Ketchikan Historic Park or Site

The art of totem pole carv­ing was a lux­u­ry that expe­ri­enced its hey­day in the mid-1700s to the late 1800s. The fur trade had pro­vid­ed the Tlin­git, Hai­da and Tsimshi­an peo­ples a new­found sense of wealth – and time to focus on the artistry of the totem 

Near­ly a cen­tu­ry ago in 1903, this was the small min­ing and fish­ing town’s red-light dis­trict but today the board­walk street, propped up over Ketchikan Creek on wood­en pil­ings, teems with gift shops, muse­ums and well-pre­served homes.

See­ing what the glac­i­ers left behind is as stun­ning as view­ing the glac­i­ers them­selves. Imag­ine the force it took to carve U‑shaped val­leys with 3,000-foot sheer cliffs ris­ing above the water (not to men­tion that they extend anoth­er 1000-feet below water!)