By Larry Weeks
The Glenn Highway between Tok and Anchorage produces no revenue to the State of Alaska. It was built long ago and is expensive to maintain with potholes, frost heaves, sluffing shoulders and aging bridges needing repair and replacement.
In February we took the Matanuska Ferry from Bellingham to Juneau. The ship is recently painted and spruced up and seems to chug along but the boat first hit the water in 1963. The trip was a reassuring experience in the old Alaska tradition. The scenery of the mountains, water and wildlife is spectacular. We saw seals and sealions, Dall and harbor porpoises, whales and cormorants and eagles bringing fish onto the dock. We got through Wrangell narrows to Petersburg and Wrangell and to Sitka through Peril Straits. The crew is helpful and stuff works. We witnessed an efficient boat drill and abandon ship practice and man overboard drill that was well done but not officious. The food was good with healthy options and worthy coffee. The crew all seem to be doing three jobs at different times but with friendly conversation about it all.
When waiting in line to board with the car we noticed vehicles from Utah, Arizona, Montana, California, Texas, Alaska, Washington, Nevada and when walking around the car deck later we saw other vehicles from Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota on board. The vehicles were often new, high-powered dual cab pickups loaded with tents, crab pots, kayaks and fishing rods. There was a horse trailer and a zoomer sportfishing boat bound for Juneau and a Lynden Transport trailer. We talked to people going to stops all along the way and many, probably most, were going to Haines which we interpreted to mean they might be using that Glenn Highway too. And spending their money along the way.
The ferry is a great cruise of Southeast Alaska. The ship doesn’t have swimming pools on board, or elaborate gambling or sell alcohol but one can take a bottle of wine in the cabins before dinner. The passengers are not looking for T-shirts or trinkets and don’t crowd the streets at the stops. They were often young families with children, sometimes trying to reduce costs by sleeping in the lounge or in the solarium. There are old-timers with a fund of stories and young workers filled with hope. It is an older, slower, kinder Alaskan experience that refreshes the spirit.
I’m sure those towns along the Glenn Highway don’t think of that highway as something that should produce revenues to the state but the towns depend on it for the essentials of life and economic activity in their communities. The towns along the Marine Highway deserve the same as do Tok and Glenallen and Palmer. Senator Murkowski and Congressman Young helped Alaska obtain infrastructure funds for new Ferry services. The State needs to use that money and other funds to make the Marine Highway the essential service that it has been in the past and allow it to contribute to the economic and cultural benefit of all Alaska.
In 1963 — four years before oil was discovered on the North Slope and Alaska became rich – this vessel, sparkling new, was among the first ferries to serve Southeast Alaska. Over the years, other vessels (the Malaspina, Taku, Wickersham, Columbia and Kennicott) were built or purchased for this route and the marine highway system worked regularly and often, picking up and letting off passengers at towns along the marine highway. Today the other vessels are in dry dock “to save money” or have been sold and the worthy old Matanuska is the only ferry left working the highway to the Lower 48. It runs only when conditions are just right and service is unpredictable. That situation is an embarrassment to our state and unfair to the citizens in the towns along the way.
• Larry Weeks resides on Douglas. He was a lawyer in Alaska for over 40 years and has traveled via the Alaska Marine Highway System many times. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.
