What Sitkans Say About Sitka

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The people of Sitka are warm and friendly. They'll take you in and feed you and find you a place to stay. They'll forgive your foibles and accept you for what you are, rather than for your station in life or who you know.

When I asked some of them, "What keeps you in Sitka? Why is it special to you?" the usual response was, "It's my home. I belong here." And nearly everyone mentioned the land itself, the beauty, the proximity of the ocean, the forest-cloaked mountains close behind the town. Some went further still.

Candy Rutlege, who is currently mourning having to leave Sitka to take a position as assistant manager of the Alaska Pioneers Home in Anchorage, said: "The whole world is accessible to me from Sitka. Of course, that's true everywhere, but I think it's more of a state of mind here. People travel. They travel to foreign countries; they travel in the backwoods of southeast Alaska. I believe that the average Sitkan has a wider world view than the average inhabitant of a similar size community elsewhere."

George Hicks, a commercial troller and alcohol counselor, lives on his boat in ANB harbor in Sitka with his partner, Tess Heyburn: "I came to Sitka because my kids are here. After 15 years in southern California, I longed for the Alaskan lifestyle. We enjoy life in the harbor. Someone will drop by the boat with an instrument, and I'll get out my fiddle or accordion, and the next thing you know, we've got a jam session going. If we get tired of the fishbowl aspects of living on the boat, we untie the lines and head for a quiet bay nearby."

Clothilde Bahovec came to Sitka in 1960 as an occupational therapist with the Public Health Service hospital and later became a second grade teacher in the Sitka schools, retiring from the system several years ago. In 1985 she was honored by the Alaska Women's Commission and the Older Alaskan's Commission for her "contributions and services to the people of the State of Alaska": "I signed up for a two-year tour of duty with the PHS, but before I was here a month, I knew I was home. I'm comfortable here. I can go anywhere I like, day or night, and feel safe. And it's amazing to me that there are so many artists."

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