ViLDA Chasing on Knight Island

ViLDA photo from 1900-1913, Alaska Museum of History and Art

 2005 Kelley photo from same spot 90+ years later

Surfing the Internet can get you in trouble!  If you don't watch out you can stumble across a web site that will mess with your life.  Maybe even a web site that will prompt you to throw a camera and GPS in your pack and start chasing ghosts in obscure, mountainous places in remote Alaska.  This "web trauma" happened to me.  An Internet site turned me into a "ViLDA Chaser"!

The web site I'm referring to is vilda.alaska.edu, the State of Alaska's Visual Library and Digital Archives web site.  This web site allows you to peruse an online database of thousands of old Alaskan historical photographs from museums around our state.  If you are an Alaskan history enthusiast like me, you can really get drawn into this web site.  ViLDA is a great asset to the State of Alaska as a way to preserve and share the history of our past.

Last year I was surfing around ViLDA when I spotted the black and white picture above.  Likely taken between 1910 and 1913, this photo is now the property of the Alaska Museum of History and Art.  The caption of the picture says that it was taken on Knight Island in Prince William Sound, above Port Audrey at the head of Drier Bay, from the Jonsie Copper Mine.

As soon as I saw this picture I was hooked.  I just had to track down this location and try to recreate the shot.  Why?  Because the Internet is evil and I'm now a ViLDA junkie ... that's why!

During June of last summer I was in the neighborhood of Drier Bay so I took some time to track down this Knight Island photo location.  I bushwhacked north from Port Audrey while using landmarks from the old picture as guides.  I ran into some very steep jungle thrashing to get above tree-line.  So the old-timers evidently knew their way around these hills better than me.

Above tree-line I knew I was getting close.  And then I saw it - the exact rock the unknown photographer had used 90+ years ago to take the picture now on ViLDA.  After retaking the picture I poked around the hills of this area.  I found no evidence of a copper mine, but I did find a cairn that looked like it could be pushing 100 years old.  So maybe the photo caption was mistaken.  Maybe this photo was from prospectors staking a copper claim instead.

Museums around the state are constantly adding new historical photos to ViLDA.  And I'm frequently visiting vilda.alaska.edu.  So who knows what destination will result from the next: "Damn!  I've GOT to go there!" discovery.

If other readers of Scree are interested in Alaska's history, you really ought to check out ViLDA on the web.  But watch out!  You too could end up traipsing off to strange places with a camera and a printout of an old picture, chasing ghost photographers from days of old.  Yes, you too could end up being a "ViLDA Chaser"!

Tim Kelley

Tim Kelley, "ViLDA Chaser"