Port Protection, Alaska is a community of about fifty souls, many of whom are ex-patriots of urban living, who migrated to the end of the road and a little further. Port P, as it is often known, is almost to the very northern end of Prince of Wales Island. To get there from the rest of the island, you drive to Control Lake, which approximates dead center. Then you turn north and follow an increasingly horrible road for about eighty miles. When my husband and I went there as teachers in 1989, this meant about a 120-mile drive on bumpy gravel roads, that grew increasingly narrow until it was difficult for two vehicles to pass. There was that time that we met another vehicle and had no time to stop and no place to pull over—the only option was to keep going and pass so close that the other vehicle took off our rear-view mirror.
At the end of the road, we came to Labouchere Bay, which at the time was a logging camp in its final years. There, we installed our Boston Whaler at the dock, and used it to make the ten-minute skiff ride that would take us to Port P.
There was no teacher housing, and our rental house was a caution to behold. The bottom floor was little more than a two-by-four framework, while upstairs was finished enough to live in. The first story was wrapped all around in blue tarp material and it took us a couple circuits around the perimeter to find the door. Once inside, we saw that there was water piped into the first story, but not the second. Further amenities included a generator and a honey bucket. For the next nine months this would be home to us and our four-month-old son.
On our first morning, we woke to what sounded like an epic rainfall drumming on the steel roof. When we looked outside, though, we saw blue sky and puffy white clouds. Further exploration revealed that the water pipe down blue had sprung a leak and a magnificent geyser was hitting the ceiling directly under our bed.
The community building doubled as the school, and we had twelve kids ages kindergarten through eighth grade. The adventure was just getting started.
Hi Evelyn. I would like to register but can’t figure out how.
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