Unaatuq is transforming. The 320-acre property, also known as Pilgrim Hot Springs, rests on land and water on the northeastern end of the Kigluaik mountain range. The land underneath is warm and arable – a rarity in the subarctic. Water as hot as 180 degrees rises to the surface of several hot springs.
Archeologists say the site has been used by Alaska Native peoples for thousands of years. But its ownership took a turn in 1905, when a settler named Henry Beckus claimed the site under the Homestead Act.
A saloon, dance hall and roadhouse were built for gold miners passing through, although those burned down in 1908. In 1915, the property was turned into a Catholic mission and when the Spanish Flu hit in 1918, orphans from nearby villages were brought to the site and attended boarding school. Following the disease, nearly 100 people were buried in mass graves at the site.
After a century of non-native ownership, the Fairbanks Catholic Diocese sold the property for $1.9m to help fund a bevy of sexual assault settlements. The successful bidders were a consortium of five native corporations, a regional economic development organization and tribal non-profit.
Unaatuq’s General Manager, Kelsey Galleher, said under the new ownership, the site’s meaning to the region is transforming.
“We have people that come out and they're like, ‘Oh, my aunt was sent here, or my cousin was sent here’. I take it as a good sign when they walk on that property and they’re not sad,” Galleher said. “They can look around and they can be happy that they're there.”
Since taking over in 2010, the site’s co-managing partners, Bering Straits Native Corporation and Kawerak, have worked on overhauling the site. Wide gravel paths loop around the property, linking a gathering space to rental cabins, huge wooden barrel hot tubs and remnants of the site’s orphanage-past.
Tucked in the back of the property are rectangular pads of permafrost-free dirt, soft enough to be scooped with bare hands. The team at Unaatuq is growing a “food forest” on the naturally warm land, including potatoes, broccoli, lettuce and strawberries.
Next year, Unaatuq plans to bury a geothermal power plant in the warm ground. Galleher said it will generate 75 kilowatts – enough to power the entire facility.
“It's going to be one of, if not the smallest microgrid in the world, which is crazy,” Galleher said.
Opening Weekend
To get the community out at the property, the staff at Unaatuq hosted an opening mini-festival Saturday. Bering Straits Board Chair, Roy Ashenfelter, welcomed the crowd of over 50 people to the event. He said he and his wife have visited the hot springs since the early 80’s.
“It's just amazing how this place has changed. A lot of the improvements that have happened recently. It's just astounding to me,” Ashenfelter said.
Local folk group, Landbridge Tollbooth, kicked off a series of musical performances.
The band was followed by a speech from Mary Jane Litchard, who clutched seeds from the Hopi Reservation in Arizona in one hand and tobacco seeds from Nevada in the other. She explained that despite having a corn allergy, she could eat corn from the Hopi land “three times a day” without getting sick.
One handful at a time, Litchard sprinkled the seeds onto the surrounding land.
Litchard also led a workshop the following day on how to identify, collect and use indigenous plants.
She was followed on stage by a joint performance from the King Island and St. Lawrence Island dance groups. Unaatuq's Sustainability Coordinator, Arlo Hannigan, helped organize the event and played a set later in the evening as well.
Galleher said poor weather delayed last year’s planned event, making this year Unaatuq's first time hosting a music festival with native dance groups. She said with the property back in Native hands, it wouldn’t be the last.
