The Bush

When I was interviewing for my job this summer, I was told that I might have to travel to different parts of the state to handle cases, and that is one of the reasons I wanted the job. Well, this week, I had my first opportunity to do so. My agency is having some staffing issues in its office in the city of Bethel, and I was assigned to cover this week's hearings.

Bethel is in the Alaskan bush, a general term used to describe those cities, towns, and villages that are off the road system. In other words, the only way to get to these places is by plane, boat, or, in some cases, snow machine (you get dirty looks if you say "snowmobile" in these parts). On this map, you'll see Bethel in the southwestern part of the state (Anchorage is in southcentral Alaska):

Bethel is a fascinating place, so here's a little background. Bethel is a city of about 6,400 and is the hub of 56 smaller villages in the delta of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. The city sits on the Kuskokwim River, which is the longest free flowing (no dams?) river in the U.S. and the longest river entirely within one state. Here's an aerial photo:

Owing largely to its location off the road system, Bethel is the "Cabbie Capital of America." According to this blog post - http://oblate-spheroid.blogspot.com/2007/12/remote-alaska-town-named-cabbie-capital.html (click the link for an interesting read) - Bethel has roughly one cab driver for every 62 residents, more than any other place in the country. For whatever reason, many of the cab drivers are Korean immigrants - a pleasant bunch, I learned this week.

I arrived in Bethel on Sunday night. It was 4 degrees and windy. Lovely. Here's a photo of the inside of the Bethel airport (o.k., this is just the Alaska Airlines terminal, but there's not much else to see at the Bethel airport):

Baggage claim at the Bethel airport is a unique experience. There was some luggage, but most of what I saw was boxes and coolers. Everything in Bethel is very expensive (my grocery deli lunch on Monday cost $18), so a lot of people bring supplies back from Anchorage. One of the coolers I saw was tipped on its side and leaking white liquid. I'm guessing it was milk, which costs about $10/gallon in Bethel:

While in Bethel, I stayed at what was described to me as the nicest place in town. This was the view from my window:

I had to be to the courthouse by 9:00 a.m. for my first hearing. Here's what it looks like at the Bethel courthouse at 9:00 a.m. in the middle of November:

When it comes to lawyer attire at the Bethel courthouse, function definitely trumps fashion. One fella was wearing a shirt and tie, but I could barely see them under the snowpants he had on. Check out my fancy lawyer shoes:

I spent one afternoon visiting clients at the Yukon Kuskokwin Correctional Center:

While at the jail, I overheard another lawyer telling a guard about a friend who had just pulled 500 eel out of the river (Lindsay's research revealed that the man had likely caught not 500 eel, but rather 500 eel-like Arctic lamprey, which are apparently common under the river ice near Bethel in November . . . but you probably already knew that).

When I went back to the airport to leave Bethel, I was hoping that I would be walking out to a little puddle jumper so that I could show everybody how Arctic I am. Instead, I was greeted by an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737:

I'll try to be more Arctic next time.