Gustavus Rocks!

July 4: We consider ourselves very fortunate to have experienced the Fourth of July in Gustavus, Alaska—a small town of around 350-400 people with a very big community heart. According to one local, it is their biggest party all year.

Just a bit of background on the town: Considered the “gateway to Glacier Bay,” Gustavus has only one general store and a kind of “Costco” outlet, one restaurant (pizza), one gas station—one of the coolest I’ve ever seen with old fashioned pumps that really work, a fire station, a city hall, and a few other minor businesses. The Gustavus school has around 50 children, K-12. They just got ferry service this year. There’s no place to register cars on the island, so many license plates are out of date; we saw one dated as far back as 1995. Glacier Bay National Park is by far the largest “going concern” in the area, covering 3.3 million acres. We are staying at the Glacier Bay Lodge, although there are a few other inns and B&Bs in the area.

Our hosts at the Lodge gave us a choice when they picked us up at the ferry: Come back to the Lodge or stay in town to enjoy the Fourth of July festivities. Even though we had been up since 3:30 that morning with a few grumpy hours (all mine; I’ll speak for myself) from about 5:30 to 7 am, our entire group felt a sudden surge of energy. Let’s stay! Since we hadn’t eaten lunch, some of us headed for the grilled burgers, while the rest headed for the homemade pies. “The best pie-maker in Gustavus” made the rhubarb which according to Richard, rivals the one his mother made. I’ve known him for eighteen years and this is the first time I’ve heard him rate a pie this high. Since when is anything as good as what one remembers from childhood?!

After dessert, we watched a laid back game of horseshoes, a kind of “ski race” with teams of four trying to navigate a course on the same pair of “ski-boards,” a “slow” bike race across a wooden bridge (the last one across without touching their feet on the ground, wins); and an egg toss with something like twenty dozen eggs and most of the town participating out behind city hall. There were grown men in red, white and blue floppy top hats sporting tiny American flags and a dunking machine with a toilet on top. We didn’t actually see it in action, but we suspect there was some flushing involved.

Everywhere, the good humor was contagious. No one sang “God Bless America” and come to think of it, I don’t remember hearing a single firecracker or one firework, but I believe the community spirit we witnessed was more patriotic, more American, than…well…rhubarb pie.