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Sixth Stop: Ketchikan, Alaska |
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You betcha Ketchikan, everyone!
Today’s a short shore day in one of Alaska’s southernmost cities. For most ships, Ketchikan is the first stop on Alaskan cruises, but for us, this will be our final Alaskan stop. After hopping down the gangplank, I bid Jackie a “Happy snorkel!” and sent her on her way to discover the sea life off the Alaskan coast. Meanwhile, I set off in search of history, beauty, and wonder around Ketchikan!
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I weaved and wandered through the streets and up the tortuous and steep Married Man’s Trail, so named because it was the choice escape route of men fleeing the Creek Street brothel when the police showed up! The morning was so fresh and warm; all the storms of the last few days seemed to have cleared right away. I was feeling mighty fine when I came across the Totem Heritage Center, tucked back well away from the port.
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The Totem Heritage Center is home to one of the world’s largest collections of original, 19th century totem poles, carved by the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes along Alaska’s coast! I fell in with a tour, which was learning about what many of the creatures meant! The Haida and Tlingit belonged to marriage groups called moieties, so many of their totem poles featured an eagle, wolf, or raven. Meanwhile, the Tsimshian belonged to the wolf, killer whale, bear, eagle, or raven moieties. Folks in these tribes could never marry someone within the same moiety, and they kept track of this tradition via totems!
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The guide also went into detail about colors! Most restored totem poles we see today are bright with all kinds of colors because Home Depot exists, but back before the arrival of the Russians, and later the Americans, color was treated very differently. For instance, totem poles were never completely covered in paint because it would make the cedar wood rot from the inside out! Red was a popular color and was made by women who chewed up salmon eggs and spat them out to make dye, but green was a very difficult and expensive color to acquire, so it didn’t show up on a lot of original totem poles!
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This collection came about in 1970 with a state-sponsored salvage operation called Alaska Totems: A Heritage in Peril! Of the hundreds of original totem poles throughout southern Alaska, only about 44 were saved. They were brought here to Ketchikan, where many Tlingit and Haida folks had settled, and this became their cultural center, which still teaches Native arts today!
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Once the tour finished, I took a stroll out through the lovely City Park nearby, breathing in the fresh air and again, after spending so much time in dry southern California, reveling in the incredible greenery! The time to meet up with Jackie again was drawing near, though, so I had to head back toward the shore.
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Along the way, I stopped at historic Creek Street, formerly the red light district of Ketchikan where both salmon and men came to spawn! Sure enough, I saw plenty of chum salmon entering the creek waters from the ocean, merrily heading to their spawning grounds without any hint of what dangers lay ahead of them!
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There were harbor seals waiting for the salmon! As I sat down to watch, the river water erupted in with froth as the seals charged into the scattering schools! Those salmon were mighty slippery, though, and many a charge ended with defeat for the seals. After seeing so many videos of whales hunting seals, it was a whole new perspective watching the seals be the predators!
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I got so engrossed in watching the Circle of Life play out before my eyes that I almost forgot to meet Jackie for lunch! She’d had a great time finding sea stars, sea cucumbers, and rockfish, which ya just don’t hear about much from Alaska tourist pamphlets. We had a tasty seafood lunch before heading back to a long boarding line for the ship. Instead of waiting in line, we pulled up a bench at the Arctic Bar to watch the line go by. At just the right moment, we hopped over to the gangplank, climbed aboard, and were off to sea once again!
Ketch ya later!
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Sixth Stop: Ketchikan, Alaska |
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