Visit a Southeast Alaska Float House

The float is a foundation made of logs.

Visit to a Southeast Alaska Float House

By Marge Marshall

On Labor Day 1997, we visited Terry and Kay Gleason* and their teenage daughters, Allison and Mallory, at their float house near a logging camp on Prince of Wales Island. We drove there on one of POW's many rock roads. When we arrived, Terry and Kay met us at the dock and we got into their skiff (small open boat) and headed "just around the corner," as Kay described it. It was our first such experience; I could have put my hand in the water -- we were that close to the surface. It's ocean water but is much like a lake; the many small islands effectively break down the surf.

In about five minutes, we saw the float house. It looks like a little rustic cabin in the forest, except that the "clearing" around it is water, not grass. We climbed out of the skiff onto the deck and entered the two-story house. My first impression was that it looked like the Ingalls' cabin in the "Little House on the Prairie" TV series. The house is as cozy and comfortable as it looks.

The fascinating thing about a float house is that if you want a change of scenery, you simply float it to a more interesting place! Currently, the Gleasons are in a nice little cove, so there is forest on three sides and they are protected from the wind. The tide comes and goes quietly, so that it's hardly noticeable. Cables tether the house to the shore on both sides.

Delicious water comes from a nearby stream, and propane gas for cooking is brought in, along with gas to run the generator. It was daylight when we arrived, so the power was off. Before she turned on the computer, Kay first had to turn on the generator. She freezes the milk at night so they can use it during the day, as it gradually thaws.

Kay is home-schooling the girls, who don't seem to mind the fact they have no TV. And that their only telephone is a radiophone. The Gleasons plan to get a dish so that they can receive satellite TV -- until then, they'll watch videos on the VCR.

Whale Watch

Terry Gleason is a logger and he also has a fishing boat. In July he took us "whale watching." We saw two! The first one dove head-first so that we saw its fluke (tail), which was exciting. Later, we saw the second one -- at least we think it was just one. It sort of circled us, then swam away. You can tell where they are by watching for the plume of water they "exhale" from their head. They are hump-back whales and huge. Fortunately, they weren't close enough to "swamp" us.

Terry apologized because we only saw two whales, but I told him that to flatlanders from Kansas, the very idea that you can just go out and see any whales at all is just wonderful!

*Fictitious name

Credits: Photo by Howard Marshall. Background, blueberries, and rainbow line, sources not known.