Photo Credit: Potlatch Totem Park

Ketchikan Museums & Cultural Centers

Immerse yourself in Ketchikan’s rich culture and history at the city’s museums and cultural centers. Step into a world of fascinating exhibits, artifacts, and interactive displays that showcase the region’s indigenous history, maritime traditions, and artistic expressions. From the Totem Heritage Center, where centuries-old totem poles tell captivating stories, to the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, which offers an in-depth look at the area’s natural wonders, Ketchikan’s museums provide a deep dive into the heart of the town’s identity.

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Museums, Cultural Centers

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

As part of the New Deal dur­ing the 1930s, the Civil­ian Con­ser­va­tion Corps came to this area and hired skilled Native artists who could recre­ate old crum­bling poles and train appren­tices, to keep the art form alive. You can wan­der the grounds at this state park, and learn about how to inter­pret the sym­bols on poles, or check out the large, carved trib­al house. Was named to the Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places in 1970. 10 miles out of town on  ...more

Expe­ri­ence world-class exhibits and audio­vi­su­al pro­grams. Dis­cov­er Tsimshi­an, Hai­da and Tlin­git totem poles, the rain­for­est room, a Native fish camp scene, and exhibits on South­east Alaska’s ecosys­tems, fish­ing, min­ing, tim­ber and tourism. Locat­ed one block from the cruise ship dock in down­town Ketchikan. Accepts Amer­i­ca-the-Beau­ti­ful passes.

Built on the old fish­ing grounds of Tlin­git Natives, the park hosts some of the finest native art in the world!

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