The sounds of birds chirping and close to 30 people chattering filled the air at the Anan Bay Cabin in the Tongass National Forest this past Monday. They waited for Senator Lisa Murkowski to arrive for the celebratory ribbon cutting ceremony of the cabin.
It’s the first new recreational cabin built in the Tongass using 2022 infrastructure dollars after the very popular cabin was destroyed close to a year and a half ago when a tree fell on the roof.
Recreationists used the cabin over the past 60 years. Builders reconstructed it twice since then and it served as a trapper cabin before it had an upgrade in 2012.
The recent loss of the cabin meant that most visitors were now limited to day trips to the nearby Anan Wildlife Observatory, where black and brown bears fish for salmon.
“I love the smell, it’s so cedar.”
As people waited for Sen. Murkowski to arrive, Virginia Oliver, a tribal elder with the Wrangell Cooperative Association, took a look around the new cabin.
“I love the smell, it’s so cedar,” she said. “It’s really beautiful and wonderful. I love it. It’s reminiscent of the other cabins that you see, the Forest Service cabins. But this one is really grand.”
The red cedar cabin is pretty big and it could easily fit a group of ten people. There’s a spacious loft with a window looking out at Anan Bay. A roof protects the large porch where hammocks could easily be strung up.
Oliver said it’s peaceful here. She heard an eagle earlier when walking near the cabin.
“This is the old place and we were thinking that we would sprinkle tobacco so that we’re met in a good way here,” she said. “We would sing an Eagle song and then compliment it with the Raven song, because balance of the tribes that were here.”
Cabin isn’t the only new addition to the area
Oliver and Tribal Administrator Esther Aaltséen Reese welcomed Murkowski when she arrived by telling her about the land in Tlingit and English. Then Oliver beat a drum as they sang the Eagle and Raven songs.
Before cutting the ribbon, Murkowski showed appreciation to everyone who’s worked on the Anan Bay Cabin.
She also acknowledged the T3 STEM students who worked on the live bear cameras that’s at the opposite end of the connecting trail.
Forest Service cabins play an integral part of many Alaskans’ lives
“I’ll introduce myself appropriately. Esther, good to see you, and Virginia,” she said. “I am adopted into the Deisheetaan. My Tlingit name is Aan shaawátk’i, which means Lady of the Land.”
Sen. Murkowski grew up in Ketchikan. She said she remembers staying in some of the Forest Service cabins as a kid and how integral they are in many Alaskans’ lives.
“None of them ever looked like this,” she said. “They were the places where your family would go, where hunting people would, you know, sometimes somebody got stuck somewhere. They were a refuge in a storm, or they were an opportunity for families to gather.”
Before Sen. Murkowski cut the ribbon Tribal Administrator Reese sprinkled tobacco on it.
“The eagles watch us,” Sen. Murkowski said as Reese sprinkled tobacco on the ribbon. “Real cut on three, ready: one, two, three.”
The crowd cheered as Sen. Murkowski cut the ribbon with a large pair of gold colored scissors.
“We are hoping to work on about 25 cabins”
Montana resident Mary Mitsos, president and CEO of the National Forest Foundation, made it to the ribbon cutting ceremony as well.
The non-profit organization focuses on forest health, improvising recreation infrastructure and engaging the public, and is a significant partner of the Forest Service for getting the Anan Bay Cabin up and running for recreationists.
She said they’ve been working in the Chugach and Tongass National Forests to maintain, rebuild or build new cabins as part of the Alaska Cabins Project.
“We are hoping to work on about 25 cabins across both forests,” Mitsos said. “Hopefully will build some new ones that are more accessible than current ones, and then rebuild and refurbish some of the ones like this one that needed some help.”
“…there’s a lot of demand for cabins near communities”
James King, regional director of Recreation, Lands and Minerals in the Forest Service, said they’ve been working on the cabins project for about four years. He said they’ve taken a hard look at cabin use patterns.
“We’ve seen those use patterns change over time and discovered that there’s a lot of demand for cabins near communities, on road systems, up short distances of trails or short boat rides in protected water, such as this cabin here at Anan,” he said.
They received 1500 responses which helped them move forward with the cabins project. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Great American Outdoors Act helped fund the project, along with partnerships like the National Forest Foundation. The organization is funding $3.7 million and the federal government at $14 million.
He said the cabin is one of the five cabins in this region that have been under construction this year and it’s the first to be completed in the Tongass. Rainforest Contracting, a local contractor from Petersburg, constructed the cabin using some local materials.
“I wish I was staying here for a week,” King said. “It’s just fun. The reward after you work all the way through a process like this is to watch people come out and enjoy it, and come back and say, ‘Oh, we had the greatest time out there. And our kids ran around and did this, or we just had a quiet getaway.’”
2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill initiative
After visiting the cabin and checking out the observatory deck and the live cams that the T3 students worked on, everyone treaded down the pathway and Sen. Murkowski stopped mid-trail like any other visitor to take in the extraordinary scene.
“I got to take a quick picture of the fish because you can’t quite see the concentration,” she said. “You know you never get tired of this, right? We’re from here, and you never get tired of looking at the bears, you never get tired of looking at the fish, the eagles.”
The wildlife viewing at Anan is exceptional because it is so remote. But that also means it’s difficult to visit for most. Sen. Murkowski said it’s great that the live cams are up.
“For so many people, most people, they will never have that opportunity to see it in person,” she said. “Using the technologies that we just saw here at the Anan Observatory really does open that aperture to the world.”
Nevertheless, Sen. Murkowski took the initiative to include new cabins in the 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
And will she stay at Anan sometime in the future?
“If I can get a reservation, you betcha! Bring my whole family out,” Sen. Murkowski said.
Anan Bay cabin will be put on recreation.gov in the next couple weeks so the public can reserve their stay. It will be available year round.
