Portage was a small town at the junction of the Alaska Railroad mainline and the Whittier cutoff, it was abandoned after the 1964 earthquake raised the water level in the area. Now the area is semi-marsh land, with extreme high tides flooding the old townsite. The new water level also killed off most of the trees around the town, leaving behind a "ghost forest". The railroad station still exists as a whistle stop, and was used to load flatcars with vehicles bound for Whittier before the tunnel was modified. A variety of buildings made up the townsite, including a house made from an old boxcar, a garage and gas station, several houses, and probably some stores and other buisinesses.
The old gas station and garage, with some kind of military truck left
behind.
Collapsed houses, the boxcar is visible in the background of the first
picture
inside the boxcar
One of the more intact houses (and that's not saying much
Part of the ghost forest.
A little way down the Whittier cutoff is the "Portage rail yard", a set of sidings with some retired railcars, and occasionally some track maintenance vehicles.
Crazed kamikaze seagulls dive-bombed us as we walked towards the yard,
it's a good thing they don't know how to take a crap on closest approach...
(2nd photo enhanced to fix contrast, but otherwise unaltered, actual
distance from seagull about 2ft)
Some retired rail cars and an unknown work vehicle. The middle picture shows
a Hobo-sized can opener for making trashcan stoves out of old oil drums.
These must be to defend against the seagulls, or maybe fire at trespassers.
(rest assured, we didn't steal any or take the yellow thing for a test
drive, although we really wanted to)
Back to
Main