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Friday, August 27, 2010

Sitkalidak Island Beaches



Yesterday I got to go on a work-related trip to Sitkalidak Island. My trip involved boat, plane and helicopter rides and visits to wide open beaches. Sometimes I REALLY love my job. Sitkalidak is a large island on the east side of Kodiak and it's outer beaches face the full force of the Pacific ocean and are quite spectacular. Sitkalidak also has quite the archaeological pedigree - the top photo is of Ocean Bay beach where Don Clark first found and recognized tools from Kodiak's Ocean Bay tradition. This is Kodiak's oldest archaeological era (7500 to 4000 years ago), and now you know why it is so named! The second photo is of the beach next Refuge Rock (the island on the left). This is where Shelikof massacred a large group of Alutiiq people and broke Alutiiq resistance to Russian rule. A fairly sad and spooky place - you can feel the history here. Patrick

2 comments:

Catherine West said...

You lucky duck! I love Sitkalidak.

The Yellow Porcupine said...

Stacy and I were camped at the old Spirit Camp and spent a couple of days walking the entire Ocean Bay beach - what a magic place!