There seems to be something in the air here, where total strangers tell you deeply personal things within 2 minutes of meeting them. The young First Nations guys who told me stories of meetings ghosts in the old school building in Alert Bay. The docent in the Sointula Museum who explained the history of Sointula along with her own personal spiritual journey through Christianity, shamanism, Finnish mysticism, and more. She was on the verge of tears throughout her tour. The attendant at the Visitors Center who briefed us on her group therapy sessions with her sister. The whole experience was weirdly fascinating.
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| This is the school bus that brings the kids from Sointula to Port McNeill for school. |
Sointula was founded as a Finnish socialist utopia in about 1909. Like so many of those experiments, the group split apart when it became clear that their charismatic leader was a jerk. In this case, he was a guy with great communication skills and no practical survival skills - also a taste for the ladies, including married ones. The 'People's Republic of Sointula' carries on, in its own unique way, as a haven for seekers of a better way of life.
Alert Bay is a First Nations community, famous for their carvers. The worlds tallest totem pole is there. Similar to what happened in the U.S., the 'black robes' (in this case the Anglican Church) came and started a residential school (St. Michael's) for the native children, with the intent of destroying the native culture. Children were subjected to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. The school closed in 1974, official apologies were made in 2008, but the hulking old building was a source of pain for the residents until 2015, when the old school building was finally torn down. If you can believe that any place is haunted, then that place would have to be high on the list of ghostly attractions.
We also had our first whale sighting of the trip - a juvenile humpback, put on a good show!
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| A rare sight - Johnstone Strait in calm weather |
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