However, prior to moving we headed to the visitors centre to get a lay of the land. We learned that there are two must see things in the area. 1) Fish Creek Viewing Platform and 2) Salmon Glacier.
We also learned that even though one town is in the US and one in Canada they are very similar. They are both at the head of the Portland Canal and were started around the same time due to mineral discoveries, mainly copper, gold and silver. The two towns were very prosperous until the largest mine closed in 1950 at which time both areas diminished in size with Hyder actually being declared a ghost town. Today it has around 100 full time residents and most of these people still do a little mining or work for the mining company that has to maintain the area. Its byline is “ The friendliest ghost town is the US". There is a custom here and that is to be “Hyderized”. Hyderized is accomplished by downing a shot of 150 proof liquor. ( Everclear ) I’ll pass. However I’ll bet Ricky Donny was “Hyderized” on his brief visit.
Stewart has faired a little better as their population is around 500 today down from over 10,000 prior to WW1. Stewart was originally called Portland City but the US Postal Service said there were too many cities of that name so the Post Master changed the name to Stewart, his last name.
Hyder, Alaska
Stewart, BC
After leaving the visitors center we headed over to the US and the Fish Creek Fishing Platform. It is 5 miles north of Hyder and is accessible via a very rough road, a lot of large potholes. The platform is actually in the Tongass Forest and is run by the forestry service. We hung around for awhile but we struck out. No bears. The timing was not very good as early morning and early evening are the best times.
So we drove around Hyder ( that didn’t take long ) and headed back to Canada. We had to go through customs but they are pretty lax with so many people coming and going. Plus there is nowhere to go when you are in Hyder except back to Canada. The US does not even bother with a customs station because if it.
We arrived at our new campsite and got set up. Today we actually took the camper off the truck as we plan to go to Salmon Glacier tomorrow. The road to Salmon Glacier is a continuation of the road to Fish Creek and we expect it to be the same rough conditions all the way to the glacier.
A catastrophe was avoided when we realized we hadn’t taken all the supports off before trying to drive out from under the camper. Thankfully I was going slow and no damage was done. We finished setting up and just in time as it started to rain.
We had supper and called it a day.
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