Tuesday May 8, 2012

     Today we had the great fortune of being shown some of the spectacular scenery that makes up the area around the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet and the Prince William Sound.    There aren't any words I can think of that really describe this beauty, but "WOW" suffices, at least temporarily.
     The month is May, but we look out of the warm vehicle and it sure looks like it's still mid-winter out there.  It really isn't winter, the trees are starting to bud, the lows are up in to the 30's, and the daylight hours are quite long.  Nothing like the long freezing nights of winter.
     The stories that emanate from this place called Alaska are thick with hope and hardship, riches, hope, brokenness, death and insanity. Lots of insanity.   The winters alone cause a certain insanity that we, in the 21st century call seasonal affective disorder, but our Victorian friends called Melancholia.  
     If you were a guy from the lower 48 states back in the late 1800's and heard of the gold to be found up here you might be tempted to drop everything and head north to find your fortune.  You would become one among hundreds.  If you were an enterprising young woman just off the boat from France you might just get an idea to head to the gold fields of Alaska and try to make your fortune through the business of selling kindness to strangers. 
     There are tales of cannibalism during the Gold Rush; harsh winters can cause that - witness the Donner Party.  One man we know of did exactly that; three men in a cabin over a brutal Arctic winter and one survived physically though the experience claimed his reason and he spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum, namely Morningside Hospital of Dr. Coe in Portland. 
     Between 1904 and 1968, Morningside Hospital became home for "paretics (those suffering from tertiary syphilis) , "homeosexuals", "morons" (though we call their condition Down's Syndrome these days), "idiots" (developmentally disabled), epileptics, sufferers of tuberculosis, and the rather general but applicable label of "delusional manic depressive."  I supposed that covers most bases . . . 
     The winters are long, hard, and cold in Alaska.  You'd better be prepared.