Sights in Whittier
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A
Prince William Sound Museum
Heading back toward the waterfront along Eastern Ave, you'll come to the rather extravagantly named Prince William Sound Museum, which occupies an ill-lit room beside the Anchor Inn Grocery Store. The space has lots of displays about Whittier's military history, but the most fascinating exhibit is about the man who engineered the town's tunnel, Anton Anderson. A Swedish-Australian immigrant, Anderson discovered he had a knack for carving holes through mountains, and then found he had a knack for politics, eventually becoming the mayor of Anchorage.
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Horsetail Falls
From the southwest corner of Begich Towers, you can look west to Whittier Creek, while above it, falling from the ridge of a glacial cirque, is picturesque Horsetail Falls. Locals use the cascade to gauge the weather: if the tail is whipping upwards, it's too windy to go out in the boat. There are also great views of dozens of other waterfalls streaking from the snowfields to the Sound.
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B
Begich Towers
Whittier's dystopian townscape is perversely intriguing, and thus well worth a stroll. Start at Begich Towers, visible from anywhere in town, where the 1st, 14th and 15th floors are open to nonresidents. Watching children playing in the cinder-block corridors, you can't help contemplating how much of your private business would be common knowledge if you'd grown up here.
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C
Buckner Building
Climbing Blackstone Rd from the museum, Buckner Building dominates the otherwise picture-postcard view. Once the largest structure in Alaska, the 'city under one roof' looms dismal and abandoned above town; the use of asbestos in the structure has complicated attempts to remodel or tear down the eerie edifice.
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