Many other interesting and beautiful places may be visited. Lisianski Bay, Deep Bay, Herring Bay with the gorge of Sawmill Creek and the chain of lakes, Blue Lake, and others lying adjacent, are among the important ones.
Mt. Verstovia.–The ascent of this mountain comprises one of the most interesting excursions about the town. The trail leaves the shore of Jamestown Bay at the point where the trough of the watering place of the “Jamestown,” came to the beach. This place may be reached by boat or on foot through the Park by the mouth of Indian River. The ascent should be under the guidance of one familiar with the route, for it is not plainly marked and none but an experienced woodsman can find the way alone. It leads through a forest, the first 800 or 1,000 feet through dense undergrowth under the trees, the mosses and ferns forming a veritable carpet; above that the woods are more open–at about 2,500 feet the forest ceases. It is called Koster's Trail. The first eminence or shoulder of the mountain is near the timber line and is often spoken of as the Mountain of the Cross, while above it towers the Arrowhead, or the summit of Verstovia, otherwise called at times Popoff Mountain, or the Ponce, to a height of 3,216 feet, nearly a Russian verst, and from this it derives its name. From the top an expanse of island-studded waters stretch toward the sea. Eastward crest after crest of glacier-capped peaks rise for a hundred miles, northward the lofty summits of Mt. Crillon and Mt. Fairweather may be seen at an elevation of over 15,000 feet, equal in height to the highest Alp of Switzerland. Around the base of the Arrowhead, in July and August, are found a myriad of wild flowers, carpeting the earth–violets, daises, cyclamen, and a multitude of others.
These are the nearer points which may be visited, but more extended journeys full of new and varied interest, to Sergius Narrows and Peril Straits or to the Place of Islands and the Chicagof Mine to the northward, and to Redfish Bay to the southward, may be made.
Footnotes
January 20th, 1820, a letter written by the Directory at St. Petersburg to Chief Manager Muravief at Sitka enclosing instructions previously given to Hagemeister, instructing him to find the descendants of Chirikof’s lost men, urging that it must be done, and expressing surprise that it had been neglected thus long. (Russian American Archives, Correspondence, Vol. II, No. 108.)
In Wrangell, and at a few other places in Alaska may yet be seen some of these old tribal houses, built as in primitive days in most ways. The beams and planks were fashioned with an adze, and the evenness of the workmanship in hewing them is marvelous.