Whittier Area Historical Photo Re-creations
by Tim Kelley

 

1914 Learnard Glacier Photo Re-created in 2008

1914 Photo by R. P. Strough Survey Crew, NOAA Photo Library, Image ID: theb1386

2008 Photo taken just north of the USGS 'Snow' triangulation benchmark by Tim Kelley
I hiked to the "Snow " benchmark to take this shot.  But it seemed that the shot was taken a little north of that benchmark.  I tried to find this location in 2007.  I thought I had found it at the "Slide" benchmark.  This year (on 27 September 2008) I think I got a lot closer.  Something new that can be seen in this picture is an ice cave forming at the rubble covered terminus of the Learnard Glacier.
Remnant of  the 'Snow' benchmark.
 
July 12, 1939 Learnard Glacier Photo from Portage Pass Trailhead Re-created in 2007

On the left is the F.F. Barnes USGS photo #bff00115 taken on July 12, 1939.  I took the photo on the right on October 3, 2007, 68 years later.  This was a tough shot to re-create due to all the overgrowth.  It's very easy to get to this location.  It's only a few hundred feet in from the start of the Portage Pass trailhead.  This shot gives you an idea of the mass of ice lost in the Learnard Glacier.  Whereas the pictures on the top of this page shows the glacier's lost length.  The white structure in the lower center is the Anton Tunnel entrance on the Whittier side of Maynard Mountain.  The white structures on the right of the picture are old WWII fuel tanks for supplying Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage via a 50 mile (est.) pipeline.  Perhaps a lot of the glacial till in the old picture at the terminus of the glacier was bulldozed down and used for fill when the tank farm was constructed.
 
July 28, 1939 F. F. Barnes USGS Photo Re-created in 2007

Both of these photos were taken from Portage Pass looking southwest.  The black and white photo above is a stitched composite of F.F. Barnes USGS photos bff00122 and bff0123 taken on July 28, 1939.  The color photo was taken by Tim Kelley at the same spot on October 3rd, 2007.  You still can see the 1939 outline of the extent of Divide Lake in light colored vegetation in the 2007 picture.
 

1957 Whittier Panoramic Photo Re-created in 2007

The 1957 black and white picture above is from pages 68 and 69 of Alan Taylor's book "The Strangest Town in Alaska, The History of Whittier, Alaska and The Portage Valley".  The color shots were taken by me on September 29, 2007.  These shots show 50 years of change in Whittier viewed from the same spot.  Ironically, the picture was taken by a person that turned 50 this year.  I was born the year the black and white shot was taken.
 

Web page and photos by Tim Kelley, 1914 photo by NOAA / R. P. Strough, 1957 photo via Alan Taylor