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| Hiking the old WWII roads |
These pictures are from over a week ago, and with our recent snow do not really reflect what it is like right now on Kodiak. But if last winter's weather is any indication of what is to come the pictures may well reflect our activities later on this winter.
In any case they do reflect what we've been up to a lot this fall - checking out archaeological sites. In particular, I have gotten into what remains from the WWII build up on Kodiak. I managed to obtain a report written by another archaeologist documenting WWII sites, and it has been fun to relocate all the places he visited. The report tells me what I am looking at and often has photos in it from when the structures were new in the 1940s. There are also photos from the 1990s when the report was written.
What's amazing is how quickly the WWII material is falling into the ground and getting covered with moss. The kids and I are helping to document this process.
But not everything we find is WWII related. On this past trip we also found an old house depression that pre dates the 1912 Katmai eruption. I know it is older than the eruption because it has ash from the eruption on top of the walls and floor. So the ash fell after the house had already collapsed.
I think the foundation might represent an outbuilding from the nearby Russian era 'dairy' farm at the mouth of the Buskin River. The rest of this farm was mostly covered up by airport construction during WWII so it is kind of cool to find a part of it still exists.
Patrick
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| 'Temporary' gun emplacement from early in the war effort |
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| A new site! And not something from WWII |
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| 19th century house depression (pre 1912 Katmai Ash anyway) |
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| 155mm Panama Gun Mount |
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| The scary Artillery Hill Command Center Headquarters |
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