We embarked from Whittier on a lovely boat tour (see the album titled 07-11 Whittier & Portage at right). Although we enjoyed the trip very much, we were rather surprised by the city from which it left.

Whittier is a port city for many of the cruise ships traveling Alaska’s Inside Passage, and one of two gateway cities to the Prince William Sound (Valdez being the other). It is set amidst beautiful mountains within the Chugach National Forest and features two glacial waterfalls at the end of the village road. Like Skagway and Haines, it is connected to the rest of Alaska by road rather than just by ferry or float plane; in fact, Whittier is only an hour away from Anchorage — and Alaska’s largest city is inhabited by outdoor fanatics.

So, imagine our shock as we drove out of the 2 1/2 mile tunnel (single-lane, shared by autos and trains, cars get the first 30 minutes of each hour)  and saw a village like we’d expect to find in an old, Eastern Bloc country.

Whittier was founded by the Army during WWII as a port and petroleum center for troops stationed farther north. Most of the 120 residents now live in a renovated 14 story barracks once used by soldiers and their families until the post was deactivated in the early 1960s. The village also has a cannery and a handful of motels and shops.

But mostly it has lots of broken machinery — some military, some marine — scattered throughout the community. All of the buildings look industrial and dirty. The school looks like a boxy fort. A train track separates the port from the village and there is an underground walkway, but it is unpainted concrete and steel — such a contrast from the similar tunnel full of art that we saw in Cinque Terre when we were in Italy a few years ago.

We are left wondering why Whittier looks like this when cities like Haines, Skagway, and Petersburg flourish? Maybe it’s because it wasn’t until 2000 that the train tunnel was renovated to include autos? Or maybe it’s because Whittier can receive up to 40′ of snow a year (yes, that’s 40 feet on the ground at once!)? With such a setting, a rich fishery nearby, and a flow of cruise ship tourists, its a wonder that so little development has occurred here.

I’m glad we enjoyed the boat tour, because, like most visitors, we found little encouragement to stick around after a delightful cruise on Prince Willam Sound.