaska are on subsistance living. They depend on hunting and fishing to survive. It sounds rather romantic to "live off the land".... but it is harder than you think because once you catch the food you have to work to preserve it.  In the Tlingit Heritage Center in Teslin, I read that a single family would try to cache about 500 salmon, 5-6 moose and a quantity of small game for their use during the winter. That's work!

Soldotna, on the Kenai River

Me at the Visitor Center in Soldotna

The world-famous Kenai River runs right through the town of Soldotna.  Twenty percent of all sport fishing in Alaska occurs on the Kenai River, and we were here to be a part of that count.  At the Visitor Center I posed with this carved caricature of Les Anderson, holder of the world record for the 97 1/4 # King Salmon

he caught  in Soldotna. His fish is on display inside the Center. He won $500 in a fishing derby and brought the world record home to the Kenai River. (Les died in 2003 and his record still stands!)

The fishing boardwalk right behind the Visitor Center, in the middle of town.

We followed our friends Peg and Craig to a free camping site close to the Kenai River.  Craig was "a friend of a friend".. of a man who allowed his "fishing friends" to park on his property. What a break for us.  The site was close to the river and close enough to town so that we did not worry about the gas costs going into town for supplies or for internet connection. 

The RVs were lined up like a parking lot.  Some people had extra tents and smokers set up so that it had the feel of a hunting camp.  From the lot we could see Mount Redoubt off in the distance. We stayed here for two weeks, free of charge.

Our campsite for our two weeks on the Kenai River.

The camping lot with Mount Redoubt in the background.

David and Craig and a gazillon other fishermen lined the shore of the Kenai River and floated their hooks in an arc in front of them..... over and over and over again ..... until some unsuspecting fish got hooked. The sockeye are not looking for food, they are intent on spawning.  People call this "catching" rather than "fishing", since there is not alot of skill involved. If you snag them on their sides or fins you have to release them, but if you are lucky enough to "catch" them in or near the mouth, you can keep them.  The limit is 3 fish a day, and the experienced fishermen had no trouble catching their limit day after day after day.

David, fishing the famous Kenai River.

However, he was not alone!

On the advise of a neighboring camper, David tried fishing from a location further along the river.  There were fewer people there, so it was not so hectic. It did not take him long to land two good sized fish.

Two beauties!

While we were there, a family of four came in and landed their limit within an hour. You can see David out in the water... as they cleaned their catch.  It is difficult for me to reconcile this way of fishing.  However, knowing that the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife control the waters helps.  After all, the fish die in the end anyway.

Four fishermen catching 3 fish each equals 12 fish a day!

Our freezer was full of the halibut David caught in Homer, so we borrowed a smoker from a neighboring RVer, and smoked the last 4 sockeye that David caught. It was yummy!

David, tending to the smoker.

It smelled soooooo good!

A gourmet meal!

While we were in Soldotna we were parked next to Peg and Craig.  It was fun to share this wild and crazy fishing experience with them. Since we are full-timing in the RV, I do miss our family and  friends, so meeting up with a couple we both jived with was wonderful fun.  Peg and I had some good "girly talks" which every gal needs now and then, and the guys shared fishing stories for 2 weeks. Friendships enrich our lives, that is for sure!