Akutraz

The observers don’t call Akutan by name, they call it Akutraz, after Alcatraz the famous island prison.

In the small village of Akutan there are not streetlights, stop signs or roads; the main mode of transportation through the area is by foot, along a cute little wooden walkway that parallels the shore. There is one church, a cemetery, a gym, a restaurant (that may open when there’s customers), a bar(that only serves beer, no food, no spirits just beer), a library, a school, and about 10 houses. That’s it. I can imagine people get sick of it, but for now I don’t see it as a prison, I see it as another small adventure to explore.

I had the privilege of delivering to the town for a couple months now, but only recently got a chance to explore it with a few other observers. We had barely left the seafood processing plant and started walking along the little wooden walkway when the friendliest chubby black lab greeted us and decided to show us around. He had a Seahawks collar but no nametag, so we decided to guess his name. He would answer to just about anything: George, Lary, Taco, Buddy – Guess my name is probably a familiar game for him. He must have been the happiest dog in the world, everyday he wanders his town, playing in the tall grass and bubbling snowmelt streams, hanging out with anyone who walks through town. No one fences their dogs, or ties them to the house. There was a veritable pack of small dogs that roamed the village as well, but none were as friendly or charismatic as our George.

We decided to grab a bite at the restaurant, but it was closed. 1pm in the afternoon isn’t a common mealtime here apparently. Across the way from the restaurant is the cemetery, and its beautiful. It has white crosses over each grave, surrounded by a white picket fence. The whole site looks over the bay and towards the white peaked mountains of the other islands. At the far end of the wooden walkway is the library. When we walked in the library was empty, a sign asked us to remove our boots. So we wandered the one room, 4 shelved, little library in our socks.

They may not have had many books in the library but they do have a wonderful collection of town history artifacts and old photos! Akutan used to be a whaling town and then it was used as a military base during WW2. They had all kinds of photos of natives, fishermen, and whalers outside their houses, or public buildings. Some of the old fishing and whaling tools are displayed under glass. There’s a giant, rusted harpoon gun on display at the entrance of the library, Alaska is nothing if not badass. Hung on the wall, like it’s no big deal, is an otter pelt. It must be over one hundred years old (fun fact: otters were the first protected endangered animal, and one of the success stories of such types of conservation programs, they’re rampant here in Akutan Bay. I hope they choose to repopulate SoCal soon.)! Its still soft, and beautiful.

On the way back we caught up with George again! He found a ball this time and would drop it on command so we could play fetch as we walked to the community gym. Again, when we arrived the gym was empty and we were politely asked via written sign to take off our boots and wander around in our socks. The gym is one basketball court with one set of weights up stairs, and a ping-pong table on the side. Just inside there is a rack of about 20 pairs of running shoes, each labeled with their size. I guess everyone shares gym shoes, and when they grow out of them they just use the next size up? We decided to go it in our own socks. There was a rack of a few basketballs, one volleyball, and one giant kickball! I haven’t had so much fun running around playing games in my socks since I was five, I swear … And I don’t even like basketball. It was so nice to stretch my legs after the long period of no workouts.

It’s a different world up here. I hardly ever see the natives. I guess its cause they have work to do in the middle of the day, and truthfully there’s just not that many of them. Everything is just left open. Cars are left with their keys in the ignition, gyms are left open, no fences for dogs. When I asked whether they worry about theft the reply was, “Where would a thief drive a car if they stole it? Onto the boat?” – Good point.

Despite what all the observers say, Akutan is nice in its own light. I couldn’t live there by any means but, its worth seeing and experiencing as something so completely different from my normal view of life.