Our last stop in Alaska was Ketchikan. While the Salmon Capital of the World, Ketchikan is also home to a couple totem pole parks. Native Alaskans feel very strongly about their totems and are determined to educate non-natives about the poles and their meaning. They are equally determined that their future generations will not lose the skill for carving the poles.
These are street scenes from the tourist area in Ketchika.
We saw this sign on the side of a building. Ketchikan gets more rain annually than both Portland and Seattle. Compare Ketchikan's 12.5 FEET of rain annually to Fairbanks' 11 INCHES!
Non-tourist Ketchikan.
This totem was commissioned by a
man to celebrate his
50th wedding anniversary.
This eagle totem was given to the city by a reknowned totem carver.
Gas prices in Alaska were comparable to what we were paying in Illinois when we left.
Float plane parking lot
The area around Ketchikan is actually classified as a temporate rain forest.
The flowers were spectacular!
We visited Totem Bight Park. Just one of the parks in Ketchikan featuring totem poles.
Each totem pole tells a story or history.
A clan house at Totem Bight Park. During the winter an entire clan lived inside. The structure is quite large and has two levels. Women sat around on a bench on the main level. Men sat in another area. Older men and children sat on a bench on the lower level, hear the central fire pit. Each person and family had their own place. The benches on the lower level were hollow and each family had a place for their belongings.
A clan house at Totem Bight Park. During the winter an entire clan lived inside. The structure is quite large and has two levels. Women sat around on a bench on the main level. Men sat in another area. Older men and children sat on a bench on the lower level, hear the central fire pit. Each person and family had their own place. The benches on the lower level were hollow and each family had a place for their belongings.
The totems in the park are reproductions. The original poles were not preserved and many were lost. The guide told us the colors on the original poles were made by women chewing fish parts. Obviously there is a shortage of volunteers to do this nowadays, so paint and preservatives are used on these.
Close up look at a dog sled
Our last excursion was the Great Alaskan Lumberjack show. This was more of a show than a contest, but the young men who participated are actual competitors. They are mostly college students. There was a lot of kidding and corny jokes, but it was great fun. A really great way to end our trip!
Contestants stand atop this horizontal log and chop the log in two-chopping between their feet.
Ax tossing -- harder than it looks.
This is the double-saw competition. the men in silver hats are the American team and the men in red shirts are the Canadian team.
Here contestants chop a vertical "tree trunk" for speed. There is another young mad on the other side of the area doing the same thing.
For this contest competitors notch the tree jam a flat board into the notch and use that board as a platform for chopping. Think of cutting down a tree while standing on a diving board.
This young man is a champion in the pole climbing events.
For this contest the competitors run the length of the pool on the floating logs.
What is a lumberjack competition without log rolling?
Like we have driveways, many places here have skids for pushing float planes into the water.
There were a lot of eagles in Ketchikan as well. They fly overhead all the time like crows do at home.
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