Portage Glacier / Lake Photo Re-creation
   

 ~ 2007 ~

Portage Glacier - 1914

[NOAA photo from the 1914 R. P. Strough Survey Crew]

 Photo from same spot - 93 years later

[Photo by Tim Kelley, September 2007]
This is a 2007 update to the information about my 2006 attempt in the section below.  On the 22nd of September I was descending from Begich Peak and thought I'd give finding this photo location another shot.  I knew I could do better than my 2006 attempt.  So here it is.  The spot I found actually had an old survey marker embedded in the rock on the south slope of Turnagain Shoulder.  On some maps this is the 'Turnagain' triangulation station benchmark.  So that was a good sign for this being the right place.  The photo mach-up is very close but it isn't absolutely perfect.  There didn't seem like there was any location nearby that worked better.  Maybe I'm dealing with lens issues, landscape change issues, distortion of the scanned image or the original ... I'm not sure.  Anyway, I'm happy that I got this close because the pictures line up much better than my previous attempt in 2006.  It's a good thing I decided to do this photo recreate now before the last remnant of Portage Glacier disappeared from the picture!

A HUGE THANKS to Arlene Schmuland of UAA, Greg Durocher, Jill Schneider and Colleen E. Allen of the USGS for your efforts in identifying the 1914 R. P. Strough photograph above !!!!!!!!  Your help is very much appreciated.  And it's fun to ask you folks for help ... because you are such a great bunch of cool and very smart people !!
N 60.79321  W 148.84396 "Historic pictureteering" ... fun stuff.
   

 ~ 2006 ~

Portage Glacier 1914

 2006 Kelley photo from near the same spot 90+ years later
   
A few years ago Bill Spencer came across the old picture above.  He didn't know the date or source of the picture, and neither did I.  From the outlines of the extent of Portage Glacier on page 24 of Alan Taylor's book "The Strangest Town in Alaska - The History of Whittier, Alaska and the Portage Valley", I'd estimate that this picture dated to around 1910 to1915.  [Note: USGS librarian Colleen E. Allen located this photo in the NOAA photo archives and confirmed its date as 1914].

When you compare the pictures above, remember that the ice that once covered Portage Lake was hundreds of feet thick.  So it filled in where the lake is now AND climbed up the slopes leading to the lake quite a ways.  So in other words, the current lake will look somewhat smaller than the spread of the glacier 90 years ago.

Bill, Steve Gruhn and I figured this shot was taken from Maynard Mountain.  Well ... it wasn't.  I know for sure - as I hiked/ climbed from Portage Pass up Maynard Mountain, over, down to Bear Valley, and then back up, over and back down to Portage Pass again looking for the ghost photographer's perch.  Though I didn't find where the photo was taken, I did find something neat.  I found a whole lot of old telegraph cable.  Heather Hall, an archaeologist with the Chugach National Forest, Glacier District confirmed this was telegraph cable.  She was not aware that these wires were on top of Maynard, but she said there are know to be telegraph pole remains in Portage Valley.  She seemed to think this telegraph cable was used by USGS surveyors in the early 1900's, as there was once a USGS base camp in the Portage Valley just to the west of the lake.  So this could have been a temporary telegraph line that operated for a year or two? or few? so surveyors could communicate between Portage and Whittier.

The wide southern section of Maynard Mountain that runs south to Portage Lake has two ridges: a south ridge and a southwest ridge, with a glacier in between them.  It looks like there were telegraph lines laid right on the rock on both ridges.  I was in this area in mid September during what is likely a two month window when these cables are not covered with snow.  In some places you could see where the surveyors routed the wire to make it lay near the bottom of a cliff, or avoid a rocky outcrop.  Primarily they followed a route that would have been the first on this part of the mountain to be snow free.  Those old timers were tough ... boating up from the Lower 48 to the middle of nowhere, fueling up on flapjacks, bacon and black coffee and then humping miles of wire on spools over an uncharted glaciated mountain.  Pretty amazing, as hardly anyone climbs Maynard Mountain these days ... it's just too tough for the softie new-timers I guess.  (PS - It's not really that tough, once past the initial cliff bands], I've climbed Maynard Mountain 4 times and once I took my wife and my big Malamute Bluto to the top!).
   
Telegraph cable, and what looks like a splice in it.

Nothing but glacial smoothed rock and ice on the top of Maynard Mountain.  No place to dig to erect poles.  So the cable was just laid on the rock.  You can still see a bit of insulation on the stretch of wire.
   
Back to chasing the old picture ... after rambling around on Maynard Mountain, it was pretty clear that the picture was taken across Bear Valley from the ridge that leads up to Begich Peak.  On September 30th I scrambled up this ridge.  There are many places along this ridge where there is a like-perspective of the lake.  But I was trying to match the ridge and rocks as seen in the foreground of the old photo.  So - that kept me going to a 2780 foot high point on the ridge.  Here I found an old survey marker site.  This location was a natural choice for a triangulation marker site as it can be seen from many places in Portage Valley and the surrounding high country.  There were remnants of a few generations of survey markers here.  And somewhere near here is where the old picture was likely taken.

Quartz vein on rock, snow on Begich Peak in the distance.

An old survey marker site at 2780 feet on the ridge to Begich Peak.

The panoramic view from the 2780' Roost survey marker site, on top of Turnagain Shoulder near where the old picture was taken.  Maynard Mountain is the peak to the left of Portage Lake with the wide glacier draping it's upper elevations.

Each summer I chase after places, mountaintops, where there is no record of people being before.  I also really enjoy sleuthing Alaskan history, so for "historical balance", now once a year I try to chase down a location in the mountains where someone HAS been before ... a long, long time ago - and with a camera.  Fun stuff.

To see my last year's ghost photographer chase (on Knight Island in PWS), click here.

This map shows were I took the picture.  I was close, though possibly the photo was taken closer to the Roost benchmark.  But I headed down towards that location and it didn't seem like the shot would line up from there.  Oh well ... looks like I may be leaving an opportunity for someone else to go and pinpoint exactly where this ghost photographer took this shot (and by the way - back then his camera probably weighed 10 pounds or more!  So to show some respect to the old-timers, and throw a few good-sized rocks in your pack at the bottom of the mountain!)

[2007 update: The old pictue was taken at the 'Turnagain' triangulation station.  You can see it above the Begich Boggs Visitor Center on this map.]
 

Chuckles:  Several years ago I was paddling my kayak back across Portage Lake after climbing Bard Peak.  At the same time the Ptarmigan, a Portage Glacier viewing tour boat, was motoring up towards the glacier.  Over the loudspeakers on the boat I could hear the tour guide say: "Now if you look to the left you will see someone kayaking.  That is the same way Eskimos traveled on this lake hundreds of years ago."   Hmmm, I think the tour guide lady needs to look at these pictures (above).  Or else I need to learn that Aleut Eskimos or Denaina Indians were able to paddle kayaks across glaciers!
 

Web page and photos by Tim Kelley, 1914 photo by NOAA / R. P. Strough