
A petrified electric toothbrush.
A grinder Native people used in ancient times.
A thingamajig.
Those were just a few of the more creative guesses tossed at a question Lyndsey DeFazio-Hura posted on her Facebook page asking what friends thought a wooden, elongated bowling pin-shaped object she found in the Chilkat River might be.
The most common guesses included a vintage bowling or juggling pin. Hura’s favorite guesses? “Ones that aren’t appropriate for the newspaper,” Hura said.
She found the item lodged in a log jam in the river across from the airport where the old Dalton Trail used to be. Hura, a tech for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, was on lunch break combing the bank for a piece of wood to display the heart-shaped rocks she collects. The weathered, wooden piece measures 15 inches long and weighs about three pounds, Hura said.
When she pulled it from the log jam, she thought it might be a bowling pin from the old bowling alley. Haines used to boast a popular bowling scene that sent bowlers to compete in Skagway. Haines’ first newspaper, The Pioneer Press, regularly published scores from bowling matches.
According to Haines Sheldon Museum records, the object most closely resembles an “Indian club.” Fort Seward soldiers used them for exercise during the early 1900s.
The Indian clubs were “used in a type of exercise popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe, the British Commonwealth and the U.S.,” museum records say. “The clubs, of varying sizes and weights, were swung in certain patterns as part of an exercise program.”
According to online sources, ancient Persian wrestlers and soldiers used the clubs for strength training. The archaic exercise equipment’s popularity spread across the Middle East and into India. In the 19th century, occupying British forces in India incorporated the exercise into the British military routine-thus the name “Indian clubs.” The clubs gained popularity with the American military and students during the time, and can still be purchased today.
Fitness buffs can buy a set of two, three-pound oak Indian clubs, along with a training DVD on Amazon for $145. “Indian Clubs for Beginners,” “BEST Indian Club Exercise for Joint Strength & Mobility” and “3 Reasons Why You Should Train w/Indian Clubs & Steel Mace” are among many how-to videos found on YouTube.