hyder

Welcome to Hyder

Remember that creepy movie Insomnia starring Robin Williams and Al Pacino?  A bunch of that was filmed in Hyder (and Stewart).  The eerie vibe of that film sort of describes how I felt about the town.  It was one part beautiful, one part decaying, and one part heebee-jeebee inducing.  Definitely an odd place. 

Hyder is located a few more kilometers down the road from Stewart.  You can't venture any further into Alaska from there as it's the end of the road, so there is no border crossing upon entry.  Just a few signs (obligatory photos required) and a sense that you're in America.  This includes a somewhat racist depiction of a First Nations person on a gas station, cheap cheese and some guns...though we'll get to that in a minute.

Ty with the border marker between Canada and the US

"Do not injure"

In the 2010 census, the population of Hyder was 87 people.  Originally established in 1907, it was first called Portland City after the canal that it's situated on.  After being informed by U.S. Postal Service that the name was already taken, they named the small town Hyder.  Although originally settled for it's nearby mining possibilities, now Hyder seems to run off the silly tourists (guilty as charged) that want to claim they've been to Alaska and been 'Hyderized'- taking a shot of 151-proof Everclear.  We had big ambitions of being Hyderized ourselves (because we're grown ups like that), but the bar was closed. We settled for a walking tour through town.

We spent an hour or so wandering through Hyder (which is taking things very slow and moving at a snail's pace).  In the span of that hour, four amazing/hilarious/concerning things happened:

1. We walked into what appeared to be a gift shop only to find it was someone's home, stuffed with 'merchandise' that appeared to have been last stocked in 1981.  Perched among the junk was the elderly proprietress herself.  She scared the bejeezus out of Ty when we spotted her.  Besides the post cards, jade stones, and t-shirts were large bags of walnuts (?!).  It was bizarre.  We all bought 20+ year old post cards since it seemed rude to 'window shop' in someone's front hallway and leave empty handed. 
2. An avalanche roared down one of the mountains behind town.  I'd never actually seen an avalanche before and it was intriguing only because we were a safe enough distance away to not have to worry.  I wonder what it's like to live somewhere where you feel like the mountainside behind your home could come down anytime? This may explain the general feeling of unease in Hyder.
3. We saw a sign for a 'Cheese Sale', which of course was too good to pass up.  Following the sign we arrived at another shop situated in someone's home (this time the garage, not the front hallway).  The woman opened up the shop for us which turned out to not only stock cheese, but a large, varied inventory of taxidermied animals and prepared pelts.  We bought some cheap Muenster and played a rousing game of 'what animal did that use to be' with the owner.
4. On our way back, we were admiring the vast number of homes that appear to by falling down, when an elderly gentleman walked out on his porch with a rifle.  We did not stick around to find out what he planned to do with it.  I swear I heard banjos playing.  

After our tour through town and a chat with the bearded old man in the general store about the town's history, we headed out the end of the road to look out at the Portland Canal.  Like much of the scenery, it was beautiful and almost a bit drastic.  The old pilings of the original Portland City can still be seen in the estuary, a disintegrating memory of the past.  

Old piling from the original town

Portland Canal

Hyder is popular in the summer with long-distance motorcyclists and those who come to see the bears in Fish Creek.  If you go, remember to take your passport.  Coming back into BC, there is a border guard.  He seriously inspected our documents and asked if we had anything to declare.  With a sheepish grin we held up our newly acquired cheese, but he waived us through.