Episode 21 - Salty Dawg Saloon

0:00 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?

1:19 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

2:51 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

4:27 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

5:59 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

7:38 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

9:08 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

10:44 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

12:18 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

13:51 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

15:27 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

17:01 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?

18:32 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

20:02 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

21:34 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?

23:06 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?

23:46 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?

24:31 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

26:07 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?

27:00 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?

27:48 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?

28:34 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

30:06 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?

31:10 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?

32:18 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

33:50 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

35:23 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

36:53 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

38:28 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?

39:56 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?

41:29 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

43:01 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

44:32 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

46:05 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

47:35 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

49:08 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

50:42 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

52:14 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

53:49 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

55:26 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

56:59 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

58:35 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?

1:00:03 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

1:01:33 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