Giant Cabbages

Due to the continuous daylight during summertime, the produce in Alaska can get really big!  Courtesy of Matt Weaver's garden.

CSI Hatcher Pass

During the early morning hours of Sunday, August 7th, some person(s) kicked in the doors of several of the buildings at Independence Mine State Historic Park.  The buildings included the mess hall, the apartment house, the school house/warehouse building, bunk house no. 1, and the assay office.  As far as we can tell, nothing was stolen from the buildings, nor was there much vandalism, aside from the broken doors.  Interestingly, the buildings (bunkhouse no. 2 and the visitor center) that had people sleeping in them were not touched.

Why didn't anyone hear this?  Well, when the visitor center was built in 1939, it was purposely set apart from the rest of the Independence Mine structures.  With the sound of rain hitting the roof of the visitor center, the distance between the buildings, and running water from the waterfall and the creeks, the noise of the trespassers did not carry. 

At any rate, Sunday was not a fun day.

Deadwood

This summer I've been watching the HBO series Deadwood.  Although this represents gold rush Dakota Territory during the 1870s--which is more reminiscent of Alaskan boom towns of the turn of the twentieth century--it still reminds me of the Independence Mine.