What do Vineyarders know, do, or say that visitors might not? Do you feel like you could pull a local out of a line-up of tourists? Live on Martha’s Vineyard long enough and you might pick up some strong opinions about what makes Islanders unique. And for every other island out there, we imagine there are plenty of locals with some equally strong opinions. So, we decided to call them up and ask them about the island they call home.
The Island: Kodiak Island, Alaska
The Islander: Ben Millstein, fifty-nine
The Story in Brief: Kodiak is the largest of the twenty-five islands in the Kodiak Archipelago and the ancestral land of the Sugpiaq, an Alutiiq nation of Native Americans. The island’s population is 13,101 as of the 2020 census, with 5,581 living in the city of Kodiak – where Millstein founded and runs Kodiak Island Brewing Company. Before this gig, he lived all over the country. He trained sled dogs and climbed pine trees to pick pine cones. But now, Millstein has lived on Kodiak for thirty years and, in this time, he’s learned a thing or two, including how to spot a local.
The Look: “Kodiak is a blue collar town. It’s a fishing town, and there’s not much in the way of fashion here,” he said. Year-rounders wear jeans, Carhartt, and, crucially, sweatshirts without zippers. “Part of it is that people who are working on fishing boats don’t like things that can get caught in a net.” Visitors wear “nicer, sportier, kind of cleaner outdoor gear.”
Another Local Beacon: Xtratuf boots. “Those are real giveaways. My kids went away to college and they would meet people from Alaska by seeing Xtratuf,” Millstein said. “They’d go ‘Oh, hey, are you from Alaska?’” And, sure enough.
The Lingo: On the Vineyard, we have “up-Island” and “down-Island.” On Kodiak, there’s “going out the road.” Millstein explained: “If you look at a map of Kodiak, the road system is really limited. You can get from one side to the other in about an hour, and that’s the whole thing.” Town, as he called it, is on the northern part of the road system. Going out the road means going to the southern part.
In a Nutshell: Millstein started to talk about the local economy – how fishing was one driver and how the Coast Guard station kept things going year-round. But then some customers came in, so he tried to sum it up. “Kodiak is a pretty unique kind of place,” he said, and then he had to go.
