The iconic Cordova Rose Lodge is no more.
Beginning on April 14, a demolition crew has been crushing and hauling its remnants to the Cordova Landfill at Mile 17.
Nestled on the southern banks of Odiak Slough a mile out Whitshed Road, the lodge and surrounding structures were testimony to the creative genius of Bob Arvidson and his wife Rose.
It all started with the purchase of a land-locked barge named the Berry #1.
The barge worked the waters of Alaska as a pile driver and fish trap setter until it was towed to its current site just after the 1964 earthquake.
Used as a machine shop, a home for a recluse, and a houseboat over the years, Bob and Rose Arvidson took ownership of the Berry #1 in 1964.
They began the process of remodeling the facilities atop the barge as well as land-locking the barge by building up the surrounding property with rock and fill. Eventually they created a u-shaped moorage basin for Bob’s gill-netter.
Bob, who was an Eagle Scout, graduated from Cordova High School in 1952, and went on to earn a PhD in psychology. Born here in a family of hard-working local fisherman, the story goes that he soon decided that salmon were much easier to outsmart than humans, so he resumed a career in gillnetting.
However, during the off-season he put all that education to good use. He and Rose, an accomplished gardener, historian, and photographer, set to work in creating an astonishing array of structures on their man-made harbor.
The exterior landscape consists of a breakwater with a lighthouse, bridges, a gazebo, a sailing ship mast with flags and rigging, and a statue of the Greek mythical character Sisyphus pushing a large boulder.
The myth of Sisyphus tells us he was being punished by the Greek god Zeus, who told him he had to push a boulder up a hill forever. Every time he got it to the top it would roll back down and he would have to start over.
It has been said that the statue reflected Arvidson’s philosophy that everyone has their own rock to push. Knowing Bob’s sense of humor, perhaps it was simply a reminder of how many rocks he moved to create his masterpiece.
The crowning achievement of Bob’s endeavors was the lighthouse he built in the late 70s to help guide him up Odiak Slough when returning from gill netting on the Copper River Delta.
Named the Odiak Pharos, it took him several years of paperwork in a Sisyphusian-like effort to convince the Coast Guard to recognize the lighthouse as an official aid to navigation.
Incidentally, the original Pharos Lighthouse was built from 280 B.C. to 247 B.C. at the mouth of the Nile near Alexandria. Made of granite and limestone, it stood 387 feet tall before being destroyed by numerous earthquakes in the 1400s. It was considered to be one of the original Seven Wonders of the World, and the light for Pharos was created by a furnace at the top.
As an official aid to navigation, Bob’s Pharos was believed to be the northernmost lighthouse in the United States. It was also the only lighthouse in Alaska that could be reached by car. All others required boat or helicopter.
Ironically it is that very feature that put the Rose Lodge and surrounding structures in peril. The edge of the barge abutted Whitshed Road. In fact, the edge of the road loomed about 25 vertical feet above it.
Ownership of the lodge changed hands after Bob and Rose passed away.
The oft-delayed Whitshed Road project, which includes a bike path beside the road, needed right-of way-space, so the state of Alaska bought it.
The original Pharos was destroyed by acts of nature. The fate of the Odiak Pharos was to be demolished by man.
On April 24, it was the last structure still standing. At 11:29 a.m., it was unceremoniously knocked down by the long arm of a large orange excavator and loaded in a large dump truck headed to the landfill.
The Cordova Pharos will shine no more.
It wasn’t one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. But it was a special part of Cordova.
The same can be said of Bob and Rose Arvidson.
