An Alaska Port City Vignette – Petersburg

The casual cruiseship or Alaska ferry visitor who arrives in the Southeast Alaska port of Petersburg might be forgiven for thinking he or she has been transported somehow to an enclave of Norway. There are, for instance, scores of homes, businesses, even downtown sidewalks upon which traditional Nordic symbols and designs – called rosemaling – are painted or etched. Too, there's the imposing large Sons of Norway Hall, constructed in 1912, It's a major social and community meeting place and just outside its doors photographers go wild taking pictures of the square-sailed vessel Valhalla, an authentic replica of a Viking sailing craft.

It's called "rosemaling" and you see this colorful Norwegian art form on homes and commercial buildings throughout the city. This example adorns one of Petersburg's downtown businesses. (Mike Miller Photo)

Come early summer each year the community celebrates – wouldn't you know it? – Norwegian Independence Day with a “Little Norway Festival” over the third weekend of May. Townspeople parade the city in traditional Scandinavian dress amid flurries Viking ship reproduction "Valhalla"

of Viking "raids" from the sea by Nordic “warriors” off the Valhalla. Too, there are halibut-filleting contests and folk dancing, and on the beach there's a popular salmon bake. At other venues locals and visitors enjoy tasting the likes of fish cakes, gravid lox, lutefisk, and all manner of mouth-watering Norwegian desserts.

<- Viking vessel Valhalla, on display near Petersburg's Sons of Norway Hall, actually takes to the sea when the annual "Little Norway Festival" is staged in late June. (Mike Miller Photo)

Hiking near Petersburg Alaska

But of course there are many more things to see and do in Petersburg and its environs than celebrating a particular heritage. What, for instance, is your favorite “thing?” Fishing perhaps? Freshwater streams nearby are hugely productive for trout and other species. Nearby saltwater arms, bays, and inlets, are likewise rewarding for fishers seeking salmon, halibut, and other ocean-going fish. And if you see a humpback whale leaping or sounding in the process, all the better. Or how about hiking? The community abounds with trekking opportunities along U.S. Forest Service and other trails through thick, verdant stands of Sitka Spruce and Hemlock.

The Petersburg Lake Trail, maintained by the U.S. Forest Service on nearby Kupreanof Island across Wrangell Narrows, is but one of a number of excellent short or long hiking choices. (Marilyn Miller Photo)

About 25 miles east of Petersburg lies the ever-calving, ever-splashing, ever- iceberg-making river of ice called Le Conte Glacier. This, the southernmost tidewater glacier in North America, along with Le Conte Bay, is home to some 2,000 seals who raise their pups each year upon myriad icebergs in the bay waters. Waterborne excursions to the site are easy to book and richely rewarding.

To learn about Petersburg's founding in the late 1890s, its fascinating local museum, a popular recreation area called "Man-Made-Hole" and the appropriately-named "Eagle's Roost Park" a short walk north of downtown, visit www.petersburg.org on the internet. Or, you can call 907-772-INFO for a 46-page visitor's guide whose opening article says it all: “Welkommen to Alaska's Little Norway.”