Travel Blog

Sue:

Yesterday afternoon, I was walking around the store with my boss looking at all his artifacts up in the rafters so we can sign and price them. It was really fun because he told me all about the things I've been looking at for two years but had no idea what they were. So I thought I'd take some pictures and take you all around the shop.

The first picture is one I should have had with my previous Oosik Ode post. This is what an oosik looks like (the one in this picture is about 2 feet long):

This next item draws the most attention from the visitors, and it will probably be more popular this season because my boss moved it directly over my favorite register:

It's a seal skin float with ivory valve and wooden plug. My boss even blew some more air in it yesterday. Now that was a sight to see. So what this was used for was as a float attached to a harpoon, so when the fishermen harpooned an animal, these floats would keep it at the surface. It's a full seal, skinned and flipped insideout.

The next picture is a seal rendering spoon. They used it to skim the fat off the top of the rendering pot.

This next picture shows polar bear stakes. After the hunt and the skinning, these stakes were used to stretch the hide in the snow. The hide would freeze and thaw over and over until it was cured.

And last but not least, and away from the killing of critters, the scales in the following pictures are from the Gold Rush of 1898, and were a part of the H. Kirmse estate sale (Kirmse is a family that's been in Skagway since the Gold Rush).

Makes you want to come shopping up in Skagway, right?