My trip to Eklutna Historical Park

I heard there was an old Russian church in Eklutna, so I decided to go check it out.

I went into the souvenir shop, paid my $5 entrance fee, and proceeded out the back door to the church grounds.

When I paid to get in, I was given a paper explaining about the church and the grounds.  I will use that for the text of this post.  (Because other than what the paper says, I know NOTHING about the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church...yay for informative papers about history!)

This church was build by a man named Mike Alex and his sons.  It was started in 1954 and finished in 1962, up until that time the old log church was used.  On the roof of the church are domes called cupolas, these are in the same design as a candle flame, as well as pointing to heaven.

Upon entering the church for the first time you will notice the icons that adorn the walls, depicting the Feasts of the church, or the Gospel in picture form, Christ, Mary, and the many saints of the Christian Church.

The old St. Nicholas Church was built around 1870's, and is one of the oldest log structures in the Anchorage area.

Upon entering the church you will see icons that date back as far as 200 years ago.

Some of the icons in the church were brought from another church on the Aleutian Chain, a place called Unga.  The tapestries, icons, bible, cross, and candelabra are all at least 100 years old which came from the Unga church.

The building structure as you can see will tell the experienced eye (which I don't have...) that the logs were hand sewn and that wooden pegs hold the interlocked logs together.  The tower which held the bell was added on a few years after the church was built.  The bell was on a tree nearby, and it was made in California in 1895 and believed to be made of brass.  The log church was built by the Eklutna Indians under the supervision of the missionaries.

The graveyard near the two churches is an Orthodox Christian Cemetery, most of those buried there are Athabascan Indians, along with some Russian people and Yupik Eskimos, and is still in use today.

The spirit houses are placed over the grave 40 days after the burial to house the spirit of the deceased and their possessions.  The colors of the houses are specific to the families, the red and white is the Alex family and the blue and silver is the Chilligan family.

Blankets are placed on the grave instead of flowers, as compared to the American tradition.  All graves are dug to the standard of 6 feet.

This one has a moose instead of a house...you can still see the blanket on the ground over the grave.

After my stop at the park, I drove up to Eklutna Lake to visit some friends who were camping up there this weekend.  (I have posted about Eklutna Lake before...it's the lake where our delicious drinking water comes from...)

Anyway, when I got there we went on a little hike.

I can't believe it's the last weekend in May!  Weird!