Sledge Island -Trip 2

We had such as AMAZING day!  It was August 2, 2014 with perfect weather, calm seas, kinda day to take the boat out to Sledge Island.  My goal this time was to the explore the east, south, and west side of island and to try to find the old WWII plane crash and any sign of ancient habitation or dead bodies :-)  If you haven't read about my first trip you will want to do that now before going on... so that the previous comment will make more sense. Click on the link to read about my first trip http://nomemade-nomealaska.blogspot.com/2013/08/sledge-island.html

This trip Sean and I brought our friend Randy Smith who went with us last year and we brought all our kids who had never been to Sledge Island and they thought this was "the best day ever!"

So as were were gazing at the beauty of the island from the boat I saw something shining on the island that look like a cross shining on the tundra.

 Do you see it?  In the middle of this photo.

I zoomed in on the object and got this...

I began to question if it was cross or the WWII plane wreckage I had heard.  There was only one way to find out.  So I went swimming

I don't know the water temp but it was cold it took my breath away at first but I got use to it.  Lots of large boulders so we didn't want to bring the boat to shore.  The water was calm and very clear I could easily see the bottom rocks with slimy algae and little jelly fish that I avoided.

 I made it shore and in my bare feet I climb sledge island.

It wasn't a cross... it was the tail to the old plane crash it's wings are diagonal in this picture.  This is were I wish I had created a water proof pouch for my camera and taken it along with me.  Or remember to have packed the Go Pro...  there was wreckage scattered all over this side of the island.

You can see debris near the top where the plane must of hit and there's me at the bottom left of this photo with the tail.  I don't know when the crash occured or if there were survivors.  This is still a mystery. 

UPDATE:  This was not a WWII crash (not sure if there was a WWII crash on this island) this is a Ryan Air plane crash that occured in 1989 with 1 person on board which was the pilot.  He did not survive.  Information collected by Doug Holee was a long time resident and bush pilot in Nome.

I did find an old fallen down log cabin though.  Built using square nails. I also found a rusted round thingy in the shape of a wok with no bottom on the floor of the cabin.  I'm assuming it was part of an old stove.

I looked for burial sites, old graves but did not find any.

I hear the Smithsonian will return the 19 ancient graves that taken in the early 1900's but I don't know when that would be and have HUGE concerns.  Though I wish for them to be returned no one lives on the island so therefore no one watches it.  Anyone can come and go and if the graves were put back they could be ransacked again.

UPDATE:
Information from my friend Brenna Outwater who worked at Nome Eskimo Communtiy during 2011 recounts 11 ancient graves  and 7 funerary objects that were taken from Sledge Island in 1928 were returned to Nome Eskimo Community in 2011.  There were originally 14 graves but 3 of them fell off the rocky mountain side during the removal and were destroyed so only 11 were reported to the Smithsonian but 14 was recorded in a journal I believe by Henry B. Collins (I have yet to find this record).  There was a 4 year old child, 7 females, and 3 males I believe. None of them predates before 1900's so it is assumed that they all died during the influenza epidemic of 1918.  The graves were not return to Sledge Island (probably due to concerns I mentioned earlier) but were buried near Cape Nome on Sitnasauk Native Corporation land.  The only landmark is a brown wooden cross near the unmarked graves.  There was a small funeral consisting of the pastor, my friend Brenna, and person performing the burial.

I know it doesn't look like much but i was pretty impressed with myself  for swimming to the island, climbing boulders,  walking barefoot over driftwood, though tall grass, rusty nails, while being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

It was time for me to return to the boat as the kids were getting ornery.

Now, I had heard there were birds on the south west side of the island... particularly puffins... which I've never seen anywhere near Nome.  Saw them in Seward, AK but not Nome.  I was not prepared for THIS...

This was AMAZING!

Murres and Kittiwakes.  Thousands and thousands of them.

Murres that look like penguins

Cormorant flying

More Murres

Do you see what I see?   one Puffin, Murres, Kittiwakes, and Cormorants.  Can you see the Puffin at the top?

Cormorants.  As we headed around the south point above there were less cliffs and less birds.  The water was a little rougher on this side, but overall the sea was calm.

This is the west side of the north point of the island.  Where there's a coast guard reflector thingy.

 We landed the boat on the North west side and had a a little picnic and built a fire.

 

Mmm roasted Hot dogs and marshmallows tasted so good.

 

Kids exploring the island, rocks, shells, crab, and bones.

 BONES!!!  I'm pretty sure they are walrus or seal bones... they were all over.  Who knows maybe they were remnants of dead bodies :-)

 Here's our friend Randy.  I think he really enjoyed being here and relaxing.

 Here's us the Knudsen's plus our dog Ginger.

Like the kids said it was "THE BEST DAY EVER!"

Leaving the island

I hate leaving the island.  I could live there... I'm not sure if the family would join me.  As we headed home I pondered on what a great day it had been and how grateful for the opportunity to go to Sledge Island not many people do.  Even those who have lived in Nome their whole lives never been here, but yet you can see it from the shore of Nome.  I'm thankful for my husband and kids being patient with me and letting me explore the island.  

I felt satisfied in finding the plane wreckage, the old cabin, and all the beautiful birds.  I'm okay with not finding graves or dead bodies.  I felt at peace there.

THEN I WENT HOME, told a friend I had gone to Sledge and he asked did you find the shipwreck?  WHAT SHIPWRECK?!?

Apparently there was a shipwreck in the 1942.  I heard for years you could see the smoke stacks sticking out of the water.  Can't see them now.
US cargo Crown City (5433 GRT/20) wrecked SE end Sledge Island, Alaska, 20 m W off Nome on 2/9/42.
Here's a photo of the ship stuck in the ice near Sledge Island.
My friend Cussy told me the following story "...it sat on that rock for several seasons and the people from up and down the coast used to go out to it and scavenge the wood and metal off of it to make stuff...tools...etc. Finally it was jarred loose from what ever it hit, and sank to the bottom....between the coast and Sledge."
 For more information about this photo you can go to page 169 of this link http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~aknomebo/NomeGoldBeaches/NomePgs160-171.pdf

and

SUTWIK (1939)     The 15 ton 42 foot gas screw towing vessel Sutwik was destroyed by fire at 10:00 a.m. September 6, 1939 off Sledge Island. 

More information on the shipwreck go to this link:

http://alaskashipwreck.com/shipwrecks-by-area/west-central-alaska-shipwrecks-2/west-central-alaska-shipwrecks-s/

I  also found this article that said back in 1950 there were 3 native dwellings in the cove on the northwest side of the island written by Tom Cade http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v054n01/p0051-p0054.pdf

I came upon this story on some old ancient artifacts that were found on Sledge Island in 1912. Expedition Magazine Volume 26, issue 2, January 1984 by Susan A. Kaplan and Richard H. Jordan and Glenn W. Sheehan

Here's the PDF version of the story with pictures.
http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/26-2/An%20Eskimo.pdf

http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/26-2/An%20Eskimo.pdf

Hmm, well I think that means I'll have to go back.

Sledge Island

If you've ever been to Nome you would notice that there is this tiny island just off the coast of Nome called Sledge Island (Also known as Ayak Island).  Not too many people from Nome have been there.  Since I was a child I wanted to go to this mysterious Island that looks like flat cold stone rock. 

Sledge Island is located about 5 miles from the southwestern shore of the Seward Peninsula and about 26 miles from Nome, Alaska.  More information about the island go to Wikipedia.

In my youth I had heard that there was a plane crash there and possible dead bodies.  Maybe it's creepiness was intriguing to me.

Our family recently purchased a boat and one of my first thoughts (besides fishing) was Sledge Island.  My husband, Sean, was leery about taking the boat to Sledge because it still had a few kinks in it.  At this time the boat could be unpredictable on whether or not it wanted to start properly but once it started it ran just fine.

We had to wait for the perfect day with perfect weather and calm seas.  That day was August 24, 2013.  With the help of an old mining friend named, Randy Smith, we talked to my husband about taking out the boat for a ride on such a nice day.  We also threw in the idea of Sledge Island and how we had all never been there but had always wanted to go...  my husband was not comfortable with this idea of going to Sledge Island but said we could take the boat out.  We also recruited our friend Dan and my husband's sister April.

So we headed out to take a short fishing trip into the Bering Sea.

 View of Nome from sea

 The Crew

 Some random fuel barge

 Happy crew mates enjoying the ride.  Then Sean asks me if I want to drive the boat and tells me to find a good fishing spot.

Of course I want to drive.

 See how happy I am.  Can you guess what happened next? I turn the boat and head towards Sledge Island.  

After 20 minutes Randy asks, "Kim are we headed to Sledge Island?"  I just gave him a coy look *what ever to you mean?  Next question, "Do we have enough gas?"  Sean comes over checks the gauges and says, "yes".  But we would have to go a little faster so Captain Sean was back in the driver's seat.  Besides the Island didn't seem too far away as if you could lean over and grab it (okay I'm exaggerating here).  So about another hour later we arrived!

But Sean wasn't going to land the boat because of possible unseen rocks in the water and he started to drive around the island. 

I did not come all this way, after all these years, just to see Sledge Island from a boat.  If he didn't land it, believe me, I would have jumped out and swam to the Island.

I encouraged Sean to drive in slow and land the boat.  Which he did.

 April enjoying it's beauty and commenting on how unexpectedly green it is.

 Randy happy to be here.

The boat

 Some weird coast guard thing on the Island

Dan enjoying the view and his meal on the beach.

 Oh look we found a dead body ;-)

April standing in the beach grass.

 Randy and I looking for berries.  There were blueberries, salmonberries, lignon berries, and crowberries on the island.  Similar vegetation to Nome but we did not see any animals not even a small vole.

 Randy in his own element.  He was happy to be there.

 Lots of drift wood

 Sean in the beach grass.

The Island was beautiful.  I had wanted to climb to the top of Sledge but I had completed my first half marathon that morning and was exhausted.  Then Sean asked, "Kim are you going to climb to the top?"  "Of course I am", was my reply.  I just had to I didn't know when I'd ever be back again.

 Views of the beach as I was heading up

 

Hi it's me!

 

 There's our boat to the right.

 This photo doesn't do the height of this Island justice.  This was as far as I was going to go up.  I am squatting down on a rock ledge that is about a foot squared.  Randy is a little white speck at the base of the rocks (upper right center).  Sean, April, and Dan are somewhere on the beach.

Here's a short video I took:

 We look like a bunch of castaways for a show called Survivor: Sledge Island :-)

 Sean and I and the boat.  Oh and I climbed Sledge Island in my pink rain boots.

 Sean and I at the base of Sledge Island.  I climbed that thing and almost made it to the top till the rocks started to roll beneath my feet.

 Goodbye my island.  Oh how I will miss you.  I hope to go back to explore the other side of the island.  I hear there are puffins.  We don't have puffins in Nome.

 Captain Dan

 Thank you Sean for assisting me in making one of my life long goals come true.  Had a wonderful time there.

 Random cabin off the coast of Nome pretty far out and near Sledge Island

 Gold Prospectors of America Association (GPAA) Cripple River Mining Camp

 Passing by my schoolmate Shawn Pomrenke's crawler "Christine Rose" from the "Bering Sea Gold" show on Discovery channel.

 Some humungous gold dredge that we passed by.

 Dredge #6 view from the Bering sea and the WWII "White Alices" on top of Anvil Mountain.

The Crew

We all arrived home safely pondering our day trip.  Typically this is were my post would end. I felt inclined to do a little online research on Sledge Island.  What about the stories of a plane crash and dead bodies that I heard in my youth?  

Here's what I found:

There was a plane crash in 1993 just off the shore of Sledge Island.  There is an amazing survival story it is currently the only plane crash in the Bering Sea with survivors. You've got to read this story. http://www.therescuestory.com/nclips2.htm

But I recalled an old plane crash well before 1993.  I've heard that it was a WWII aircraft on the east side of the island.  I can't find anything online on this.  If I get more information on this I will post here.

As for dead bodies?

I found this photo in Alaska Digital Archives at the following link
vilda.alaska.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cdmg21/id/10214/rec/1

 I had do some research and found the following info.

Title: Inuit graves (above ground), Sledge Island, Alaska.
Date: [ca. 1903-1915]
Photographer/Illustrator: Lomen Brothers, Nome, Alaska / Bell, Nome (?), Alaska.
Remarks: Sledge on top of one grave; plain wooden cross next to other grave. 'Bell' appears in photograph annotation.

‎

Here's another photo of Sledge Island

http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cdmg21/id/14545/rec/2
Photo was taken by the Lomen Brother around 1896-1913

I found the photo here http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=20791

There use to be native inhabitants on Sledge Island but there seems to be no signs of ancient relics, graves, or ruins now. The remains of 19 Sledge Island individuals were removed from Sledge Island in the early 1900's and stored at the Smithsonian.  See the link below for more information.
http://anthropology.si.edu/repatriation/reports/regional/alaska/nome.htm#top

There is some interesting information about the last known person who lived on Sledge Island as a baby and has no memory of the island. 
www.arlis.org/docs/vol1/A/20668817a.pdf‎

Also some interesting blogs from individuals from Nome attempting to go to Sledge or arriving there by snowmachine in the winter.

  http://www.xalaska.com/snow_trips/st040309-sledge.html

http://nomemisadventures.blogspot.com/2012/04/sledge-isle-half-attempt.html

I hope you enjoyed the photos and a little history.

UPDATE: Sledge Island Trip 2... I found a plane crash

 
Me and my island.