WHEN AN ANGRY MOUNTAIN AWOKE

WHEN A MOUNTAIN BLEW ITS TOP

BY BJORN DIHLE

At the beginning of June 1912, Mount Katmai, a 7,000-foot volcano 40-some miles from Bristol Bay, was showing signs of coming to life. On June 6, a new volcano would come into existence – and the Aleutian Arc’s largest eruption in documented history would be underway.

Part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Aleutian Arc stretches 1,900 miles from the Gulf of Alaska, west along the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The range consists of more than 80 named volcanoes; around half of those have been active during the last 250 years. The June 6, 1912 eruption of the new volcano, dubbed “Novarupta,” was also the biggest eruption in the 20th century.

A SEISMIC REGION Volcanoes are an inextricable part of Bristol Bay. While there is no question a volcanic eruption changes the surrounding landscape, in Bristol Bay it may also spur biodiversity and contribute to the overall productivity of the region’s incredible fishery. Some biologists have theorized that volcanic ash could, at least in certain circumstances, help trigger plankton blooms that feed sockeye salmon.

The Yup’ik, Dena’ina and Altutiiq peoples, who have lived in Bristol Bay and the Alaska Peninsula since time immemorial, are no strangers to volcanoes and earthquakes. Their oral narratives contain protocols for what to do in the event of an eruption. That ancestral wisdom saved many lives when Novarupta blew.

VILLAGERS AFFECTED FOREVER Mount Katmai loomed above four Native villages: Katmai, Douglas (also

WHEN A MOUNTAIN BLEW ITS TOP

called Kaguyak), Kukak and Savonoski. Due to the draw of commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay, Chignik and Kodiak, at the time of the eruption there were fewer residents than in decades past. Katmai and Douglas, where the Russian American Company had established trading posts in the 19th century and then abandoned them around a decade before the eruption, were listed in the 1910 U.S. census as having a population of 62 and 45, respectively. People in those villages lived a subsistence lifestyle and also frequently worked in fisheries and trapped for a cash income.

By June 2, 1912, villagers were experiencing more frequent and stronger earthquakes than normal. Most grabbed what they could and made their exodus. Many went to Bristol Bay. On June 6, all

The Valley of 10,000 Smokes is buried in ash more than a century after the Novarupta eruption. The June 1912 event changed the lives of those living in four small Native villages here, Katmai, Douglas (also known as Kaguyak), Kukak and Savonoski. (CHRIS MILLER)

hell broke loose. Instead of blasting out of the top of Mount Katmai, magma melted an underground passage 6 miles west before rupturing out of the slopes of Trident Volcano.

That newly formed volcano, which would be named Novarupta by botanist and explorer Robert F. Griggs a few years later, erupted for 60 hours, releasing 3.5 cubic miles of ash – so much that scientists in Algeria saw it. Supposedly, Novarupta’s eruptions were so loud that people in Juneau, some 750 miles away, could hear them.

LIVING THROUGH THE BLAST A few years after the eruption, Griggs interviewed Peter Kayagvak, a Sugpiaq man who had been living in Savonoski. Kayagvak’s family and another were some of the last people to evacuate the area.

Kayagvak told Griggs, “The Katmai Mountain blew up with lots of fire, and fire came down the trail with lots of smoke. We go fast Savonoski. Everybody get in bidarka (skin boat). Helluva job. We come Naknek one day, dark, no could see. Hot ash fall. Work like hell.”

Kayagvak’s wife Palakia Melgenak told her children she thought the world was ending. The family paddled nonstop more than 40 miles to safety. Along with other people of Savonoski, they established New Savonoski on the Naknek River, which has since been abandoned for the village of South Naknek, 5 miles away at the mouth of the Naknek River.

People from the villages of Katmai and Douglas were working at a saltery in nearby Kaflia Bay. Located on the southern coast of the Alaska Peninsula, Kaflia Bay is 32 miles east of Novarupta and directly downwind. Seeing the eruption, one elder from Katmai ordered everyone to turn their boats over so they wouldn’t be filled with ash, and then to gather as much water as they could, as quickly as possible. As the cloud of ash descended, people took cover in their cabins and barabaras, traditional Alutiiq homes that were partly underground and covered with sod. Harry Kaiakokonok, who was 6 years old at the time, described the descending ash cloud.

“Dark didn't come all of a sudden; it comes gradually. Getting darker and darker and darker and darker, and pretty soon, pitch black,” Kaiakokonok said. “So black even if you put your hand 2 or 3 inches from your face outside you can't see it ’cause it was so dark.”

Caribou roam beneath the ramparts of volcanic Mount Dutton on the Alaska Peninsula. There are an estimated 130 volcanoes

in the state. (BJORN DIHLE) BURIED IN ASH The people in Kaflia Bay spent three

LIGHTWEIGHT. The lightest 200-hp four stroke LIGHTWEIGHT. on the marketThe lightest 200-hp four stroke on the market POWERFUL. 2.8L displacement and Variable Camshaft POWERFUL. Timing give it the best power-to-weight ratio 2.8L displacement and Variable Camshaft of any 200-hp four strokeTiming give it the best power-to-weight ratio of any 200-hp four stroke COMPACT. Nearly 120 pounds lighter than our COMPACT. four-stroke V6 F200 Nearly 120 pounds lighter than our four-stroke V6 F200

THE ALL-NEW F200 IN-LINE FOUR. FORWARD THINKING.THE ALL-NEW F200 IN-LINE FOUR. FORWARD THINKING.

Show the water who’s boss with the new F200 In-Line Four. Incredibly light, responsive and fuel efficient, it serves up plenty of muscle to handily propel a variety of boats. On top of that, its 50-amp alternator offers the power to add a range of electronics, and its 26-inch mounting centers and compatibility with either mechanical or digital controls give you the flexibility to easily upgrade your outboard or rigging. Experience legendary Yamaha reliability and the freedom of forward thinking, with the all-new F200 In-Line Four. Show the water who’s boss with the new F200 In-Line Four. Incredibly light, responsive and fuel efficient, it serves up plenty of muscle to handily propel a variety of boats. On top of that, its 50-amp alternator offers the power to add a range of electronics, and its 26-inch mounting centers and compatibility with either mechanical or digital controls give you the flexibility to easily upgrade your outboard or rigging. Experience legendary Yamaha reliability and the freedom of forward thinking, with the all-new F200 In-Line Four.

WASHINGTON

OLYMPIA US Marine Sales & Service 3525 Pacific Ave. SE (360) 455-0788 www.usmarinesales.com

YamahaOutboards.com/F200InLine

Follow Yamaha on Facebook® and Twitter™

YamahaOutboards.com/F200InLine

Follow Yamaha on Facebook® and Twitter™

REMEMBER to always observe all applicable boating laws. Never drink and drive. Dress properly with a USCG-approved personal REMEMBER to always observe all applicable boating laws. Never drink and drive. Dress properly with a USCG-approved personal

A hiker pauses beneath Mount Peulik, on the Alaska Peninsula. Its last eruption occurred in

1814. (BJORN DIHLE)

days under a black curtain of falling ash, blindly struggling in the heat and laboring to breathe. A hundred miles away, the town of Kodiak was buried in a foot of ash. Far and wide, salmon and other animals suffocated, their carcasses strewn throughout the ashcovered waters. When people in Kaflia Bay emerged, they were greeted by a blanket of ash more than 3 feet high.

On June 12, a relief ship captained by Second Lt. W. K. Thompson was sent from Kodiak to Kaflia Bay. Thompson rescued the survivors, then continued searching along the coast for others. He transported everyone he found to Afognak Island. Miraculously, not a single person died in the Novarupta eruption. But the villages of Katmai, Douglas, Kukak and Savonoski were lost. Peter Kayagvak told Griggs how much he missed his village.

“Too bad. Never can go back to Savonoski to libe (sic) again. Everything ash. Good Place too, you bet. Fine trees, lots of moose, bear, and deer. Lots of Fish in front of barabara. No many mosquitoes. Fine church, fine house.”

A LASTING LEGACY Due in large part to Griggs’ efforts, President Woodrow Wilson declared Katmai a national monument in 1918, ending the possibility of people returning and rebuilding their ancestral villages.

For years after the eruption, it was reported that the Savonoski River was too hot to bathe in. To this day, it runs dark with ash, but multitudes of salmon use the river to navigate to their spawning grounds. Kaflia Bay generally has great salmon runs. And 90 years later, the Kaflia area would become one of bear man Timothy Treadwell’s favorite places to live shoulder to shoulder with dozens of bears. It would also become his death place when he died from an attack in 2003.

The descendants of the people of Katmai, Douglas, Kukak and Savonoski now live in villages across Bristol Bay, the Alaska Peninsula and beyond. Thousands of tourists annually visit their homeland to witness brown bears, salmon and the wild landscape. They travel by floatplane, then bus, to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes to see the ashfilled, 40-square-mile valley crowned by Mount Katmai.

The volcano’s summit caved in during the 1912 eruption, but it still looms above the land and ocean as a stark reminder of how quickly the world can be destroyed – and recreated. ASJ

Editor’s note; Pride of Bristol Bay is a free column written by Bjorn Dihle and provided by its namesake, a fisherman-direct seafood marketer that specializes in delivering the highest quality of sustainably caught wild salmon from Bristol Bay to your doorstep. Go to prideofbristolbay.com for more information.

A moose antler shed above the Valley of 10,000 Smokes is symbolic of a geologically turbulent region that is now quiet. “Never can go back to Savonoski,” one affected resident said a few years after the eruption. (BJORN DIHLE)