Icy Strait Point | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | United States |
Location | 108 Cannery Road, Hoonah, Alaska |
Coordinates | 58°07′46″N135°27′48″W / 58.12933°N 135.4632°W Coordinates: 58°07′46″N135°27′48″W / 58.12933°N 135.4632°W |
Details | |
Opened | 2004 |
Owned by | Huna Totem Corporation |
Statistics | |
Website icystraitpoint |
Icy Strait Point is a privately owned tourist destination just outside the small village of Hoonah, Alaska. It is located on Chichagof Island and is named after the nearby Icy Strait. Owned by Huna Totem Corporation, it is the only privately owned cruise destination in Alaska, [1] [2] as most stops are owned by the cities in which they are located. Huna Totem Corporation is owned by approximately 1,350 Alaskan Natives with aboriginal ties to Hoonah and the Glacier Bay area. [3] Many of them are of the Tlingit people. [1]
Huna Totem Corporation was established as a part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act [4] signed into law in 1971. The Act was intended to resolve the long-standing issues surrounding aboriginal land claims in Alaska, as well as to stimulate economic development throughout Alaska.
The corporation purchased the site in 1996, [5] and Icy Strait Point was first opened for cruise ships in 2004, with Royal Caribbean International and its sister outfit Celebrity Cruises being the two lines to initially make use of it. [6] They would continue to be the main lines there, but subsequently Princess Cruises began making some stops there for several years, as well as Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, and Norwegian Cruise Line. [1] [7] [8] [9]
By 2008, cruise stop business accounted for a quarter of Hoonah's employment, [5] and by 2011, there were some 73 cruise ship visits arriving for the summer season, and by one calculation the cruise business accounted for more than half the local economy. [8]
Initially passengers were tendered into the Icy Strait Point dock, [7] then in 2016 construction was finished on a 400-foot (120 m) floating dock suitable for cruise ships that replaced tendering. [10] By 2019, there were 137 cruise ships scheduled to visit Icy Strait Point. [11] But still only one cruise ship was present at any given time. [7]
To further expand the tourism business, in 2019 Huna Totem Corporation joined with Norwegian Cruise Line to build a second floating dock, one that could accommodate megaships, located a half mile away from the first. [11] The goal of the separation was to prevent overcrowding, [12] but nevertheless some Hoonah Elders expressed skepticism that the local population could handle that amount of tourist traffic without losing its sense of character. [11]
In 2020, Icy Strait Point was hit by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on cruise ships. [12] Nevertheless work on the second dock work went forward and was completed by 2022, although the effects of the pandemic were still being felt. [12]
The corporation's goal was to preserve the character of the local village and culture as much as possible, despite the influx of visitors, while still providing substantial help to local economic prospects. [5] They have won several awards for doing this, [2] including in 2008 a Travel to a Better World Award from National Geographic Traveler magazine, [5] in 2012 a Global Vision Award from Travel + Leisure magazine, [13] and in 2013 a finalist World Savers Award from Condé Nast Traveler magazine. [14] A decade later, The New York Times put Hoonah and Icy Strait Point on its '52 Places to Go in 2022' list, a group of selections that year that emphasized sites that fostered sustainable tourism and avoided overtourism. [12]
The site includes the 1930s Hoonah Packing Company facility, now converted into a museum, restaurant, and shops. [1] In the view of two travel books, the cannery at the site has been "beautifully restored". [7] [15] At the dock, traditionally garbed presenters offer a look at Huna Tlingit culture, [16] and an indoor theatrical production along the same lines is also offered. [7] All shops located there are owned by Alaskans. [7] Alaska's Wildest Kitchen shows visitors the importance of salmon and subsistence fishing in the Tlingit culture and features a culinary instruction space where local residents demonstrate how to fillet salmon and halibut and turn them into burgers, spreads, casseroles, and grilled entrees. [17] The local town of Hoonah is a mile's walk, and reveals contemporary Tlingit life. [7] A 2014 USA Today article described the chance to experience Alaska Native culture in small villages such as Hoonah one of the ten reasons to visit the state. [18]
For the most part, however, Icy Strait Point is a jumping-off point for shore excursions for the cruise passengers. [1] The most well-known of these is the ZipRider zip-line that completes its run near the facility, which was constructed by the Huna Totem Corporation. [5] Opening in May 2007, it measures 5,330 feet (1,620 m) and made claims to being the longest in the world, [1] [19] or later to at least being one of the longest and highest – at 1,330 feet (410 m) – in North America. [20] It has been rated a statewide "must do" attraction by the Anchorage Daily News . [7] The zip-line was also featured in September 2013 on Travel Channel's Ride-iculous show. [21]
Another popular excursion is to search for coastal brown bears on the nearby Spasski River, where sightings happen but are not guaranteed. [1] [22] Other wildlife, such as bald eagles, are frequently seen in the area. [7] Whale watching excursions are also conducted, as the facility is near the Point Adolphus feeding area for humpback whales. [15] By 2011, attractions at and around Icy Strait Point had reached the level where they were getting non-cruise visitors as well. [7]
Southeast Alaska, colloquially referred to as the Alaska Panhandle or Alaskan Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The majority of Southeast Alaska's area is part of the Tongass National Forest, the United States' largest national forest. In many places, the international border runs along the crest of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. The region is noted for its scenery and mild, rainy climate.
The Tlingit are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language, in which the name means 'People of the Tides'. The Russian name Koloshi or the related German name Koulischen may be encountered referring to the people in older historical literature, such as Grigory Shelikhov's 1796 map of Russian America.
Totem poles are monumental carvings, a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large trees, mostly western red cedar, by First Nations and Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast including northern Northwest Coast Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian communities in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth communities in southern British Columbia, and the Coast Salish communities in Washington and British Columbia.
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Sitka is a unified city-borough in the southeast portion of the U.S. state of Alaska. It was formerly known as New Archangel while under Russian rule from 1799 to 1867. The city is situated on the west side of Baranof Island and the south half of Chichagof Island in the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean. As of the 2020 census, Sitka had a population of 8,458, the fifth-most populated city in the state.
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Ketchikan is a city in and the borough seat of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough of Alaska. It is the state's southeasternmost major settlement. Downtown Ketchikan is a National Historic District.
Hoonah is a largely Tlingit community on Chichagof Island, located in Alaska's panhandle in the southeast region of the state. It is 30 miles (48 km) west of Juneau, across the Alaskan Inside Passage. Hoonah is the only first-class city on Chichagof Island, the 109th-largest island in the world and the 5th-largest island in the U.S. At the 2020 census the population was 931, up from 760 in 2010. In the summer the population can swell to over 1,300 depending on fishing, boating, hiking and hunting conditions.
The Municipality and Borough of Skagway is a first-class borough in Alaska on the Alaska Panhandle. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,240, up from 968 in 2010. The population doubles in the summer tourist season in order to deal with more than 1,000,000 visitors each year. Incorporated as a borough on June 25, 2007, it was previously a city in the Skagway-Yakutat-Angoon Census Area. The most populated community is the census-designated place of Skagway.
The City and Borough of Wrangell is a borough in Alaska, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 2,127, down from 2,369 in 2010.
Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "shore excursions". On "cruises to nowhere" or "nowhere voyages", cruise ships make two- to three-night round trips without visiting any ports of call.
Glacier Bay Basin in southeastern Alaska, in the United States, encompasses the Glacier Bay and surrounding mountains and glaciers, which was first proclaimed a U.S. National Monument on February 25, 1925, and which was later, on December 2, 1980, enlarged and designated as the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, covering an area of 3,283,000 acres. In 1986, UNESCO declared an area of 57,000 acres within a World Biosphere Reserve. This is the largest UNESCO protected biosphere in the world. In 1992, UNESCO included this area as a part of a World Heritage site, extending over an area of 24,300,000-acre (98,000 km2) which also included the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Kluane National Park (Canada) and Tatshenshini-Alsek Park (Canada). Part of the National Park is also designated a Wilderness area covering 2,658,000 acres.
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The Mount Roberts Tramway is an aerial tramway located just south of downtown Juneau in the U.S. state of Alaska. In operation since 1996, the tram makes a six-minute ascent of 3,819-foot (1,164 m) Mount Roberts from the cruise ship docks to a height of about 1,800 feet (550 m). A restaurant, theater, nature center and retail shops are located at the top of the tramway, as well as connections to trails leading both up and down the mountain. One trail up the mountain leads to a large cross erected by Roman Catholic Father Brown in the early 1900s.
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