Start shooting
That's the sound of
Being mountain and ready Mountain Dew livewire. Oh, that's what you have. Mm-hmm. Oh, it's a shame that
It's orange
What it's orange. It's an orange soda. Oh, well, that's gross
Wait don't look okay, are we gonna do some type of intro?
Hi everyone
I'm Emily and I'm Vince and as you may guess this is the lighthouse lowdown
It's just gonna be Africa forever
Unless you want to learn the tone that is our podcast intro
I will but it won't be intentional. It'll just be pretty
I'll do it with spite
You sip my diet DP
so
DDP I
Am NOT the host today. I am the co-host which I guess is always true, but I know it's 75%
False, what do we call it when I'm not hosting or when you're not host like what are you the host today?
This is your episode. Yeah, Emily's episode today. I'm talking right now
It's only it's more of like a special occasion whenever you do the opener and since I write
the
You know the descriptions of the episode. I should be sure to mention that it's you it's a special occasion
So it's not really that you're no, I say you're hosting. Yeah, so I'm the host for this and I'm the co-host or the secondary
tertiary the commentator junior host other host
But I just alainia's it's Thursday. It's after work. So we got some sodas in us
Yeah, as the Midwestern or sometimes say I've actually never heard that except for you. Sody. Oh, it's like I think I got it from some
like
My 600 pound life or whatever. Oh, yeah, these two girls. Yeah, it's um thousand pound sisters
Yeah, but there's one there's one clip that I've because I've never seen the show. Yeah one clip that was like
Our mama told us growing up that you know
You eat a sugar and then you drink a diet sody and they cancel each other out and they're telling this to a doctor
He's like that is
Inaccurate so maybe it's she I can't remember but the doctor is like that's not science
I don't know who told you that but you're a thousand pounds. Yeah
I wouldn't trust it. It's not working so far, but so
But yeah, I just want to say it's Thursday after work got our sodis. It's snowing outside. Yeah
Finally have some snow. We have a sponsor for today's podcast. We talked about later, but there's a lot of special things happening
So I'm excited for this one. Hell. Yeah. Yeah
So I'm just gonna jump in I'm gonna start with the history buoy which is a
Promise in our last episode is on foghorns for those that don't know foghorns or fog signals are a sound warning
to alert other people to danger I would say like marine
You know voyagers. Yeah sailors, etc. Yeah
But it's also true for rail like railways trains and stuff really
Those are technically fog fog well, well they sorry they are used foghorns
It's not like a train horn is a foghorn, but it uses the same. Okay steam whistle. Yeah
What I've heard on a train, but I get it's the well a lot of foghorn. Okay
Well, it's a good way to get into it
historically fog signals were whistles or
gongs
That people would strike or
Blow later on with compressed air small cannons were sometimes fired as the warning
But of course cannons were not
Cannons had to be manually filled and fired by the keeper each time it needed to go off
Which was sometimes you're short of like five minutes. So he'd just be standing there for ever. Yeah
so
Obviously it was efficient
So it was a good way to get into it
So obviously it was efficient so they used it for a really long time
Clockwork systems began being used to strike bells and this included a fun fact that I found a giant
Triangle like a musical triangle in Maine that had four foot sides
What? Mm-hmm. This was an 1837 so I couldn't find a picture but this so is there a record of like who made this I?
Should look it up see if I can find like the patent for the giant triangle the commissioning. I
Don't know. I'm yeah, it's been over some drawings here. I just wanted to check on the scale. I
Just want to make sure this says four feet and not four inches 300 pounds of steel
You'd have to hit it with a hawk, you know, there had to be a mallet to go with it
That was also just as well. Yeah full swing good stuff
The first automated steam powered foghorn was invented by Robert Fowless
Which his own his name almost didn't go down in history and I'll tell you why
he says that he heard his daughter playing piano from a distance while he was working in fog and
Noticed that the low tones were more audible than the high tones aside from cannon fire
Most of the time they've been you know whistles and giant triangles give off high frequency sounds
And so he is like oh
What a revolutionary idea that we need to be aiming for the low frequency sounds rather than the high frequency. So we decided
Designed a low frequency sound device and was initially rejected by the commissioners of lighthouses
Which is basically the lighthouse board for Canada. Yeah, he wanted it to be built on partridge island
Which I'm assuming was nearby where he lived or something
you know test site or just yeah, just to see how it worked and
You know if it benefited the keepers at all, but he was rejected
Doesn't really say why I think what they're saying is his proposal was not detailed enough. So they were like go back
Add some more detail, you know, like really lay it out and then you come back
So then the plans the more detailed plans that he made were stolen
by another Canadian engineer who passed it off as his own work and was
Accepted feisty engineers. Yeah, I didn't put out his name because I don't think he deserves it
Oh, you want to soil the family name?
Is it an eight? Wait, is it a name that we would know like is it like no bows? No
Sennheiser banging Olson
It was the beginning of Apple
Fowlis eventually got the credit but he never profited or patented his design. So
Oh, at least we know that he was the one responsible for coming up with this idea
But he never gained any money from having his design out there. That's really interesting
So he's literally he's literally listening to his daughter play a piano and he's at some distance away
And it's like the what is it the Einstein the Apple the Einstein Apple moment? He's like, yeah
Yeah, I don't know if that's actually true. Maybe it is. I don't know. I didn't learn in school
But like he's sitting, you know sitting under a tree. Yeah, essentially and he hears all the low lower keys
I can hear them more clearly this must be what everyone else hears
This must apply to the rules of physics like low frequencies across distance on air carry better with more intensity
Yeah, it's interesting but that's the same reason like, you know, we're driving in kind of a different part of Kansas City, Missouri
And you hear like yeah, you hear the rolling bass coming from the
1991 Lexus coupe right next to us. Yeah, but you don't hear the you know, yeah high high piano notes exactly
Yeah, yeah, I felt bad for him. But foul is everyone remember and have F.o.w. LES
F.o.u.l.i.s. I haven't been shown anything yet on the great big screen. Yeah, I'm not gonna show you my notes. Are you crazy?
back on to our
Foghorn so a couple of types it was hard to find it like I couldn't find a list of
Foghorn types I think mainly because the kind that's used nowadays is pretty much universal
It's not like oh you can have this this this was this and here's the reasons you would use each type
It's just kind of like this is the one we've got
Yeah, really I found two types one is a siren which is
You know what you hear for tornadoes or winds hurricanes that kind of thing that's compressed air force through holes in a rotating
Cylinder and then the other type which is what most lighthouses use today or you know for marine purposes is the diaphone
Which is what you asked about in the last episode
So the dive one was originally invented for the organ for sending compressed air
Compressed air specifically to each note on an organ it's compressed air force through slots under a pistol and I have a gif
I wonder what the origin of pistol means. Is it a shape or a they say pistol? Yeah, that piston piston
Okay, well you got me
There's a little animation so basically it's surrounded by compressed air all the time this like piston and as the
Compressed the compressed air builds it pushes down on this piston
Which then opens up these holes for air to escape out of and up here is where you're hearing the noise is the sound of this
Compressed air shooting out of the piston
Yeah
and then as this air pressure goes down and also air sneaks underneath the piston it pushes it back up and
Unaligns these holes. Yeah, and so then it's like the short bursts you hear whatever kind of physics
They have going on in here that
Keeps it in sound bursts instead of it just being prolonged noise or unpredictable
Yeah, that's what's the diaphragm really cool design and I really appreciate this cutaway. Yeah, so someone made it on Google
it's actually an
Animated it's like they took the patent design and then
Animated it in today. So this is actually the drawing that was in the patent and then they made it into an animation
Well on the pressure, it's just the pressure changes, which is cool
Yeah, but it reminds me it's a very similar in concept at least to like a natural gas regulator
I don't know who listening cares, but I'll say
As so as this piston moves downward and that channel opens up behind the piston to reset it
It's essentially you're playing with the pressure. So that's what makes it to to to move
Yeah, really interesting move rapidly. I would assume
For the bursts of air. That's cool. And so this piston design was for
Organ organ instruments like in a church. Yeah, so the pressure would rise and then that would cause the one
I don't even know what to call them like a chime in that like an organ
Yeah, I'm sure it was a little different before it was released for this purpose
But originally the guy that designed it that's what he was designing it for it was for use in an organ
I'm not sure if they actually used it there or not. Oh, I see
But then diaphone. Yeah, I don't know if I can post a gif on Instagram in our
group of photos that we posted so maybe I'll post it as like a I
Don't know a story you can reference back to look at how it works
I did have to do a little bit digging to find this so
Anyway, I'll get it to you guys somehow
There's a couple other really rarely used types, but the diaphone is like I said most widely used another cool thing
I saw is that you know in the modern-day age
Fog horns are activated by a laser that is shooting out to the sea
And if it's ever reflected back as it would be if there was fog something interrupts the beam
Yeah, or just it's the air is full of water. So it reflects it back to the
laser
origin
I don't know anything about it
So in my best terms if the laser is ever reflected back
Which means there's fog then the fog horn is activated so there doesn't need to be someone there saying oh, there's fog
Turn it on. Yeah, it's like always keeping track so it can turn itself on. That's really interesting
And uh, well, I'm guessing it's like an infrared laser because it would work day and night
It's not an optical laser. That's gonna blind somebody and that relies on
Obviously daytime light. Yeah, that's cool. It's only gone on fog horns. Very nice history buoy
Thank you. Okay, we're gonna move on to the lighthouse
Which lighthouse so this one's fun because for two reasons for you one is that
It's just funky and goofy and I think you'll appreciate that
Yeah, and also
You're taking a trip to Alaska soon and you're gonna end up in the town that has this so you
Will probably be able to go is it near Anchorage? It's Seward Homer
It's Seward Homer Hope Homer. Oh
We are going to Homer so you should definitely give this place a visit because it is hilarious and a lot of history
So I'm gonna put a picture. Here we go. Here we go
I feel like I looked up lighthouses in Alaska recently and I might have seen
Like an outlook maybe it was in Homer. I don't recall Seward. I want to say I don't pull this
Oh, no, Homer has to so we've been to Homer. Yeah, Homer is where we stayed on the spit at lands and resort
Which was really cool the very end of the spit. I am talking about this subject
I'm so excited. Let's go also gorgeous views
Here it is
Okay
before you say anything else I
Didn't see the lighthouse but when we arrived in Homer, we're like we're on motorcycles. We're all dirty
We got to go eat somewhere. I saw the salty dog saloon on Google Maps on like
One of the top five options and I don't yeah, I can't tell you anything else
That's all I know but I was like that's a cool name and that was two years ago. I never remember that name
Tell us about it, please. So it has the appearance of a lighthouse, but it's not what you think
It's so for visually for people listening. It is a gray log cabin
And it actually has a two-part building that's like just connected in between they used to be separate
And then it also has a lighthouse connected to the back or I guess a light tower. It's like hexagon shape
Yeah, it could be octagon, but I'm gonna lean towards hexagon. It's got shingles all on the sides
Which is unique few windows. I'll go more into the structure of the lighthouse
It's covered in decorative. I mean it's got seashells and buoys and fish nets
There's like a crab. There's a lot going on. Trap there
There's a lantern coming out of the roof. Yeah, very nautical
Very fun. Very funky pretty cool when you see it
It's like you can't tell if it's gonna be a dump or if it's gonna be awesome
But yeah, it's so as you can guess by the name it the salty dog saloon
It's actually a bar slash pub dive bar, but its history is goes a lot deeper than this just being a bar
So okay, so let's go in is estimated to be built this this main building that has the sign in the front door and everything
Is estimated to be built in 1897. This is kind of an estimation because they don't know
For certain when it was built, but during a cleaning in 1970s
They found newspaper insulation in the walls from the late 1800s. That is cool
Yeah, so they're estimating that's probably when it was built
It started out as one of the first cabins built in homer just after homer became a town site
And this makes the salty dog the oldest surviving structure in homer city limits
And also the last original structure of the town. Wow 18 late 1800s
also newspaper insulation, it's pretty hard
In Alaska, you're like, you know what? It's gonna be cold. You know what let's put some newspaper in there
Yeah, I know I wonder
If it was just it was like I think
I can't remember if it was built originally to be a tool shed as you can guess since we don't know the exact date
It's kind of just like it was a structure that was built and nobody knows what it originally was used for
But it has a ton of history changed hands a ton has all this
Like had many different purposes in its lifetime. So
It was built at the very very very end of the spit
Where lots of coal and oil activity was happening, especially because of how accessible it was over there
And for those that don't know what the spit is. I'm gonna open an alaskan map
to homer
And the homer spit is just like a four. It's like four and a half mile
jut of land out into the
Kachemak Bay
I looked up there's a couple different ways they say to pronounce it, but I think it's Kachemak
Homer spit. Yeah, I think there's a Kachemak National Park
Kachemak area up there with a bunch of bears pretty sure
Homers spit. Homers spit
Nothing particular
No, it's awesome. Here's Lanzan Resort. I'll talk about that
Kachemak Bay
Here's Homer over here. So it's just this long jut you can see that they have ferry routes over here
Connections, especially maybe cruises would go to Lanzan Resort. I don't know. Is it that nice? No
Sorry, I mean
It's uh
I don't think they have ships that large coming into the the Kachemak Bay
Yeah, um, and Lanzan Resort is
I don't know. I don't mean to be insulting. It was a great. It was awesome. We really enjoyed our time there
I wouldn't call it a resort in typical fashion. Okay, you know, it's not like uh
It's not like we're talking about in Nassau, Bahamas. Yeah. That's what I was thinking
There we go. Salty dog
So originally it was actually further down over here
Um and moved during its lifetime which i'll talk about as well. Oh
Would you entertain me and go up to the left on this bit a little bit looking at restaurants?
I just want to see if I can recognize where we went. You pass an RV park on the way. I don't think we went that far
I think it's still
Up on the I want to say there's a woman's name
I don't know. Well, I'll have to look it up. Maybe I'll comment. There was a couple of restaurants
And I want to say it was a woman's name and it was really good very good seafood. Um, oh, that's fun
Yeah clam chowder off the hook
Some of the places out here are a little touristy and there's nothing wrong with that
But some of them you can tell have been there a long time
So salty dog da wg just say one knows maybe you were around here
Oh pat patty's patty's
Oh temporarily closed. Oh, it's because it's probably seasonal but yeah
Also, that's something else. I'm sure you can talk about it, but that's awesome that a building's been out there so long
When I was riding I rode a motorcycle out there on homerspet. I was just thinking man
Everything out here has got to be gone in some enormous storm because it is not a lot of land
It's the road which is a two-lane and then maybe 30 to 50 feet
Of land on either side maybe 100 I guess but it felt small you felt like you're on the water. It's really neat
I have something to talk about with that as well
Sorry, I'm very i'm excited this is a good one. Yeah, I I was hoping you would
Have heard of this which is hilarious that you actually stayed
In a place that actually has history with this place. Obviously they are so close together
So for the first 20 years of its history
It was served as the first post office in homer a general store a railroad station and a coal mining office
So it had a lot of different purposes and if you if you look at this picture, it's just
This is all that there was it wasn't yeah, there wasn't a lot going on. It was just a room
12 by 12 room. Yeah, which is probably true for a lot of general stores in early 1900s
At one point it housed three adults and 11 children. There was like some kind of renting happening
And they partitioned it with just like a tarp in the middle. Yeah, and like heated one side
And then the other side was maybe still the post office or something
But I don't I didn't have a lot of history that I could read up along on that
In the late 1940s, it was bought out by chuck abbott who used the post office as a
Standard oil company right next to an oil tank farm. So right at the end of the spit. So actually this
It was used as an office and then he's the one that opened the salty dog saloon. It was just kind of like this fun
Like they never planned on making any money out of it
It was just kind of a fun thing that they were just like we should just open a bar because only crazy
They said in the book like it was like a little bit of a fun thing
That they were just like we should just open a bar because only crazy they said in the book like only crazy people would open
A bar at the end of the spit. I can't tell you how many conversations dudes have where they're like, let's start a bar
Yeah, because we could do this man. You brew beer
We could make this happen. Yeah
Yeah, but it said that he just wanted to quote make a buck and increase the value of his company. Hopefully by making it
more
Visitable down there, you know like yeah get some get some folks out
Yeah, just get some life going at the end of the spit. That's so cool
So he opened it in 1957
He chose a pirate theme as homage to the quote original salty dogs
His wife talked about how she like tried to talk him out of it doing a pirate theme
She's like we're in alaska. Why would we do a pirate theme?
uh, wait 1957 1957. Yeah
And uh, he just really wanted he just so badly because he'd go along. Um, catch em at bay and
And a lot of the decorations that were inside the saloon were things that he found which included old ship bells
Portholes red and green lights like all kinds of cool fun nautical stuff
So I think he was kind of just like i'll just dump all this stuff in there and it'll be the salty dog
Yeah, philis hit which was his wife said quote we never made a scent out of it until we sold it
But it was a fun time while we had it
I
Don't know why I love that the sign is on the roof
I just for some reason that's unique. Yeah instead of like hanging where the
The lantern is or something. Yeah
Yeah, it's very unique looking and those dollar bills play a role as well
So, okay. So yeah. Yeah, when did they sell?
57s when standard oil man and philis
philis
Owned it they bought it and they sold it when they they bought it in the 40s as an office
But then they converted it. Yeah opened it as the salty dog saloon in in 1957
They actually sold it in 1960. I want to say okay, and i'll talk about that
But first I have the weirdest story that ever happened to the dog and actually
Was so like just outlandish and gross and weird that it showed up in newspapers as far away as new york after it happened
And so chuck installed an outhouse behind the bar because what else are you going to do people visit your bar?
you have to have a place for them to go to the bathroom and
Just a note that at right both like the day before this happened two men
Came by the saloon asking for work and chuck turned them away because they didn't they didn't have anything for them to do
Yeah, and then literally the next day there's a backup on the men's side of the outhouse
And it was it was just split up by like a partition. It wasn't two separate buildings
It was like once again a tarp in the middle and a men's and a woman's side
And there was a backup on the men's side and for some reason he enlisted the help of bruno
Agostino, I think it is. I'm sorry if i'm pronouncing that wrong, but he was a demolitions expert at the nearby coal mines
And he's like, hey, can you help me unclog this?
Bet she could do something like
Um, what a demolitions expert
So here i'm going to read it out of this book
There's an excerpt where it talks about what happens
It's pretty short, but it's from the dog's tale the story of salty dog saloon the homer spit and the town of homer alaska
By diane diane ford wood, which is an awesome name
Go to page 125. I can tell you exactly what happened
So harold billups who I think was a local that was there around this time
He wrote a book called in those days and he said
Quote if one stick would be good two sticks would be better referring to dynamite
So chuck touched it off. It didn't just blow down as bruno had said it would it blew that stench and
effluvium around like you couldn't believe
Some of it blew on chuck's oil tanks and on the salty dog
And in fact it pretty well covered the entire end of the spit. Oh and that is referring to poop
Two sticks of dynamite. Mm-hmm
The book also says that by some accounts from people the raw sewage hit the sides of buildings the laundry the land end resort
And a warehouse and a good portion of the end of the spit. Oh
It's like chuck what are you thinking what year is this this is
1959 I think
Or maybe 58 it was just a couple years before they sold it and the guy that they bought
That that bought it from them was earl hillstrand who was the one that developed lands and resort
Sorry covered your construction site and shit the
The outhouse would have to be gone, right?
It says that philis went and put a sign on the outhouse that said out of order and i'm like
Did they just not have a top on it or forgive my language, but it blew the shit sky high
There was shit all over the spit. That's what I was like
It said she put a sign on it and I was like a sign on what like you're telling me something survived
What well can you what's left to hang a sign on?
Also, you're walking up to it like
You really gotta go. Yeah, the sign says not to not all the evidence around here. Yeah
Yeah. Oh looks like I can poop anywhere actually people complain about port-a-potties on construction sites and football games
So bad
Yeah, just the most wild story like who?
Really was like, yeah, just put some dynamite in there set it on and um, it'll just blow down
I want so what path of least resistance it's gonna go. I don't
I i'm guessing I have no idea. I'm guessing this is a
Latrine it's probably not like piping. It's probably like a steel cylinder. It's or something some in ground
And they're like, let's make more room like
With dynamite. It's not like oh a pipe is clogged. Yeah, you know
Let me pour some dreino in it. It's like
It's like we're out of room salty dog style
in the the fecal
Influence got all the way to the land's end resort. Mm-hmm
Can we scale that real quick on google maps?
Yeah, although it's moved. It did move so we can't really know for sure
But i'm assuming it must have been pretty close for the land's end resort guy to actually fourth of july for his own use
fourth of july
That's awesome. I just want to go back
It's funny chuck went in search of the two guys that came by asking for work after this and was like hey
I have a job for you
Still need a job. They actually did it and phyllis said that she participated in the clean up. Mm-hmm
Oh, so gross. I can't believe it business is booming literally
Back end business. That is awesome
So anyway, I just thought that was that was probably did you go a one stick or did you go a two stick when you went to the bathroom?
Number one or number two that was the most interesting story that I read
There's a lot of stories in this book if anyone wants to read more about the salty dog saloon. It's called the dog's tale
They don't have it. Um
It's from
19 let me see 1997. I think she wrote it nice 1995 good year. So, um, it's not
Available for you to read on ebooks or anything like that. It's uh, it's only paperback. So yeah, they're like
Oh, you know if the walls of this bar could talk well these can in the salty dog. Uh,
What is it the dog's cafe dog's tail dog's tail? Oh man, I can't read upside down
It's kind of swoopy. It's swoopy for my own credit. But yeah, if these walls could talk they'd complain
Wow
That's awesome
Alaska became the 49th state of the union in 1959
1959 and so that's about a year after this happened and a year later
Earl hill strand who was actually a member of the alaskan house of representatives at the time and was also
Developing the lands and resort. Yeah, he purchased it and it was like apparently a big stink that he was an anchorage resident
And was buying the bar. Oh, he's one of them city folk. Yeah
He had business ventures money talks. Yeah, especially because phil said they didn't make any money on this until they sold it
So it was probably a good chunk a good hefty sell. Yeah
was that i'm interested to learn more about that perspective because
i've i've
Been on many roads in alaska
The furthest north we went was to the arctic circle sign on the the nollie highway
Um, it's really
or dalton highway, sorry
It's interesting. Um
but
People like i've talked i listened to a different podcast. It's about hunters that had gone to alaska for some hunting expedition and they're saying
Oh, yeah, where have you been? Oh, you've been to anchorage and fairbanks. So you haven't been to alaska
Yeah, like those are the those are the cities like I think there's maybe
I'm gonna misquote but like a million people in anchorage. Yeah, and
It's it's a city. It's a very small city, but um
Um, it's not alaska to get to alaska. You have to fly in a bush plane, you know, there's no roads that lead to alaska
Oh my gosh, that's what people say so
Well, it's kind of cool. Oh, it's yeah, it's gorgeous, but that's a really interesting story salty dog
Yeah, so so earl bought it. Yeah hillstrand and he ran it for about four years and then march 27th
1964 was the good friday earthquake. Do you remember or have you heard anything about that?
No, I don't know anything about all these earthquakes. Apparently. I know it's another earthquake. I'm being sensitive. I can't help it
So it's a last week right now
Right now that just happened in turkey or something
No, and the death toll is like 40 000 people. No way now. Yeah
Isn't that insane? That's not good. I don't know the details of it. I might not even have the place correct
Yeah, do you not get your news from the lighthouse lowdown? Yeah, we don't really know what we're talking about
Unless it's about lighthouses and then we do and then you can trust us
So the good friday earthquake the reason why I ask is because a lot of
People that live like locals they refer to it as a time stamp. That's like, oh, yeah before the earthquake
You know pre-covid yada yada exactly
So it was a 9.2
On a scale of 10
9.2 that's wild magnitude earthquake and I think the fatalities were only like 150 people because nobody really lives there
At this time
Um, well the structures aren't very tall but the earthquake originated from the elution trench
Uh, which is that weird?
It's characterized by that tail of islands that connects alaska to russia
Yeah, well, is it the scott islands?
Those are the ones triangle island was on no, that's further south. Okay
Um, I think i'm it's the elution trench is the fault line that caused the earthquake
And those islands I think they're called the elution islands are projecting upward from this fault line, right?
That's where that show we watched an episode of a show or a couple episodes where they're looking for treasure. Mm-hmm salty earthquake
so
salty earthquake here is
Oh my gosh showing colorful
Like this is a this is australia
Like it's not like oh, we're zoomed into alaska. Whoa
Here's the trench
And this star is uh, I think it is 75 miles. Let me see. I did not realize what we were looking at
I know I think that is crazy
The epicenter was 75 miles away from anchorage and so and since there's the most people that are the most buildings
It took the most damage from this earthquake, but still relatively low
Casualties from such an enormous earthquake that was felt all the way in antarctica like it said
That it detected this earthquake in equipment. That was in antarctica
Well, it looks like from the radius there. It looks like seattle would feel a 5.0
Which is not close
Canada is in between those two. Yeah
Canada is not small
Wow, the earthquake released they estimated 500 years of built-up tension
Uh 600 miles of the fault line moved all at once so it displaced
There was like areas that were displaced up or down 60 feet
So some areas like kodiak were raised permanently by 30 feet awesome
Um kodiak island is awesome and the seward highway had to be reconstructed after the areas southeast of anchorage dropped eight feet
Permanently only road that goes out to homer really is one. Yeah. Wow
Must have been a rough time, but tsunamis from the earthquake affected
Uh alaska, of course, and then hawaii japan oregon california peru antarctica and many other countries
The largest tsunami recorded was 220 feet tall in chute bay alaska
I'm just surprised that only 150 people died like this isn't there's no one there 220 feet tall, especially in those times
Alaska like was became somewhere to go
An adventure in the 70s and 80s. I think like that's when it was like oh you can go there like, you know, you can go
See kodiak island see the kodiak bears
You know, there's one bear per square mile like that that type of that type of tourism became possible. Yeah
Late in the 1900s. Yeah, that's true
Yeah
Just for reference this is the strongest earthquake to ever happen in north america and the second strongest in the entire world
In the history of the entire world. It's a great. I mean, it's hard to say this is great, but it's great
um
For that rather than today in
In you know a high populated area anywhere. That's just awful. Yeah, the poor spit so close
It was 8.0. Is that right 9.2 9.2
I can't I can't believe it. Where was the uh, the greatest
In the world, yeah, I don't know. This is the second greatest. This was the second greatest in the world
valdivia earthquake
1960 was it also up there a great chilean earthquake
uh, it's
1960 9.4 to 9.6 on the magnitude of magnitude
The salty dog didn't actually sustain a lot of damage, but its location on the spit was not good for the fact that
The spit lowered by 11 feet after that happened. Yeah, so
The tide which was about 18 feet or something when it came in
And then meant that the only thing that wasn't touched by water was the road for a long time. It's incredible
So this was actually when they moved the cabin from the very end of the spit just inland just a little bit
just so that it was
Like it sunk eight feet and not 11 feet. Yeah, that's
Why and where they moved it? Yeah, there's you mentioned the standard oil
Uh tank battery, you know a set of tanks and i'm thinking well, it's a lot of oil
Um, I was like, I don't know if there's room for that. Yeah, that makes sense. What a cool place in the world
I know kind of scary, but it's all right. We can just go back to the nice picture of the salty dog
Nature you scary
So nature is metal. I keep interrupting you know, what else can you tell us about the salty dog saloon?
Well, so actually right after this earthquake happened. They added the lighthouse tower
That's what I was wanting to know
And it was originally
A facade to hide a water tank
Which is what supplied the saloon with fresh water
And actually this water
This water tower was like 5 000 gallons and it shipped to them in pieces
Huh pretty big. Yeah, and they had to put it together themselves. I'll talk about it in a second
Okay, just a breakdown of the rooms because then we have the main cabin. We have another structure that was connected
After a little while the one back behind in the photo. Yeah, and then the water tower and then another tiny
Thing that i'll talk about so we talked about the main room already, which was in 1897
And in 1909 a barn was constructed on the wooded homestead. I don't know if you know what that is
I didn't look at it. I haven't heard that uh, i'm assuming it's just
Just land not on the spit nearby or something
later this structure that was built is a barn
Would be trucked to the spit as the second structure for the salty dog
So it was built in 1909, but it wasn't moved over until maybe the 70s
Okay, so it had lots of years on it before it was reconstructed at the salty dog
And this one before its life with the salty dog was originally used as a school a grocery store and a post office
Before now it has like a jukebox and a piano and like lots of benches for people to sit on cool. Yeah
the other thing is um
They have another little building. It's a tiny
Teen tiny little log shanty is how it was described behind the salty dogs that's shown in its early day photographs
I think it's still there as a storage area
But I I didn't have a picture. Hang on a second. I might be able to pull it up
I guess i'll share here. I just came to my mind
I have an opportunity maybe to go back here
It's a little unsure if we're going to go to homer this time. Oh, no, we're not staying in homer
We changed we're going on a different route to see more things in alaska
but
Something I like to do when I travel is collect pairs of glasses drinking glasses
um
And I have I don't know 20 sets from different places. I've been able to go over the years
Um building up a new collection. So I see if I can get some salty dog glasses. I think they have cool ones
I'm going to show the merchandise at the end of this and i'll give you a little taste of what they have shout out
But yeah, so this is the picture that's from the book
I just took it with my phone and then brightened it so you could see it better. Oh, that's good
It's horrendous, but uh, this is good as it can get so this is the salty dog saloon
I'll talk about this one in a second and this is the little building
it's just like this tiny little
What would be a um little storage shed today?
But in this picture you see it's called the salty pup cafe awesome. Nobody has any history on this tiny building
But philis wrote about it and she said that it's speculated that it used to be a tiny restaurant
And it's called the salty pup cafe
Yeah, but there's no history of that happening and the only thing that they have
Is that a couple of local old timers say that they remember getting bowls of chili?
Quote at a little place at the end of the spit
Towards the end of the 50s, but they can't recall what the name is
And so it's just kind of like that's very likely it. Yeah, but there's no proof that
They actually used to uh, I know the salty pup cafe. I know is awesome
Also salty dog saloon on the left with the sign on the roof
Yeah, the dog and its original location so before it got moved so cool
Yeah, so prior to 1927 it was used as a post office in beluga slow
Slough, I don't know. It's a place but now it's just a storeroom that's used for the dog
But it's kind of a fun history that it maybe possibly used to be a tiny restaurant that served chili
That's all we got. Yeah, take it or leave it also the logs
For this building have evidence of shipworm damage which hints that at some point the wood or the structure had been underwater for a really long time
Oh, I thought you're gonna say it was made of a ship
Well, that could be one of the explanations for the logs having shipworm damage. What are shit?
What are shipworms images
Whoa, oh wow
Okay, holy cow like uh kind of like termites ocean termites, I'd guess
Yeah wreaking havoc for centuries
Wait scientists still can't figure out how
How what how this worm turns?
We don't need to go too deep out how it turns
You need to go too deep into that right now. Come on Jenkins get some data
That's what I took away from it is that it's either that it used to be underwater
Which seems unlikely or that the logs that were used to build the salty pup cafe used to belong to a ship
Both are interesting. Mm-hmm. So here's this other structure. Let's talk about
This bad boy right here. You can't really see but there's someone standing in the window creepy
Uh, and it was called the rum locker. It no longer exists, but you can see it in this picture
It was yet another part of the dog in its early days before it was moved
It was possibly the first liquor store to exist on the spit
And Phyllis said the bar manager ran such great deals on liquor that it helped attract customers to the spit itself
It burned down in the 60s. So it no longer is a thing burned down on a rum fire
Possibly a liquor fueled fire it when it when the earthquake happened it was moved but it didn't follow the salty dog
It was kind of like separated
and was just a place where
They the owners stored liquor the rum locker the rum locker, but you could buy you could buy
Like bottles. Yeah
It makes sense. Sadly, we don't have it anymore, but it did exist. We have a picture of it
It's also a good name for a bar
Yeah, the rum locker the rum locker we can make that pirate themed. Yeah also rum kind of interesting
They chose that of all the spirits they could have chosen
Yeah, well we're going for a pirate theme and as we mentioned before pirates don't drink champagne
Anyway, the last building we're talking about is the light tower
I don't I couldn't find any pictures of the inside except for the bottom layer, which we can look up but uh
The light tower was added actually officially marked on marine charts
Which means that it's a true nautical landmark. It's a point of reference. Yeah, so it's not a lighthouse
It's not technically a lighthouse
But it is marked on marine charts and people that pass by this area a lot use it as a point of reference
It's so kind of cool and the only reason that it can't be labeled
I think the way that it's labeled is whatever the uh, the acronym is for
Tower with a light or building with a light or something like that
and it's because the light is turned off when the bar closes, which is
Which varies per season but that is cool
Yeah
It's like you can't really rely on it at night time because it's not the bar is not always open
But if you see the light on that that means the bar is open. That is really cool pretty cool that they put in a lighthouse
Yeah, that's not a saloon. That's not a small deal. Mm-hmm. I know it's five stories tall. Well, i'll talk about it has five floors
Okay
The first is a pool room where you can play pool. It's for the bar. There's a picture of it. I know it's wicked
That's awesome
The second is john l's hobby room who is I think the current owner of the lighthouse john l
Warren and his dad is the one who originally bought it john moran. Yeah, so john l. Warren is the current owner
The third and fourth floors are an apartment that's left vacant for when they have family visiting
And that's awesome and they even talked about like they they could have rented it out, but they just haven't ever
They just couldn't ever do it. Yeah, just like a space that they keep saved
And the fifth floor is the lantern room and I haven't I I didn't get to see
What light is in the lantern room? I'm assuming it's some fixed all-way
I'm sure it's not just a lamp, but that could be true
I don't know if you can see it out far enough that people traveling can see it. Yeah
It's got to be a little bit more powerful and if they want to play into the fact that it's a lighthouse
Yeah, that they might put something they might dish out the cash to put something powerful in there
man
That is so neat
Yeah, especially because it used to have the the water tower inside and it was so I said it was 5 000 gallons
And he said it was built
Quote like an old whiskey barrel what yeah, like a wooden water tower that they put
The slide house around the slats together and like put the metal bands around it. Oh, that's cool
Yeah, and he said that they had to dismantle it like bit by bit in order to get it out and some of the wood
They said was used in like friends homes to be built because they didn't have any idea what to do with all the pieces
Yeah, that's so cool. I would love to uh play pool there
I know it looks and the pool table is really well taken care of it's not like a dumpster fire
I bet you this place is so busy
It apparently is like a hot spot. Yeah, I mean the spit was busy. Yeah, it was july 4th weekend. But yeah
Oh, it's so much fun. I want to go
They sell patches. You should give me a patch for my jacket salty dog sells them. Yeah
All right. Well, i'll try to get there. Okay
Well, so the light tower made it a well-known landmark in the area
But they're also known for their dollar bill tradition, which you can see by the the front door here
I'm gonna pull up a couple pictures. Oh, that's cool. The inside looks like you have some underwear with some
some
People's numbers on it. We have a bra
Booy's lots of pictures a license plate going on here a hat
People just come in and they just tag
Their names on a dollar bill and then tack tack it on the walls
Yeah, or anything else they have around underwear. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah, i'm pretty sure this kind of looks like maybe somebody's id
here
Yeah, so the tradition started um, I'm gonna grab grab my notes away from this
Nice grab. Thank you dollar bill tradition. There was a couple different things that I read about but mainly it's just that
many many years ago a
Visitor tacked a dollar on the wall
Because he knew that his friend was going to be coming by later and he's like hey
This is for this person to buy them a drink
So that's how this whole tradition started is that he tacked a dollar bill on the wall and it became like a big thing
Where people write their names and numbers and whatever else?
Yeah on a dollar bill and leave it behind to leave their mark
Like bondo bozeman, montana bozeman montana. Yeah, I can
Bob
South dakota
Have you ever seen a restaurant that does this or a bar? No, but I saw lots of other places. Well
Lawrence
right
Jefferson's on master not ringing a bell
I mean, I know jefferson's I don't remember dollar pills. I was gonna say estes park colorado
We haven't been there together, but i've been there
Many many times growing up and there was a my favorite restaurant in this entire world is now
No longer the same
Um, but I won't it's a good place still but it's been moved
But it had a tradition of dollar bills on the walls and I was you know, everything is magic when you're a kid
I got to draw
On a dollar bill with like a marker and leave it and then put it on the wall
I think what what the one in estes park did was after a period of time
They'd clean them all off and donate them to some local cause
So I just
Yeah, I think it's a common thing very fond memory for me. Yeah, but it is fun. Yeah to see it
I can't remember anywhere in lawrence
Yeah
It was some place that had dollar bills all over the wall and they they did take them down the next time I had visited
They had started over cool. So anyway, I don't know. I don't know
I haven't heard that if if they do that to this place, but the current
Manager of the saloon estimates there's anywhere between 50 to 60 thousand dollars on the wall
Business ever dries up. Yeah, they got insurance policy on the wall. Look at all of this stuff and
This is a real human skull. What they put a sign the last man who wrote a hot check
Oh, that's cool. But yeah, they found a real human skull. I think in the bay
And they put it up here the last man. Yeah, it didn't turn into the police
Yeah, we're gonna turn it in the police but then we thought hey, we have a bar
We put it on the wall. We have crazy stuff on the walls, but look at all of this alcohol
It's a full stocked bar. I've got it. It's too cool. It wasn't quite this cool. I'll be honest, but there's a place I went on the
Denali Highway, which is also in Alaska. That was a bar in a
Cargo ship container one cargo ship. That was the whole bar. It was like five seats
Oh, it's called the sluice box. Oh my gosh. It's uh, I can't remember where we were at
Clearwater Mountain Lodge is the place we stayed
Um, sluice. Yep. There it is. Oh, that's Alaska State Fair sluice box comes from
That's the one
sluice box comes from uh, yeah, that's the one that's a term having to do with
There it is. Oh, come on. I'm losing my brain here. But when they're excavating an area
I think looking for gold. It's the sluice box. It's like a slushie
Yeah, my understanding someone's going to correct us
But so we went to this bar because it's the only thing at the we stayed at this like kind of cabins area
Um, it's the only thing out there and we were the only customers and the only person working the bar was a person
No, but you can tell we weren't the first ones there. Yeah, the only person working the bar was this
The son of the person who owns the cabin
So it was like, you know if you need anything, it's just us like there's no one else around
middle of nowhere
Really beautiful. There's a rainbow in the morning. We woke up. Ah, i'm so excited to go back to alaska
Here I sit in smelly vapor someone took all the toilet paper
Late for work, but still I linger look out ass. Here comes my finger
You're not accepting that
I'm gonna stick with salty dog. All i'm saying is alaska's got some cool bars
It is pretty cool. I love that the dollar bear dollar beer. I mean hey
Eight eight dollar bill tradition lives on in many other places. I i've definitely it's not
Original to this but maybe it's the first place to ever do it
We don't know but yeah money's not the only thing that ends up on these walls that we saw from the panties and the license plates
There's also like business cards
uh bras lanterns hats, um
And lots of other stuff alaska alaska besides the decor. You'll also find like
some like rustic wooden tables a fully stocked bar and a pool table their signature drink is called the duck fart
Which is a shot that's layered with baileys and ca-caula
Kaluha
With some crown royal whiskey
That is interesting. Oh there are pictures baileys and kaluha is like a creamy coffee combo
Baileys irish cream shout out
Let's just go kaluha coffee liqueur i'll get those two and then
Canadian whiskey
I want to go so bad. I'm so jealous that you guys are going
You're welcome to come along
You take a motorcycle class you guys would not i'd be going so slow i'd be like just we don't go that fast
You'd be surprised there. Well, there's times when we burn like the wind but most of the time
Uh, I think the average speed we're going was like 40 to 50 miles an hour
Are you guys taking a new route this time? We're gonna go some of the same roads
Um, but we're gonna try to see some new things. We're actually gonna cross over into canada. Oh neat
You need your passport? Yep. I do
Just put in a request for a new one
So much fun. I can't figure out where I saw this picture of the picture of the
the duck fart
Can you can you look that up duck fart drink? Yeah, there you go. Oh, yeah. Okay. It's an article
an article
There it is
It looks yeah looks like a duck fart. Yeah, we got baileys and then we've got whiskey and uh, kula
Kaluha
That is a strange combo. I know but you know if it's their signature drink, it's got to be something good
maybe
Or it's just like it's like a shot of malort
Oh, yeah. Oh
tastes like pencil eraser
So the lighthouse I did see a photo of it kind of as we scrolled by
Um, oh, yeah, they have a really cool good ones on their um instagram, which
You can follow. Yeah, they're so they're they're actually open during the winter that used to not be true
But now their normal hours
Are 10 a.m. To 5 a.m
So they're only not open for five hours
Uh, and in the winter it's open 12 p.m. To 8 p.m. Okay, not open very late. Yep. Yep
It says spring hours opening at 11 and staying until midnight or so
It's cool. I did read in the book that winter months
At least when it was first opened were reserved for like fishermen and and people to actually come and use it
And then the rest of the time
the fishermen respectfully
You know turned it down so that the tourists could be using it in the summer months and not be scared away
That's so funny the locals gave it a break
Yeah, they have uh, their instagram is at salty dog saloon if you want to go follow them their website salty dog saloon.com
And they sell a ton of merchandise including thongs
No comment. Let's see if we go to stuff. There's like glass and drink where everything we got bumper sticker drink koozies stickers
Playing cards. Those are pretty dope. Here's the patch bandana for you motorcycle riding men. Yeah
Yep
joke
Really cool. Also good website as well. They they write a lot about
Sawdust on the grounds of the bar, which I think they still do and it is just put down like this inch
Layer of sawdust or more which collects any spilled drinks or anything. Yeah, and then at the end of the day they
Scoop up all the sawdust and get rid of it and they will check, you know through it for like
Money or they find like wedding rings and it's like all kinds of stuff. They talk about there's been stories of people that come in
Lovers spats heated arguments and the woman throws her ring down and says I am no longer married to you
Like the book is hilarious. Like if anyone wants to give it a read it has a lot of cool stories about this saloon
It's like a litter box floor. Exactly. Yeah, and it's just like turns into like a sludge that they have to pick up
Pick up it's part of the experience man a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem
I've heard that quote before toby keith known to toby keith. Oh my gosh, toby keith. Yeah toby smith
Of uh of the bomb has told us that oh that's the same comment that's funny
But yeah, that's all i've got on the salty dog. So now i'm just browsing but
Yeah, it's just um, it's a faux lighthouse. I thought it would be a super cool super fun. Yeah, no, it's super
Oh, and it's good. There's no like big stories about it, you know some ship crashing or yeah, no some explosion
The earthquake was a lot but right but the yeah lighthouse was after i'll definitely try to get there
I might reach out to him. We'll see so two days the second to last day. We're coming across into wittier
Um on a on a ferry on a boat. That's the plan. So it's like an eight-hour ferry
And then we go through this tunnel which is only a one
One lane tunnel. Oh gosh traffic only goes one way weird. You could wait apparently you could wait hours to get through it
No way, and then and then that spits us out towards
Uh, I believe it's towards seward if I remember right and so to get to homer that night
We may have 12 plus hour day
Um, and we don't we can't predict the boat times and in the tunnel times
So if we don't get there then which i don't think we will the very last day
We'd be going from seward to homer all the way back up to anchorage, which is all of the seward peninsula. Yeah, or uh
Man, my memory is just not confident but that that whole peninsula
So that's what we're planning to do
Maybe we hopefully we can get here, but we may not get to homer. It'd be sad. Hopefully you can
You got to give this place a visit. I'd like to a full house that
Lives in in our hearts. Yeah
I wish I wish we were staying at land's end again because I just go down here for the evening
Yeah, you know try to fight the crowds live it up
Very unexpected salty dog saloon. Thank you for that. I'm gonna like seeing that title in our
Our next episode did you sponsor? Yeah
might as well
uh
I don't i'm not good at this. So we'll just put it in but um, our sponsor for today is newegg.com
Um, I contacted them i've actually ordered from them before so it's a mostly technology
But if you I mean you can go on amazon sure but newegg.com is a tech mecca
So if you need a computer mouse a keyboard if you're gonna look at laptops, you want to learn some more?
It's a super nerds website and I that's what I am and I love it for that reason
But they've they've connected us with a link
So if there's anything that you've had in your mind on your christmas list that you didn't get
Um, if you use our link to go purchase that we'll get three percent back
Towards uh towards the lighthouse lowdown. So just thought we'd give them a mention. I think it's active
We'll post how long it's active but like yeah april so we'll include it in the show notes for this episode
So anyone that wants to order something and give a little bit
Yeah, I mean inadvertently to the lighthouse lowdown or anything. We appreciate you just listening. That's that's why we're here
But if you do need something watch our listener numbers like a hawk. So if you really want to gift us
Just listen to our episodes. But if you want to do it in a way that
You know, you don't have to go out of your way. Just click on the link. Yeah, so we're new on linkedin this week
Um making some posts on there. We're big on youtube now is our big our big launch a couple weeks ago. So
Uh, we're just gonna keep going. We appreciate everyone listening in and chatting with us. It's been fun
Yeah, and we had a an instagram comment from mum's oh mysteries and murders. Is that what it was?
It's another podcast. It's um
A pair of moms from oh australia in the uk edinburgh. Yeah. Yeah, and they just cover true crime very laid-back
Casual I haven't listened an episode but vince did and he said it was very enjoyable. They had like fun stories. I listen
I listened to one um, and it was regarding this is gonna sound
Just listen to it. It was it was a dog suicide bridge
And they were talking there's not a lot of story there, but there's this bridge
And over the years many dogs have decided to jump off this bridge in out of nowhere instantly
And a lot of those dogs have passed away
So that's what their episode is about but they get into some commentary that their accents and their perspectives being moms
Yeah
That's the gold. I really I really enjoy
Oh, I'll have to listen. I was excited. They just commented on our um, flannel island mystery and said we just we just covered this
You know, we really like the story of binging your podcast. It's super fun because I love lighthouses and all that
So I just sent her back a message said we'd go ahead and listen and if they had any lighthouses
Around australia or the uk or anything that had spooky stories, then we would totally cover it because
I it's been a long time since I did a spooky lighthouse
Spookspook
I've been doing fun lighthouses. My next one is also a fun lighthouse
There's more spooky
There's more in our potential cards for you
Uh, I haven't started work on one, but I know I know of one
Oh, yeah
Yeah, I have the next episode and then vince will be doing the next one
So yeah, i've got a couple different ideas and i'm not sure which one i'm gonna move forward with next so
I'm gonna do some shuffling. Yeah, it'll be fun. Every day i'm shuffling
Follow us on instagram at the lighthouse lowdown where you can see pictures
Uh, and then follow us on youtube
I'll put the link in our show notes where you can watch possibly the screen share of this episode or if it's just too much
Then it'll just be a slideshow of pictures, which will probably be more
I don't know. I didn't do a very good job of the screen work. It's too much stress. We'll just see what happens
Whatever we post we'll post
Okay, sounds good
But yeah and go to our website or uh, you can send us an email at lighthouselowdownatgmail.com
If you want to talk to us about any buoys or lighthouses you want us to cover we've had a couple and um
They're in the works. Our next episode is a
Has a history buoy from someone that requested it. Nice. We'll get to do that
So thanks for listening and we hope you catch us next time on the lighthouse lowdown