Remember meeting the postmasters?

How do you suppose the mail gets to people when there aren’t any roads?

In Bethel, the mail isn’t delivered at all. Everyone goes to the post office to pick it up.

Groceries delivered by sled.

Mail destined for the surrounding villages can’t be trucked (no roads).

There wasn’t any Pony Express (no roads and very few horses; none today).

Once upon a time it was delivered by dogsled. Or, once a year, boats from Seattle (several thousand miles away) would bring mail.

 Today, the mail comes by large plane or jet to Bethel. It is then sent to some villages by small bush plane.

 What do you suppose comes by mail?

 [all the fresh milk, meat, eggs, and produce in Bethel]
Kitchen Stoves

Cabin Bread

(called Pilot Bread here)

Soda Pop/Fizzy Drinks
chicken eggs (goose eggs come by air once a year in spring hah! hah! they are a welcome food)
Televisions
Clothes
School Supplies

That stuff is heavy and bulky so, mail also comes by hovercraft.

The Kuskokwim Delta has the only hovercraft mail delivery in the United States.

Watch this video, mabe you would like to become a mailman in Alaska!

Passengers on the hovercraft.

Hovercraft garage.

Did you ever think of your bread and milk arriving by mail? Imagine having to wait for it to arrive by hovercraft.

Make your own very awsome hovercraft here.

Learn how hovercrafts work here.

Make a list of the most unusual items you can think of to arrive by mail.

 Record a ficticious interview between yourself and a mailman who delivers via hovercraft.

Why do you think they eat cabin bread in Alaska?

Click here for more information.

You can see the funny stilts the building is on. And, yes, that is snow falling in the picture, well after the first day of spring. There aren’t any wooly mammoths in the region now but there used to be. Their bones and teeth are found in river beds and ponds.

The wooly skin next to the mammoth molar and tusk in the picture belongs to a musk ox. They have very fine hair, underwear (softer than superwool) which keeps them warm. The shed hair can be knitted or crocheted to keep people warm.

The seasons of the year are spelled in English and in Yup’ik. Yup’ik is the Eskimo language of many people in this region. Spring is really nice because the birds return to breed from the rest of the world (including the south Pacific). Not only that, but in the old days, the birds were the first fresh food of the long winter. Sometimes people would run out of their dried fish and berries and caribou stored for the year. There are tiny stores in each village, but the food is very expensive and only staples are available. People still catch their own meat and fish and berries.

All kinds of fish are eaten, some trapped in the fish traps but the salmon are netted when they return to the Kuskokwim or Yukon Rivers.

Use wikipedia to find out information about mammoths. Why are they extinct now?

Write a story ” Wilbur The Wooly Mammoth”

Elders get to ride the bus around town to do errands–
shop
bank
post office
pay bills
special events
health clinic (across from the Refuge Visitor Center)

Do your Grandparents go on bus trips?

Ask them to tell you about their most enjoyable trip and write a comment to tell me.

What is the most interesting character they ever met on a trip?

This is a picture at 10 PM (nightime!!).

Wow, can you imagine no darkness at night time!

Write a comment to tell me why you think it doesn’t get dark and how would you manage to get to sleep?

Do you know another name for Alaska that means there is not many hours of darkness in summer?

Can you design some shades to help you sleep?

What other situations might cause it to be light when you need to sleep?

Can you imagine it! Just step ouside your back door and start skating around your backyard!! Well, probably not in Horsham!

In Bethel, when it snowed, the road crew piled the snow up on the sides of the road. The warmth of early April melted a bit of snow, then it got cold again and froze to form a rink. Alas! No skates small enough for my small yet adequate feet, but my friend had a lovely time on the ice! I was happy to take this photo.

Imagine all those boring jobs that could become fun…when you have to take the rubbish out….just glide down to the bin, throw the rubbish in, and gracefully glide back again!! Think of all the things that would suddenly become easier and more enjoyable and let me know!!

What things would become really difficult if your backyard froze?

How could you overcome this?

Draw I-Quad in skates.

There’s some bowling vouchers in it for the most creative answers!!

The stairs look funny, too.

Further up the one paved highway is the post office (I met the postmaster and assistant postmaster!)

Imagine you are small and flat like I-Quad visiting the post office. You accidentally get posted with the mail! Tell of your adventures!

Visit Australia Post web site and find out how much it would cost to post a letter to Alaska and how long would it take to get there?

This is the only 3-way stop in Bethel. It is a large town compared to others in the region, but not a big city at all. There are no movie theatres and only 2 grocery stores plus 2 case lot stores.

To find out all about Bethel click here.

 Bethel Alaska information

How is it different to where you live?

I got a special visitors badge from City Hall!