Alaska Native Plant Society

The Amazing Sand Point Field Trip

Photos and text by Carol Griswold

Bonnie and Marilyn collecting plants on the Sand Point, Alaska field trip. July 10, 2005

Marilyn, Jeanette, Annita, Barbara, and Bonnie walk to the beach. Sand Point, Alaska field trip. July 8, 2005

Hank, Barbara, Marilyn, Annita, Bonnie, and Jeanette, collecting plants. Sand Point, Alaska field trip. July 7, 2005

The village on Unga Island was abandoned about fifty years ago. Sand Point, Alaska field trip. July 9, 2005

Seven Alaska Native Plant Society members, four consecutive days of sunshine, two plant presses, and one wonderful host family added up to a spectacular field trip to Sand Point, Alaska, 550 miles southwest of Anchorage. The focus was to add to the 25 herbarium specimens at the UAF collection; over 200 new specimens were collected and pressed.

Jeanette and Fred Kent, assisted by their 13 year old grandson Frank, opened their home, hearts, and island to the group from July 7-11th. We were treated to plant-collecting hikes from beaches, where some rocks were actually ancient petrified metasequoia fossils, to bluffs and rolling hills carpeted with lush meadows sprinkled with rose-purple orchids, lady slippers, Kamchatka rhododendrons, and other lovely flowers, to the highest point on the island at 1549' where feral bison grazed far below in the green meadows with their calves.

By the end of the first day the presses were almost full, and subsequently overfilled. Double and triple stacking began the next day, and a large phone book was pressed into action. Collecting finally reverted to those plants which would fit in a phone book. It was very challenging to have so many beautiful plants, such excellent weather, and limited press boards, newspaper, cardboard, and blotters.

Fortunately, no plant collecting took place on a special day trip by fishing boat to adjacent Unga Island, home of the petrified forest and an abandoned village that was once a booming cod fishing and gold mining town. The grayed and weathered buildings are in various stages of collapse, from a slight tilt to flat on the ground and gone. Vibrant wildflowers surround them, unimpressed by the decay of civilization around them. Whales, including humpbacks and fin whales, swam close to the boat, providing a great show.

Visitors Annita and Jenny Magee, Hank and Barbara Weil, Marilyn Barker, Bonnie Tisler, and Carol Griswold worked hard, hiked far, and ate well on this very special ANPS field trip. Many, many thanks to Jeanette, Fred, and Frank for accommodating us all so graciously.