Seward

This is Northern Crimes.

Seward, Alaska, July 7th, 1973.

The air in the coastal town of Seward was damp with the usual summer mist of Resurrection Bay.

At the Seward Skills Center, 17-year-old Megan Emrick was finishing a routine chore in the dormitory laundry room.

She was a student from the small town of Delta Junction, a girl who grew up hunting and fishing on the Yukon River.

The vocational school she was attending in Seward was a step toward a more independent future.

But at some point that evening, Megan walked out of that laundry room and was never seen again.

She left behind her ID, her clothes, and every personal item she owned.

These waves travel across the ocean at speeds as great as 960 kilometers per hour, 597 miles per hour, and may be 15 meters, or 49 feet high, or higher by the time they reach the shore.

During the 1964 Alaska earthquake, tsunamis engulfing coastal areas caused most of the destruction at Kodiak, Cordova, and Seward, and caused severe damage along the west coast of North America, particularly at Crescent City, California.

Some waves raced across the ocean to the coasts of Japan.

Liquefaction, which happens when loosely packed, waterlogged sediments lose their strength in response to strong shaking, causes major damage during earthquakes.

On your last day, you decided to check out one of America's official national parks, which is so fun.

You guys woke up unreasonably early, yet again at like 4.30, 4.45, and you went to Seward, Alaska, which is about a two and a half hour drive from Anchorage for the national park.

So how did you access the national park? Tell us what you did, which national park, because Alaska has

several.

Quotes, In the expanded space, the seals have more room to participate in their own care and engage with guests in more meaningful ways during daily feeding presentations and public encounters.

When Pepita was first spotted in July 2023 with severe injuries to her body and both eyes in Seldovia, Two local residents and the Seldovia Village tribe helped to safely retrieve the young seal and get her to Seward, Alaska and the Alaska Sea Life Center for critical veterinary treatment.

During her time in the Wildlife Response Program as patient PV2314, veterinary ophthalmic specialists determined that Pepita's eye injuries had greatly impaired her vision and may have even caused blindness.

In December 2023, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration designated Pepita as non-releasable because she would not be able to survive if returned to her natural environment.

This designation ensured that Pepita could continue to receive specialized treatment under human care.

Pepita quickly became a beloved part of the Seward community, with thousands tuning into Sea Life Center's blog and social media posts for updates on her progress.

In the facility's public seal habitat, she charmed guests with her curiosity and incredible resilience, using her whiskers to reveal what her eyes could not.

In late 2025, ASLC partnered with the Aquarium of Niagara to explore moving Pepita to Niagara Falls to make space for other non-releasable rescued seals.

Oh, sorry, I had to swallow.

In 1964, Kodiak, Cordova, Homer, Seldovia, Valdez, and Seward were added to the system and serviced by the MV Testamina.

As service extended to additional communities, Alaskans gained access to not only their coastal neighbors, but to other parts of North America, and at a price that was often more reasonable than other forms of transportation.

In 1964, the first year of service for both Southeast and Southwest Alaska, AMHS had a total of five ferries and 16 ports of call and provided service to more than 100,000 passengers and nearly 22,000 vehicles.

That was great administrative experience, which is what led to my being able to get back into the Park Service.

I got to spend a couple years in Seward as a park ranger there.

I was a boat ranger the first year, and the second year I got to manage Exit Glacier Nature Center, which was marvelous.

I discovered that actually I really, really love being a supervisor.

If you think about the Chugach, you have a big chunk around Prince William Sound, the islands within Prince William Sound.

You have the Kenai Peninsula, not all the areas on the Kenai Peninsula, but a significant chunk on your way down to Seward, on your way to Cooper Landing.

All of those areas kind of outside the Seward Highway corridor and a few other roads are roadless areas.

And then in southeast Alaska, yeah, it's significant from the Sea Tuck all the way down to Prince of Wales and Ketchikan.

There are roadless areas everywhere.

And I had the good fortune of pulling that tag a few years back and got to spend five days just totally immersed in the wild landscapes of 20 Mile.

It's hard to get into.

You can hike over from Girdwood and Papraf down or do what I did and that's take a jet boat up from the Seward Highway and being able to travel 30 minutes from my house to the boat launch and put in and harvest this incredible bull moose that has fed my family for years.