Beautiful

by Nick Boren

Title

Beautiful

Artist

Nick Boren

Medium

Photograph - Photograph - Digital

Description

Nestled inside the Chugach National Forest sits a fresh water lake that has the shape of a three-armed starfish, diversity of many aquatic and land dwelling residents, and offers economy and recreation to the fishing town Cordova.

Eyak Lake is flat bottomed, average depth of eight feet, with very distinct stream channels cut one to twelve feet deeper than the surrounding bottom. This leads some to believe the area was once a tidal flat, draining out into Eyak River and/or Orca Inlet. However the lake was formed, certainly it has changed in many ways.

Gillnetting Eyak LakeCopper River salmon fishermen remember the days before the 1964 Earthquake when they could pilot their bowpickers through Eyak River into Eyak Lake for mooring. Aeroplane pilots remember docking in Nirvana Lagoon. And some have shared stories of spruce canoes and the Eyak Native Village that stood where is now the Lake View Trailer Park.

The history of Eyak Lake, its citizens and their stories, are rooted very deep into Cordova�s culture today. Before 1900, a native fishing village of 200 called Eyak, dwelled along the shores of Eyak Lake. The name Cordova came from Cordova Bay, located at the head of Orca Inet.

Uploaded

March 12th, 2013

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