On the way to Hope
Hope Alaska sits nestled in a notch on Turnagain Arm about 1.5 hours south of Anchorage. The drive there takes you along the waters of Turn Again and it is spectacular. The tides in Turnagain Arm are the second swiftest tides in the world and when they go out it is like draining a bathtub. In 1888 old man Alexander King rowed a dory up the Cook Inlet into the Turnagain Arm and beached on the south shore. Two years later he rowed out with four pokes of gold, and became a man of great interest. By 1895 five mining partners on Sixmile Creek were spending their 40K in gold around Seattle and suddenly The Rush was on. Three thousand people headed to Sixmile Creek in 1896 and Hope City got its when the miners decided to name the town after the next person that got off the boat – that was Percy Hope – 17 year old prospector extraordinaire.