Halloween Nightmare

Nightmare In Cordova from Adam Elliott on Vimeo.

Cordova has a dark side.  I suppose any small town would that has existed under four different nationalities. At least some people may see it that way. To the people who live there it's just history or a part of their heritage. But like a freaky family heirloom you may spot in a friends house, some of the scattered remains of Cordova's past emanate an eery atmosphere for visitors.

Abandoned long ago on a hill in a dark mossy forest, the old elementary school

is permanently haunted.

A few miles from the abandoned school is an old timer graveyard on the shores of Eyak Lake.  This cemetary is larger than it first seems. Trails lead of into the woods and up the hills. The deeper you explore the more you find, even well after you're sure you must be beyond the boundaries. We arrived shortly after the snow melted away, when the plants had just started to poke out of the ground. The sign reads "Pioneers of Alaska" but i suspect it may be old enough that some of the residents were buried in Russia.

Many of the graves, like these, must be completely invisible most of the year, either covered in snow or covered by vegetation that grows very quickly in the long summer days.  At this point the plants have just started to come out of the ground.

Many of the ferns were still curled up.