On Saturday, Kid1 (plus her friend-who's-a-boy from the Lower 48) and I went hiking out to an abandoned Cold War era Air Force communications system originally designed to prevent another Pearl Harbor type attack. Operational in 1958, Bethel's White Alice Communication System (WACS) site also dramatically improved telephone functionality throughout Alaska. Before the WACS were completed, only one call at a time could be made between Nome and Fairbanks and residents of Anchorage had to make calls to the Lower 48 from only one location in town!
When we first moved to Bethel, the then unknown-to-us White Alice loomed large across the tundra from the airport and we couldn't help but speculate what it was. Curiously, nobody that gave us our official or unofficial tours of Bethel ever mentioned it, so we were left to our imaginations as to what purpose this superstructure could have served.
Speculation included:
- A crashed space ship?
- An odd skate park ramp?
- A ski jump?
- A now defunct Drive-In Theater?
In hindsight, the Drive-In Theater idea is the most absurd of them all! Sure, in the winter months, you could show movies almost throughout the entire day, but who goes to a drive-in during the winter? Especially during winter in Alaska? And, while the summer months seem (so far) to be nice enough with regards to weather, there's no way it would ever get dark enough to show a movie! Trust me...I'm awake every night past 2am watching the start of Civil Twilight (1:45am right now!) and occasionally until the end of Civil Twilight a whopping 2 whole hours later at 3:46am!!!
Having never seen anything on Earth even remotely like White Alice, I was hesitant to ask what that thing was on the horizon. Eventually, I overheard a couple of students talking about "visiting Old White Alice" and was able to discern enough that they were talking about the curious building on the tundra and not some crazy Yup'ik legend!
I mustered enough courage to pull one of the students aside and quietly asked, "Were you talking about that huge "thing" on the tundra?"
After a brief moment of exchanged confused glances and my futile attempts to mime the basic shape of the structure, the student begrudgingly admitted that Old White Alice was a bunch of abandoned buildings at the end of BIA Road (Bureau of Indian Affairs Road) where kids went to party and whatnot! I think the student thought they were going to be in trouble, but I only gave him my hypocritical "Don't Drink/Drugs/Sex When You're A Minor" look and set about making plans for my visit to Alice!
Over the following few weeks, I researched my quest to conquer the beast! I called upon my less-than-expert geocaching skills and plotted what seemed like a reasonable course. According to my students, everyone had been out there at least once, so I wasn't worried about getting lost and there seemed to be little concern about any possible "laws" that we might violate en route! I was stoked! All that was left was to assemble my expedition team and to find the perfect day!
Kid1 reluctantly agreed to tag along (Despite seeing me holding my handheld GPS unit...That's another blog post!) after I convinced her friend-who's-a-boy that it would be fun! We drove as far as we could on BIA Road and began hiking through the abandoned military complex. From one of the buildings we could hear some odd noises and I'm fairly certain I heard a dog barking from another, but we chose not to investigate. Graffiti marked most of the buildings and only the shattered fragments of glass remained in every window.
Our path was relatively easy and I enjoyed listening to Kid1 and Friend get reacquainted after more than 5 months apart. Theirs is a unique and mature friendship that I'm certain will stand the test of time as they become adults. It's amusing to watch and listen as kids grow up and these two teens are about as mature as they come.
After a decent walk over beach-sandy trails our inspiration appeared and we excitedly hastened our pace. Arriving at the oft-abused gate that stood between us and our goal, I was struck by Alice's sheer size and beauty. Her gently curved concave shape was finally visible and despite years of withstanding the best that Mother Nature could dish out, Old Alice still stands majestically on the tundra. To the right of the gate was a bullet-riddled sign purporting the dangers of asbestos inhalation. Apparently, Old Alice is hazardous to our health.
I debated turning around. The gate didn't look inviting for someone my size and there was the whole asbestos thing, but curiosity got the better of me and over the gate we went. The youngsters had little trouble climbing over, although I WAS definitely a better fence climber in the olden days of my youth. Today, my skills have depleted significantly, but I managed, barely, to squeeze, shimmy, pull, push and embarrass my way over without injury!
Once inside the gate, we were met by a rickety metal ladder that led to a small platform and entrance inside Old Alice. Again, we had to conquer our fears as we scaled the ladder. It's probably only 10 feet or so, but it wasn't the easiest climb. The top of the ladder is barely held in place by some thin gauge wire and a blue rope that didn't seem to be doing much of anything. Standing on the platform, we could see most of Bethel in the distance.
We climbed through the door and I was amazed at the sinewy support network of metal beams. It was beautiful in an eerie way. Dozens of people had signed their names having completed the same trek we had. Many were students that I recognized and it was comforting to have finally done something so "Bethel"!
At the far end of the structure, a vertical, narrow ladder led to the top of Alice. After staring up the ladder, I had to admit defeat.
Although it was perfectly quiet, I could just make out an odd combination of my mom's and my wife's voices yelling at me for what I was considering. Maybe it was Old White Alice herself talking.
Reluctantly, I withdrew from the dark and stood on Alice's platform admiring the view. I'll bet the view from the top is even better. Maybe next time. Maybe next time.
3 comments:
Next time, someone with a boat needs to take you up to the old children's home above Kwethluk. If you liked this, you'd LOVE that.
Yes, it was your wife's harpy voice telling you that you are worth more to her alive than dead.
Its sad to not have the chance anymore, White Alice was beautiful in itself as were the sights from the top. When my family first moved to Bethel my dad had both Arianna and I in front of him as we climbed that scary height together. Reaching the top and looking out with the sun and the breeze on our faces, Ill never forget.
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