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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Afognak Village





Today I spent the day at Afognak Village with Mike and Rob, archaeologists from the BIA. We flew up to Afognak on a Beaver float plane and waded into shore in our Xtra Tuff boots. Such a beautiful place!

Afognak Village was abandoned after the 1964 earthquake. The place was hit by multiple tidal waves and sank 6 feet into the ocean. Much of the coastline eroded away and the water-table was inundated by salt water. The village was abondonned and everybody moved to Port Lions - so named because the Lions Club helped with its relocation.

The top photo depicts a house that was carried by the tidal wave and deposited far from its foundation along the seashore (in the distance) to the edge of a shallow pond far inland. The dead spruce trees were all killed by the salt water inundation after the 1964 earthquake/subsidence event. The other three photos depict the scenery of the village today - second from top is the beach in front of "Aleut Town" looking south; third from top is of the swamp behind the village, and the bottom photo is another view of the beach in front of 'Aleut Town' (the East end of Afognak Village). Patrick

2 comments:

My Little Family: said...

You take such nice photographs Patrick. If you weren't a "rock star" you would be a photographer. Vickie

Zoya, Patrick, Nora and Stuart said...

Nice way to pump me up! Thanks! Patrick