A History of Alaska's Famous Sawyer Glaciers

When you think of Alaska, one of the most common images that come to mind are the massive glaciers that have carved some incredible land features, and provide quite a view for tourists to see. One of the most famous glaciers in Alaska is the Sawyer Glacier , which actually has two separate parts, the north and south. Let’s explore some of the history of these glaciers, and find out more about what makes them such an amazing sight to see on your Alaska fishing vacation.

What is a Glacier?

Before we get into the details of the famous Sawyer glaciers, let’s first define exactly what makes a glacier. These incredible natural features are the result of many years of snow falling and compressing. When enough snow falls, and the environment is cold enough to keep that snow in a single location over time (rather than melting into streams and rivers), it turns into a large mass of ice.

They often have water underneath, so they actually flow like a river, but in very slow motion. Glaciers make up about 10 percent of the total land mass of the earth, and are concentrated primarily in the cold regions of Antarctica, Greenland, Canada, and Alaska. However, there are glaciers on every continent, including Africa and South America.

The Tracy Arm

Tracy Arm is the name of a fjord in southeast Alaska. A fjord is a long, narrow strip of sea nestled between mountains or cliffs on each side. The are common in Norway and Iceland, as well as some parts of Alaska.

A fjord is generally formed by a glacier, and the Tracy Arm is no different. It is about 30 miles long, named after Benjamin Franklin Tracy, Secretary of the Navy under President Benjamin Harrison, who probably never visited the fjord or saw its majestic beauty since he lived in New York until he died in 1915. However, he was close friends with William H. Seward, who oversaw international affairs during the Civil War and negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.

The most common way to access the Tracy Arm is through Stephens Passage, a waterway in Alaska’s Inside Passage that is part of the Tongass National Forest. The area is at the center of the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness, an area spanning 653,179 acres that the U.S. Congress designated as a national wilderness in 1980. The “Fords Terror” part of the name comes from an 1899 voyage by a navy crewman named Ford, who paddled a boat into the narrow passage of and was trapped for several hours in a tidal surge of floating ice chunks that can block access in and out of the fjord.

Sawyer Glacier

The Sawyer Glacier is divided into two distinct glaciers: the North Sawyer and the South Sawyer. Both the South Sawyer and North Sawyer Glaciers are located in Tracy Arm. The South Sawyer Glacier can be challenging to access and is only visible on certain days of the year when the weather is favorable. In contrast, the North Sawyer Glacier is more commonly visited. The glacier's surface appears white above the ground, but it transitions to a stunning cobalt blue as it extends deep beneath the ocean's surface.

The face of the glacier is about a half mile wide, make it easy to view from the water (you cannot access it from the land). It’s an active tidewater glacier, which means that you can often see “calving” events where a large chunk of ice breaks off and falls into the ocean below. The ice that falls off could be a small chunk or a section the size of a cruise ship, depending on the day. The ice chunks hit the water below, which reaches depths of as much as 600 feet, and also has sections of the glacier under the surface. In fact, calving events can also happen underwater, and you will see the calved chunk of ice emerge from the water like a submarine and float away.

On either side of the Tracy Arm are mountain peaks that soar to 7,000 feet above sea level, and you can find waterfalls and wildlife all over the faces of the cliffs. If you look closely you can often catch a glimpse of mountain goats, seals, and birds on the glacier itself or the nearby mountain slopes, and might even be lucky enough to see a whale or two in the water below.

Visit Pybus Point to See the Sawyer Glacier

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A History of Alaska's Famous Sawyer Glaciers

What is a Glacier?

The Tracy Arm

Sawyer Glacier

Visit Pybus Point to See the Sawyer Glacier

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