Whenever I travel, I like to learn as much as I can about a place before I go. This is so I don’t spend so much time trying to learn the basics and can really learn more about the "place”. Consequently, our bookshelf at home is filled with various guide books, reference books, and maps about places that I have traveled to and/or places that I dream about going too J When I learned that I was going to return to Gambell, I dug out my old map of St. Lawrence Island and did a Google search on the community. All this was an effort to re-acquaint myself with Gambell. As we were flying in from Nome, I tried to locate various houses and structures as landmarks. Turns out that it was futile since Gambell has grown since the 90’s and there are new structures everywhere and they all look the same! I managed to find the "old village”, the old dump, and the grocery store – because it is blue. During a walk, I tried to find the little house that we used to rent for our summer walrus work but I never could figure out which one it was.
View of Gambell, Alaska after taking off from airport.
Lodge at Gambell, Alaska
During my walk, I noticed that most of the meat racks had walrus meat drying in the sun. Back at the lodge, I talked to Hanson, the lodge manager, and discussed this season’s hunting. He told me that this spring had been a bountiful season for hunting walrus and bearded seals. They also had landed three bowhead whales in the spring – all over 50 feet. The skull of one of the bowheads could still be seen near the airstrip on the beach. In addition, there had been several polar bears in the area. They hadn’t been out hunting for a few days due to the weather and wind.
Walrus meat drying.
Hanson was a wealth of information and we had a nice long talk about the changes on the island. He also told me that there would be several people from the island that would be on the Healy – Perry Pungowiyi from Savoonga, Mike Apataki from Gambell, and Bobby Ungwiluk from Gambell. I was looking forward to meeting them, in particular, Bobby since he is a high school student from Gambell. After a nice morning chatting with Hanson and various community folks, I was ready to board the Healy. Where was that helicopter anyway? I’d soon find out…** ****
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