Alaska Marine Highway System celebrates 50 years: vital transportation link also serves as visitor attraction.

• Author: Lavrakas, Dimitra
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

This year, for half of a century, the Alaska Marine Highway has been the backbone of transportation for 33 mostly land-locked communities in Alaska, plus several others on the road system.

A means of personal transportation, a safe way to transport students to and from tournaments and competitions, a backup to deliver the U.S. mail when planes don't fly, a dependable freight-hauler and a uniquely Alaska way to see the state, the ferry system's blue boats are a welcome sight in the cities and villages they serve.

Eleven vessels of varying size have runs that cover more than 3,500 miles of the state's Pacific Coast from South-central in Whittier; down the Aleutian chain to Unalaska; or north from to Bellingham, Wash., or Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada, sailing the original Inside Passage--the one cruise ships can't use because of their size and the narrowness of several passages.

It's a real road and was recognized as such in 2002 when it was named a National Scenic Byway, and in 2005 as an All-American Road by the Federal Highway Administration.

Just Two Guys and a Boat

Like most big ideas in Alaska, this one started out small with two guys looking at a piece of equipment and scratching their heads. Seeing a need for water transport in the upper Lynn Canal north of Juneau, and with a road connecting Haines to the Alaska Highway a distant dream, in 1948, Haines residents Steve Homer and Ray Gelotte took a Landing Craft Tank-Mark VI landing craft like the ones used in World War II and converted it for ferry use between Juneau, Haines and Skagway.

Such landing crafts had been towed across the Pacific from Pearl Harbor, weathering a typhoon's 50-foot swells and hurricane force winds but needing to have bolts and welds redone before sailing for their final destination.

Sounded Perfect for Lynn Canal Conditions

They called it the M/V Chilkoot, beginning a long history of naming ferries after Alaska's natural wonders. These days they are named after glaciers, and with thousands of those, they'll never run out of names.

In 1951, the Alaska Territorial government bought the Haines business, and after gaining statehood in 1959, it was renamed the Alaska Marine Highway System in 1963. The Haines route was extended to Prince Rupert--still a port on Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage Route.

In the years following, one route was extended farther south to Seattle, but later moved to Bellingham.

Visitors Love the Experience

Take a look at any of the...