Our TOwn - Historic Ketchikan

OUR TOWN
DISCOVER
KETCHIKAN
ALASKA
Published by
Historic Ketchikan Inc.
With support from
Ketchikan Gateway Borough and City of Ketchikan
Historic Ketchikan Inc. Board of Directors
Terry Wanzer president Ralph Beardsworth vice president
Deborah Hayden secretary James Alguire treasurer Cecelia Coenen director Rick Hardcastle director Len Laurance director Dave Rubin director
Stephen Reeve executive director
Historic Ketchikan Inc.
P.O. Box 23364 Ketchikan, Alaska 99901
www.historicketchikan.org 907-225-5515
[email protected]
Historic Ketchikan Inc. is a private, nonprofit
organization that promotes economic development
through historic preservation and heritage tourism.
Our programs are designed to instill community pride
and interest in Ketchikan’s history.
This publication is a community profile with general factual
information and residents’ opinions. It is designed to be
informative and entertaining—a tribute to the spirit of a
progressive community. It is not intended to be a primary
historical reference.
Prior editions — 1994, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2011
Publication design | text | text editing —
Gregg Poppen | Full Circle Media Arts | [email protected]
cover photo by Chip Porter
1 Our Town
The people of Alaska’s First City relish their remarkable place between the clean sea and lush mountainsides.
gregg poppen
© 2015 Historic Ketchikan Inc. All rights reserved.
This publication may not be reproduced in any form except with
written permission. Brief passages may be excerpted in reviews.
Have an elevated
hotel experience
above Creek Street
and the heart of
historic downtown
Ketchikan
Comfort, service and a feeling that now you’re on top of the world.
NATHAN JACKSON
Ride OuR fuNiCulAR TRAm TO wORld-ReNOwNed CReeK STReeT ANd THe wATeRfRONT
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The lodge proudly displays
Cape Fox Native Corporation’s
million-dollar collection of
Alaska Native art and artifacts
Cape Fox Lodge
On venetia lode mine Hill 907-225-8001 capefoxlodge.com
Ketchikan settles comfortably into a magnificent natural world. We’re in a wondrously lush temperate rain forest beside the
calm, clean Inside Passage of the North Pacific—but we’re also intricately tied to remarkable human heritages.
Our historical properties hark back to Alaska’s Last Frontier times. World-class totem poles and a living
Alaska Native culture express a presence beyond history. A vital business climate and a thriving arts community
GREGG POPPEN
round it out. Nature makes it extraordinary. History makes it unique. People make it Ketchikan.
Sailboats are numerous on our stretch of Alaska’s Inside Passage. Some are kept for pleasure sailing and a few larger vessels are used as liveaboards. Stroll our harbors to see the vast variety of sailers and motor vessels that homeport here.
More than stores. We’re a heritage.
Tongass Trading Co. has provided the essentials for residents and visitors since 1898.
outdoor apparel
fishing gear
Dock Store
201 dock st.
Outfitter • Sporting Goods • Curios
Menswear Building
312 dock st.
marine supplies
gifts
men’s wear
ladies’ wear
Every single day, we carry on that heritage.
home furnishings
Marine Store
2521 marine works way
Marine Supplies • Commercial Gear
Hardware • Sporting Goods • Raingear
Menswear • Ladies Loft • Curios
Tongass Trading Outlet Store
Berth 4 – 55 schoenbar Ct. #103
Inside Passage Curios & Gifts
301 mission street
Tongass Trading Furniture House
2324 tongass ave.
907-225-5101 www.tongasstrading.com 1-800-235-5102
4 Our Town
ketchikan museums
Ketchikan was building fast in 1902 as cabins and a few substantial homes pushed aside the forest.
Commerce and salvation stood onshore in the form of the Heckman store and tiny St. Agnes Mission, surmounted by
its bell tower. At right, the newly raised Chief Johnson pole towered over the Alaska Native settlement. The wood viaduct led to a cannery.
Pioneers pursuing salmon brought a can-do spirit to Alaska’s First City
Salmon made Ketchikan. Native Alaskans had a summer fish camp at the mouth of
what they called, in the Tlingit language, Kich-xaan: generally interpreted to mean
“wings of the eagle.” Those salmon lured entrepreneurs from the Pacific Northwest,
eagle-eyed for new sources of fish for a hungry America. The first of these salmon
scouts landed here about 1885. By the mid-1890s, pioneering business people had
built a wharf in deep water; a cannery steamed and clattered away for Tongass
Packing Co.—which borrowed its name from a clan of the Tlingit tribe.
An Irish-American adventurer named Mike Martin arrived in those
pioneer years and with partner George Clark bought Tongass Packing
Co.’s land after the cannery burned down in 1897. The pair established
a saltery on a new wharf just about where Dock and Front streets
meet today. The partners opened the town’s first trading store. The
rough little settlement was burgeoning and Martin and Clark sold
their land to developers who had a plan for that creekside square
quarter-mile—Ketchikan Improvement Co., they called it. They platted
paradise and put up a pack of lots, most of them 50 by 100 feet. And
Mayor Mike Martin when momentum was set, 103 property-owning men of the settlement
voted to incorporate “Ketchikan.” It was 1900. Mike Martin was elected as the first
mayor. The first head count found 800 residents in this “First City” up the coast from
Puget Sound.
The affable Martin and those who followed foresaw not just the salmon-packing
industry, but the use of steady Ketchikan Creek for a mechanical power source.
They saw a deepwater port and valuable ores in the area. And eyes were on the
great steamships that chuffed up the coast, bearing gold-rush prospectors, settlers
and even intrepid sightseers. The Common Council met in homes, in the Red Men
fraternal hall or, at times, in Mayor Martin’s Sideboard Saloon. A property tax of
7.5 mills was levied for a school, fire protection and streets.
Ketchikan grew, always with natural resources at its base. Sawmills cut lumber for
buildings, salmon cases and export. Families cleared forest for homesites. Police
were hired. Dog control was ordered. “New Town” residents north of Knob Hill
campaigned to remove brothels and the city sent working girls south of the creek—
establishing the Creek Street red-light district. Mud streets were planked. When
Ketchikan went dry with the Bone Dry Law in 1917, Creek Street’s layout and modes
of operation lent themselves to trap-door liquor deliveries and cathouse parties.
The town grew and changed with the times. Ketchikan was Alaska’s most populous
city as late as the 1930s. Front Street was paved in 1923 (the first paved street in
Alaska) and brothels were closed in 1953. The pulp mill became Alaska’s biggest
employer in the mid-’50s. Ketchikan integrated its schools and its social life with the
Alaska Natives and the town came to take pride in a culture that fascinates visitors.
We welcomed hundreds of immigrants from the Philippines, whose enterprise and
enthusiasm are a second pioneer wave.
It’s a town with a unique past and a spirit made of optimism and enterprise.
5 Our Town
KETCHIKAN
PRINCE RUPERT B.C. – Alaska ferry
BELLINGHAM Wash. – Alaska ferry
SEATTLE Wash. – Direct jet flights
ISLE SEATS
The First City is the Alaskan town
nearest the Lower 48. It’s easy to
get to our islands by air or sea.
Flight time is about 100 minutes
from Sea-Tac Inernational Airport
to Ketchikan International
Airport. Alaska Airlines flies here
daily, year-round; Delta initiated
seasonal service in 2015.
Alaska Marine Highway System
ferries depart Bellingham, Wash.,
for a relaxing 38-hour trip. Or
drive to Prince Rupert, B.C., and
board an Alaska ferry for a sixhour transit. Seat yourself in the
ferry’s observation lounge to see
Ketchikan coming into view.
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Downtown Ketchikan is a blend of century-old historical
structures and the features of a busy port city. This view is from
the eagle’s vantage, looking toward the northwest. For a close-up
perspective, take the Historic Ketchikan Walking Tour. The map is available at the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau Tour Center on Berth 2, at the Ketchikan Daily News and at a number of
businesses around town.
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A5 Thomas Basin breakwater; end of waterfront promenade
A10 North end of Pennock Island | C7 Berth 1
E1-J1 Historic Thomas Street | K1-K6 Historic Stedman Street
J3 Ketchikan Yacht Club at Thomas Basin | L6 Stedman Street Bridge
6 Our Town
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H8 Berth 2 | H7 Southeast Alaska Discovery Center
J7 Ketchikan Fire Dept. Station 1 | L7 Federal Bldg.
M5-N7 Historic Creek Street
K8 Yates Memorial Hosp. / St. John’s Episcopal Church
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H8 Ketchikan Visitors Bureau Tour Center
J9 The tunnel | L8 Ketchikan Daily News
K9 Historic Newtown | L10 Captains Hill
H11 Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island
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7 Our Town
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A state road project starting in 2015 extends White River Road to logging road at Shelter Cove, opening up recreational land (G12 to I13)
Vallenar Bay state road project was pending in 2015 in the state’s Roads to Resources program (A5 to B5)
South Tongass Highway was paved from Herring Cove to the end of the
road in 2015 (H3 to I6)
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e
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City of Ketchikan
City of Saxman
Ketchikan Gateway Borough
City of Ketchikan crews deliver power via KPU and
maintain streets—even board streets above Newtown.
Saxman Seaport and a world-class totem park are
among responsibilities of the City of Saxman.
The airport on Gravina Island and the city on Revilla
Island are connected by the borough’s ferries.
The City of Ketchikan
incorporated in 1900 in the U.S.
District of Alaska. The city is
a home rule municipality with
wide-ranging powers and services:
police; firefighting; streets; electric,
telephone, water and wastewater
utilities; a library and a museum;
and others. City residents elect
seven council members and a
mayor who presides over meetings
and breaks tie votes; all terms
are three years. The city doesn’t
impose term limits. The council
hires a city manager to oversee
city departments and municipally
owned Ketchikan Public Utilities.
territory. Saxman is a second-class
municipality; residents elect city
council members, who select a
mayor from their body. Saxman
provides water service and
wastewater collection and operates
Saxman Seaport, a multimodal sea
and rail facility. The City of Saxman
is managed by a city administrator.
A borough assembly of seven
members is elected to oversee the
government, serving staggered
three-year terms; the mayor is
elected separately to a three-year
term and votes only to decide
deadlocks. Assembly members and
the mayor, elected areawide, are
limited to two successive terms.
The assembly hires a borough
manager, clerk and attorney.
The City of Saxman incorporated
two miles south of Ketchikan in
1929, when Alaska was a U.S.
Ketchikan Gateway Borough
was chartered in 1963, four years
after statehood, as a second-class
borough with limited powers:
property assessments; tax
collection; education; and animal
control. The borough government
operates the airport; a bus system;
and parks and recreation facilities.
Planning, zoning and community
development are borough roles.
Ketchikan Gateway Borough
School District provides public
education in facilities owned by the
borough. The board of education
has seven members, elected
areawide to three-year terms. Board
members choose a president after
each October election. The board
oversees the superintendent.
PROPERTY TAXES IN KETCHIKAN 2002-2015
Sales tax
Property taxes have been relatively steady in Ketchikan municipalities for years. Figures below
reflect Ketchikan property owners’ ad valorem payments to two governments: the areawide
government (Ketchikan Gateway Borough) and the City of Ketchikan within the borough.
City of Ketchikan
Borough
Total in-city
PROPERTY TAX
Mill rate 2015 Mill rate 2010
Mill rate 2007 Mill rate 2002
City of Ketchikan
6.7
6.10
6.40
5.35
Ketchikan Gateway Borough
5.0
5.80
7.20
7.85
11.7
11.90
13.60
13.20
Total mill levy for in-city property
An additional property tax of 0.7 mills is levied non-areawide—outside the cities of Ketchikan and Saxman—for a borough
contribution to operation of Ketchikan Public Library.
8 Our Town
4.0%
2.5%
6.5%
Sales tax is paid on only the first $1,000
of any single item purchased within
Ketchikan Gateway Borough—the singleunit tax exemption.
Bed tax
City of Ketchikan
7.0%
Rural borough, Saxman 4.0%
GREGG POPPEN
After nearly half a century in a building shared with the city’s museum, the community’s library moved into a capacious hillside home.
City opens a new chapter in a dazzling facility
Ketchikan Public Library moved into
a new building in 2013, nearly doubling
the space it had occupied for decades
in a shared building downtown.
The library sits above Bear Valley with
an encompassing view of the range
running north from Deer Mountain.
The $12 million facility earned honors
for its architecture and design—
but most welcome to the City of
Ketchikan were commendations from a
community tired of the library’s being
crammed with a museum into a tight
creekside building since 1967. About
half of funding came from a local bond
issue, the other half from a legislative
appropriation.
The new building wraps the book
collection and other media into a
16,726-square-foot, high-ceilinged
building paneled entirely in wood.
Library staff have nearly twice as much
space for materials and programs as
they had in the Centennial Building
downtown—where the library rubbed
shoulders with the city’s Tongass
Historical Museum. The new facility
has a teen-interest room, a meeting
room with a mountain vista and an
enclosed Alaskana collection. Lighted
bookshelves and media cabinets stand
in roomy ranks beyond the check-out
area. A gas-fueled fireplace flanked
by comfortable reading chairs and tall
window walls is the centerpiece on
the north side. A cozy children’s library
opens out behind a glass wall.
The exterior is clad in gray slate and
A remarkable bequest from a library
lover contributed to the capital fund.
Marjorie Anne Voss of Ketchikan willed
property and possessions worth more
than $500,000 to the capital campaign
seven years before the library opened.
The new library earned an honor
award from the American Institute of
Architects. The Alaska chapter of AIA
conferred its people’s choice award for
A community living room, as opposed to a drive-up restaurant where patrons rushed in and out
wood. A biomass wood pellet boiler
heats the building.
A member of the staff likened the
new digs to “a community living
room”—as opposed to the constrained
confines of the prior facility, where
patrons rushed in and out, “drive-up
restaurant” style.
An array of art by Ketchikan artists
enhances the new library. The
Ketchikan City Council laid out $68,000
for projects wrought in sculpture,
Native carving, fiber and sheet steel.
the facility as being “most Alaskan.”
The library was cited in the American
Libraries library design showcase. And
it was one of three buildings in the
world singled out in the 2014 American
Library Association/International
Interior Design Association awards
for interior design. The new Ketchikan
Public Library was designed by
Bettisworth Welsh Whiteley LLC,
a partnership of Ketchikan and
Anchorage architects; library design
specialists at Perkins Will consulted on
the project.
Village manages infrastructure and culture
The City of Saxman is a unique municipality,
with responsibilities from providing water to
cultivating Northwest Coast Native artistry.
Founded in the late 1890s by Tlingit Indians
who resettled from remote villages, Saxman is
home to about 420 people. Its 1898 schoolhouse
is the area’s oldest active building. Saxman’s
most familiar features are the Totem Park and
Beaver Clan House, visited by more than 110,000
tourists each year. The city promotes Alaska
Native culture at the Edwin Dewitt Carving
Center, where artists work and demonstrate.
Saxman is expanding the center with $825,000
from the city, state and borough CPV revenue.
9 Our Town
Saxman has a marine/rail/road seaport
with a 160,000-pound transfer bridge and
30,000-square-foot warehouse. Saxman
Community Center includes a theatre, a gym,
meeting space, a kitchen and some city offices.
The city operates a water distribution system
and a sewer collection system. Public works
staff take care of Saxman’s roads. Firefighting
is handled through a contract with a rural fire
department.
A village public safety officer is funded by the
regional Tlingit and Haida Central Council and is
supervised by city staff and state troopers.
hall anderson
GREGG POPPEN
The library’s entrance brings patrons to a compelling view of our city’s mountain backdrop.
Donald Varnell is one the artists
who work and demonstrate in the
Saxman carving shed. The facility
will double in size in a new project,
aiding both carvers and Saxman’s
110,000 annual visitors.
The new fire department station downtown is HQ for a department with a recently upgraded insurance rating.
C
ity firefighters’ $12 million station house on
Bawden Street in the heart of downtown was
dedicated in mid-2012. Two years later, KFD got notice
from the leading insurance rating agency that a firereadiness upgrade put them on an elite pedestal. Class
2/2Y designation by the Insurance Service Office (ISO)
has significant benefits for business and industry in
holding down insurance costs; smaller benefits spin off
for homeowners. KFD called the Class 2/2Y rating “a
tremendous tool for
future development.”
KFD reported that
fewer than 750 of
47,000 fire departments
nationwide—and only
two others in Alaska—
have earned that Class
2 rating.
KFD has 19 career
staff, including four
paramedics. About
two dozen volunteer
firefighters and EMTs
supplement full-time
personnel.
Firefighting capabilities on the waterfront are enhanced
by a 45-foot fire boat, the MV Harry Newell. KFD also
has an emergency dive team, shared with city police.
City police protect and serve
Ketchikan Police Department handles law enforcement
inside the City of Ketchikan. KPD has 23 full-time
officers and 36 employees overall.
The department is focused on its relationship with
the community,
providing programs
such as a school
resource officer,
Citizens Academy,
Halloween safety for
students and bike
safety, including a
bike rodeo and helmet
give-away.
The department staffs two stations. The new station
downtown was funded with a city bond issue and a
state appropriation. Mutual aid agreements are in force
with the North Tongass and South Tongass volunteer
fire departments and with the Ketchikan International
Airport fire department.
KFD boosted its baseline as an “all-hazards fire
department” in 2015 with a new engine, new ambulance
and new command vehicle. KFD has provided advanced
life support ambulance service since the early 1980s.
10 Our Town
gregg poppen
Everyday community
involvement is
important: members
of the department
volunteer as coaches
Ketchikan police officers protect and serve from a station house at Main and Grant streets.
and referees for youth
and high school
The department
sports and are leaders in activities such as Boy Scouts
supports personnel not only as trainees, but as trainers,
and church youth groups.
too: nearly 20 are certified to teach firefighting and EMS;
five are involved in distance delivery.
State troopers handle rural enforcement
Ketchikan is “A” Detachment headquarters for Alaska
State Troopers in Southeast Alaska, overseeing four
posts. AST assigns eight commissioned troopers to
Ketchikan Post. AST provides law enforcement outside
the City of Ketchikan and assists KPD as requested.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers post four commissioned
officers to Ketchikan. Their fleet of equipment consists of
trucks, SUVs, patrol cars and boats, including the 68-foot
patrol vessel Enforcer.
gregg poppen
Ketchikan Fire Department
moved into a new home
and, soon after that, celebrated
an upgrade in status among the
top-rated squads in the nation.
photos f.b.i. VIA Ketchikan Museums
Ketchikan Museums
Volunteer firefighters posed in 1905 with their human-pulled hose carts.
Fired up Volunteers have
always been ready for battle
K
etchikan was made of fuel. The volunteer fire
department was one of the first civic organizations
in a town built out of combustibles: wood buildings,
wood pilings, plank streets and sidewalks. Into this
tinderland, introduce wood and coal stoves, oil lamps
and a sawmill tepee burner downtown. You’d want
crackerjack firefighters —and Ketchikan had them.
Ketchikan Museums
Ketchikan Fire Department volunteers in 1900 boasted
the most basic of equipment: all a member needed was
a bucket for the bucket brigade. Capabilities increased
soon after with the purchase of hose carts. About
1904, a fire hall was put up on Main Street—with a 50foot tower where hoses of that length could be dried
after use. As the city expanded, KFD strung wire for
a primitive fire-alarm system that rang at the station.
Devoted
volunteers ran
from every
point of the
compass to
fight their
nemesis.
By the 1920s,
KFD was buying
modern rolling
stock. One of
the engines
Unwelcome event—The Marine Hotel fire at Front
from that time and Mission, beside the welcome arch, was arson.
is displayed
in a windowed annex at the new station downtown:
“Grandma” still gets out for the Fourth of July parade.
A concrete fire station was built on Main Street in
the 1940s and was in use until 2012. Conflagrations
of many kinds challenged local volunteers from the
1950s on: among them, a series of arsons downtown
(see sidebar at right); the blaze that took out New
England Fish Co. (where the Berth 2 parking lot is now);
a fire at an oil-distributor; and innumerable ordinary
house fires and commercial blazes. But volunteers’
commitment and systematic training proved adequate:
even as late as the 1960s, fewer than a handful of paid
professionals were on KFD’s personnel roster.
The balance tipped over to paid staff through the
1970s. The city built Station No. 2 in the West End
in the middle of that decade and, until the new
downtown station opened, parked Grandma behind a
phalanx of contemporary fire engines.
In the present day, KFD remains a home for volunteers:
about two dozen of them augment the full-time staff.
11 Our Town
Fire Lt. Bill Mitchell’s outfit in his final crime spree disguised his return to town—and to arson.
V.F.D. OFFICER IGNITED DISASTROUS BLAZES
Between 1956 and 1961, fires destroyed much of downtown
Ketchikan—including a hotel, a movie theater, restaurants,
stores and apartments. In a single fire in 1958, an entire block
on the water side of Front Street fell to the flames and was
never rebuilt.
Arson was to blame in many of the blazes and early suspicion
settled on Bill Mitchell. Aside from some circumstantial
details, he was an unlikely suspect. Mitchell was a solid citizen:
lieutenant in the volunteer fire department, married, manager
of his parents’ Ben Franklin store and president of the Jaycees.
But all the same … fellow firefighters wondered why Mitchell
was so often the first man to arrive at
fire scenes. Local and state authorities
set up polygraphs for fire department
personnel. But using one pretext
or another, Mitchell avoided his
appointment with the lie detector. The
D.A. got an indictment of Mitchell anyway, based on physical
evidence found at fire scenes and circumstantial features of
Mitchell’s whereabouts during and after fires.
Mitchell lit out, so to speak. He went to California in the
spring of 1961 to stay with family. His firefighting colleagues
noticed that Ketchikan was fire-free during his absence.
Then all heck broke loose during Fourth of July celebrations in
1961. Fires struck three downtown buildings within 90 minutes.
Afterward, a local pilot reported having flown a man dressed in
drag to the airport on Annette Island, where flights departed
for Seattle; the pilot had seen a wanted poster for a forger
who disguised himself in women’s clothing. FBI agents met the
cross-dresser in Seattle, but he wasn’t their man: he was Bill
Mitchell of Ketchikan—and was released.
Back home, fire investigators discovered that candles in Ben
Franklin-style glass holders, ringed by rag and paper, had
been used to ignite the Fourth of July fires. Then they learned
from the FBI that Bill Mitchell had been in Ketchikan on that
disastrous day. Mitchell was hauled back. He confessed to a
number of arson fires and served a prison term.
Fortunately, no one was hurt in the firebug’s six-year spree,
which recast the face of downtown.
RHONDA BOLLING
We may be a quaint old Alaskan town by the sea, but we’re up to date where it counts. Big investments in hydropower generation, power transmission and fiberoptic
communications ensure that we tap into modern technology.
Mountain heights shed snow and rain for hydropower
or domestic water. Ocean depths cradle fiberoptic
cables that connect us to the world. Public and private
systems offer contemporary conveniences.
Hydro keeps power rates steady
E
tapped by New England Fish Co.
in 1912 as a power source for its
processing plant in town.
KPU operates three other hydro
plants that collectively spin out
about 12 megawatts of electricity.
Bailey Power Plant in the West End uses diesel engines
and can develop more than 20 megawatts, but KPU tries
to minimize their use: hydro is almost always cheaper.
Ketchikan is heaven-sent. Affordable
kilowatt-hours are generated by hydropower
turbines across our region, spinning below high
Demand on the system hit a record 30 megawatts one
mountain lakes that catch snowmelt and rainfall.
February, when winter heating use combined with the
Municipally owned Ketchikan Public Utilities (KPU)
shipyard, the aquatic center and other large users to set a
provides electricity through its distribution system to
record—and to challenge KPU’s total in-house capacity.
residents and businesses on several islands. Some of
Since the 1980s, Swan Lake hydro has been the
that juice comes from KPU’s own hydro plants and a
answer for increasing power demand.
diesel-fired generator; the municipal
The 25-megawatt facility northeast of
utility also buys low-cost electricity
Ketchikan is wired into KPU’s system.
from Southeast Alaska Power
SEAPA owns Swan Lake hydro, along
Agency (SEAPA), which operates two
per kilowatt hour (cents)
with the Tyee Lake plant that serves
hydroelectric projects in the region.
Petersburg and Wrangell. SEAPA sells
Residential
9.58
KPU electric rates are steady.
electricity at a wholesale rate of 6.8 cents
Commercial
8.97
Residential customers paid 9.58 cents
per kilowatt hour to municipal utilities in
Industrial
8.31
per kilowatt hour for power in 2015, the
the three communities.
rates as of 2015
same price as in 2010. Industrial users
SEAPA’s two plants were linked in 2009
with high-voltage service paid 8.31 per
by the Swan-Tyee Intertie—57 miles of
kWh in 2015, commercial users 8.97 cents.
high-voltage line spanning mountains and inter-island
KPU works hard to stay ahead of power demand.
ocean depths. The intertie permits SEAPA to send
The utility brought a new hydro plant online in 2014;
excess Tyee Lake power as needed to Ketchikan, where
Whitman Lake hydro added 4.5 megawatts to KPU’s
demand is greater than in Wrangell and Petersburg.
generating capacity and engineers estimated that it
But SEAPA’s forecasts of winter demand indicate that
could replace 1 million gallons per year of dieselthe power supplier needs more water for cold-season
generated power in the KPU system. Local bonding and
generating capability. SEAPA secured funding to
state appropriations funded the new facility. Like some
increase maximum Swan Lake reservoir height by 15
other hydro infrastructure in Ketchikan, Whitman Lake
feet, boosting storage by 25 percent. SEAPA will
has a remarkable heritage: The lake was dammed and
lectricity in
KPU electricity
12 Our Town
install a flash board and gate in a 100 foot-wide fixed
spillway slot. The modification will displace up to
800,000 gallons per year of diesel generation.
SEAPA is nominally a division of the state, with a
board of directors comprised of representatives from
Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Wrangell.
Internet and home entertainment services are vigorously
competitive, built on the foundation of fiberoptic
undersea cable linking Ketchikan to the Lower 48.
Alaska-based GCI brought fiberoptics to shore here in
2009 and carries Internet and TV via its cable network;
cable modem service speeds range up to 250 mbps. KPU
delivers the Web and entertainment via an expanding
fiber-to-the-home grid and also via DSL.
Both providers run high-definition TV and on-demand
content. The municipally owned entertainment provider
has the distinction of a local-TV effort. KPU TV boasts
14 local channels, with content from community events
and sports to locally produced TV shows. (See the
“Media” pages for more on local programming.)
Cellular telephone service is available from GCI, AT&T
and ACS. Our mountainous terrain cuts out mobile
sEAPA
We’re up to date in wired and wireless
The regional power provider used heavy-lift choppers and daring contractors to conquer
terrain for the intertie that links Southeast Alaskan hydro projects nearly 60 miles apart.
growing economy. GCI provides state-of-the-art cloud
data storage services for businesses that want in-state
data storage.
Lake water slakes local thirst
The KPU water division pipes fresh, safe water to about
3,250 customers, 15 percent of them businesses. The
source is Ketchikan Lakes above the city. KPU maintains
the safety of potable water with a newly installed UV
and chloramination system along the creek. Water usage
is unmetered; household service is $48 per month.
KPU brought a new hydro plant online in 2014, adding 4.5 megawatts to generating capacity. It could replace 1 million gallons per year of diesel-generated power in the system.
service in some areas. In 2014, KPU built a 4G LTE
wireless network in conjunction with Verizon’s Rural to
America program. GCI initiated 4G LTE service in 2015.
Both GCI and KPU offer business solutions to local
companies. KPU’s hosted IP phone systems are
considered state of the art technology. In 2014, KPU
built a secure, hosted data center for storage in a
13 Our Town
The city water division provides more than 7 million
gallons a day in summertime, when fish processors
and cruise ships increase demand. Wintertime water
use falls back to about 4.5 million gallons a day.
Outside the cities of Ketchikan and Saxman, people
hook up to neighborhood water systems or catch
rainfall from their roofs.
gregg poppen
city of ketchikan
Ketchikan has a mountaintop facility that proves
its versatility by hosting statewide conventions,
our renowned annual runway wearable-art show,
a summertime musical melodrama and crab feast,
federal safety conferences, concerts, weddings
and dances—plus the occasional standing-roomonly gubernatorial debate.
Ted Ferry Civic Center’s award-winning design incorporates a
4,300-square foot central room that can seat several hundred
people. An oak dance floor is set down when TFCC users
want to cut a rug—but without treading the carpet.
Smaller, private meeting areas can be created with soundinsulating partitions. With quiet ease, the ballroom becomes
three distinct bays with individual sound systems and lighting
controls. (Naturally, these three bays are named for three
bays in the ocean around Ketchikan.)
The historical museum preserves
and displays authentic First City stories
Tongass Historical Museum has the mission of making
sure the First City lasts—by collecting, preserving and
interpreting the heritage of a place like no place else.
The museum in the Centennial Building on Dock Street
features permanent and temporary exhibits taken from its
own collection. The professional staff also organizes and
curates exhibits that call on the community to participate—
such as the 2015 exhibit “Grown on the Rock,” comprised
of artifacts, photos and text related to this area’s intrepid
truck farmers, dairymen and gardeners. The museum
is also occasionally the host for traveling exhibitions of
photography or artifacts from other institutions. Public
programs, special events, workshops, and educational
programs that relate to Ketchikan area history are offered
throughout the year.
Early-days Ketchikan and Native villages in this area were
14 Our Town
The civic center offers a spacious, 1,500-square
foot stage for performances and presentations.
An 800-square foot kitchen is available for
on-site food preparation. Outside caterers also
serve the center.
An executive boardroom and spacious lobby
contribute to the comfort and convenience of
this much-used community facility.
The civic center has the essentials for
conferences, including AV equipment, copiers,
high-speed Internet, teleconferencing equipment, computers
and LCD projectors.
The facility is owned and staffed by the City of Ketchikan.
Ketchikan Visitors Bureau markets the facility as part of its
promotional program for the community.
Ted Ferry Civic Center is on Venetia Way off of Park Avenue
and boasts a dramatic view of Deer Mountain. It’s adjacent to
Cape Fox Lodge, which is accessible via its own funicular tram
from Creek Street.
vitally documented
by photographers
from the 1890s on,
and priceless images
from the period
are registered and
carefully stored. The
museum’s extensive
historical archive
and photographs
are available for
Tongass Historical Museum beside the creek is a
research upon
repository for the narrative of the First City.
request.
Rare artifacts in the museum’s permanent exhibit display
Ketchikan’s many guises: a Native fish camp; a way station
for the Interior gold rush and a hub for this region’s
mining boom; a canned-salmon colossus and halibut hot
spot; a timber town; and the home of a notorious red-light
district that persisted until the 1950s.
Museum staff are reconfiguring the Centennial Building
since the public library moved to a new facility in 2012.
Having the building to themselves allows greater
opportunity to collect and display Ketchikan’s heritage.
city of ketchikan
MEETING THE NEEDS OF THOSE WHO NEED TO MEET
ketchikan gateway borough
Borough bus system extends routes, relieves congestion
Ketchikan’s public bus system upgraded its rolling stock,
its streetside amenities and its service routes in recent
years while counting steady increases in ridership.
A blend of fares, federal support, the commercial
passenger vessel levy (CPV) and municipal funding fuels
the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Transit Department.
In a nearly $2 million system, managers work with eyes
on residents’ need for convenient, affordable rides
and everybody’s desire that we minimize summertime
congestion.
KGB counted an average of 1,270 rides per day in a recent
reporting year—nearly 460,000 for the year. Ridership
nearly quadrupled between 2006 and 2013.
A ride is just a dollar. Borough buses run about 14
miles north and 6 miles south of town, along with their
extensive reach inside the city. KGB transit has built bus
shelters with cedar from our forest that was milled here;
some shelters have metal art by local artists. Buses bear
paintings by Ray Troll and Marvin Oliver, artists with
national renown.
Like virtually all public transit systems, Ketchikan’s can’t
pay for itself with fares alone—particularly while offering
That’s how we roll. The bus system operates to serve riders, but also to express the
place where it operates. Visual art by famed artists, and shelters made out of cedar
grown and milled here, are unique features. This bus was painted by Ray Troll.
a free downtown loop shuttle for visitors from May to
September. CPV funding contributes to the shuttle that
helps to disperse visitors from the docks.
A consultant who studied Alaska’s public transit
operations judged the borough’s bus system the second
most efficient in the state, dividing municipal subsidies
into fares per hour of operation. Only Juneau’s bus
system bested Ketchikan in those criteria.
Borough transit is adding convenience features with
help from the Alaska Mobility Coalition: vehicle tracking
to allow users to get real-time schedule and buslocation information by phone. Google Trip planning for
smartphones and other digital devices was slated to roll
out in 2015.
Areawide responsibilities of
Public Works include City
Park and several pocket
parks around town, but also
take in seaside recreational
areas at South Point Higgins
Beach and Rotary Beach.
Floral beautification sprouts
in Public Works greenhouses
each spring and spills out of
a hundred colorful flower
baskets hanging on city light
poles. The department lavishes
horticultural attention on
Tunnel Park, Whale Park and
other sites.
Borough personnel also maintain fields where
we enjoy baseball, softball, soccer and football—five
fields in all, spanning more than 20 miles of our island.
15 Our Town
City Park along Ketchikan Creek is one of many public recreational areas maintained by the borough. Borough personnel also treat us to summer flowers and keep our ballfields in shape. gregg poppen
The Public Works Department
of the borough tends to our
outdoors in scales as large as
ballfields and as small as flower
baskets.
While enjoying that escape to Alaska on a cruise ship, the visitor is investing in this city and others.
T
he commercial passenger vessel
excise tax, or CPV, provides resources
to make Ketchikan and other port
communities better places to visit.
The CPV was initiated in Alaska law in 2008.
Revenue contributes to shoreside projects
and programs related to the cruise-based
visitor industry. The state collects the CPV
tax and allocates portions to municipal
governments.
Cruise lines pay $34.50 per passenger
to the CPV account; the state passes on
funding to municipalities affected by the
huge numbers of these seasonal visitors.
If they come, we will build it—docks, boardwalks, shelters, safety programs and more.
In recent years, CPV money contributed to
upgrading of cruise ship berths. The city is
using so-called head tax revenues to finish the
waterfront promenade that runs more than a
mile between Berth 4 and Thomas Basin along
Ketchikan’s historic downtown core.
gregg poppen
The City of Ketchikan and Ketchikan Gateway
Borough split $5 per head. The municipalities
divided about $4.4 million in 2014.
Several new sections of Ketchikan’s waterfront boardwalk have moved forward with funding help from
the commercial passenger vessel tax. This promenade beside Thomas Basin is a signature addition. The
boardwalk project, championed for many years by Historic Ketchikan Inc., exemplifies use of CPV funding
to create benefits for visitors and residents alike.
CPV money supported the Ketchikan Story
Project—six videos outlining aspects of
Ketchikan’s unique history and lifestyles­. The
series, on DVD and online, and associated
kiosks won regional Emmys and national Telly
awards.
16 Our Town
The City of Ketchikan augmented other funding sources with CPV money as it
upgraded the berths where visiting cruise ships tie up five months of the year.
gregg poppen
The borough invites project proposals each
year and the borough assembly allocates
funding. CPV money has gone into downtown
rain shelters and restrooms as well as the
bus system. The fund pays for traffic safety
monitoring at Herring Cove, a popular site for
wildlife-viewing tours and shore fishing 8 miles
south of the city. CPV funding helped the City
of Saxman nearly double its carving center,
where master carvers and apprentices work.
Southern Southeast Alaska is in a region that specialists call temperate
rain forest—”temperate” because we’re protected from extremes of
hot and cold; “rain” because vast, moist climatic systems of the North
Pacific Ocean drop prodigious precipitation; and “forest” because the
mild clime and abundant rain promote amazing green growth.
charles haberbush
We handle it with waterproof, breathable fabrics; rubber boots; and the
certainty that into each life some sun must fall. We hunker down in
winter and wait for that clear day when everything sparkles and we
appreciate that most of our trees are evergreens: there’s living color
year-round. When it’s really cold for a while, we skate at Ward Lake
and go to the mountains on skis or snowmachines.
The run-up to summer is all color and anticipation. Crocuses pop up
Weather wasn’t half-bad for this half-marathon: just a light rain.
We don’t let a little drizzle keep us from healthy activities.
in February, sometimes through snow. In April, daffodils open and
hummingbirds return. Kids get out for baseball. Fishing boats get
a going-over, then get going for king salmon. By June, coolers and
beach chairs are always at hand for spontaneous picnics. In
July, we see fireworks and our best odds for sun: 16 days of
31 are dry, on average.
Long summer days slide into autumn. We put up coho
AVERAGE DAYLIGHT HOURS:MINUTES
salmon for winter, harvest the garden and get the kids 9:12 10:51 12:46 14:38 16:19 17:49 16:20 14:31 11:50 10:19 8:42 7:46
new rain boots.
weather record
January average temp 34.9 º F
July average temp 57.7 º F
Average annual rainfall 1980-2010 141.3 inches
Avg. number of days with rain 234 days
Longest stretch without rain 23 days starting July 9, 1971
Wettest year 1949: 202 inches
Driest year 1982: 87 inches
Wettest monthNov. 1917: 53.85 inches
Driest month Feb. 1989: 0.82 inches
Greatest 24-hour precipitation Oct. 11, 1977: 8.71 inches
Average winter snowfall 37.3 inches
40
41
31
30
44
32
AVERAGE HIGH TEMPERATURE °F
49
56
61
64
64
58
AVERAGE LOW TEMPERATURE °F
35
41
47
51
52
47
51
43
40
40
34
31
AVERAGE MONTHLY PRECIPITATION INCHES
15.4 10.5 10.9
9.3
8.1
6.6
6.5
9.8
13.7
19.2 16.6 14.2
putting the boot to a record
The 1,976 residents and visitors who trod Third
Avenue Bypass in May 2013 surpassed the record of
1,366 established by Lincolnshire, England.
It was Ketchikan’s second attempt: an effort a year
earlier brought out fewer than 1,200 rainboot racers. The organizers rallied our
boot troop again and a rain-free day brought out what may have been the largestever crowd to assemble in Ketchikan.
17 Our Town
charles haberbush
Nearly 2,000 Ketchikan souls (3,952 soles, to be precise)
turned out in May 2013 to claim the Guinness World
Record for most people to race in rainboots—or
wellingtons, as the former British titleholders call
them. (The favorite waterproof boots in these parts
are Xtratufs—so-called “Ketchikan sneakers.” See a
pair on the exultant lady at right.)
OF THE
GREAT LAND
The archaeological record of human habitation
in Alaska goes back more than 10,000 years. The written record—told in Russian,
Spanish and English—is considerably briefer, at less than three centuries. Here are some
prominent points on the timeline since Europeans encountered the Great Land.
1725 Russian Tsar
Peter the Great sends
Vitus Bering to explore
the North Pacific.
1728 Bering sails
through the strait
between North America
and Asia that now bears
his name.
1733 Bering’s second
A hand-drawn map of the 1700s.
expedition; with him is
George Wilhelm Steller,
first naturalist to visit Alaska.
1774 Spaniard Juan Perez discovers Prince of Wales Island and Dixon
Entrance—the strait linking our area to the open Pacific Ocean.
1776 English explorer Capt. James Cook leads an expedition in search of the
Northwest Passage.
1778 Cook reaches King Island, Norton Sound, Unalaska.
1784 Grigorii Shelikhov establishes the first permanent non-Native settlement:
Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island.
1791 George Vancouver leaves England to explore Alaska’s coast. Alejandro
Malaspina explores the Pacific Northwest for Spain.
1793 Vancouver’s crew makes land near Ketchikan.
1795 Alaska’s first Russian Orthodox Church is established at Kodiak.
1853 Russian explorer-trappers find oil seeps in Cook Inlet.
1861 Gold discovered on the Stikine River near Telegraph
Creek in British Columbia.
1867 U.S. purchases Alaska from Russia for $7 million.
1868 Alaska designated as the Department of Alaska under
authority of the U.S. Army.
1869 Alaska’s first newspaper, the Sitka Times, published.
1872 Gold is discovered near Sitka.
1876 Gold is discovered south of Juneau.
T.R. designated the
forest in Southeast.
1877 U.S. troops withdrawn from Alaska.
1878 First canneries in Alaska are established in Klawock and in Sitka.
1880 Richard Harris and Joseph Juneau discover gold on Gastineau Channel and
establish the community of Juneau.
1882 U.S. Navy bombs and burns the Tlingit village of Angoon.
1884 Congress passes the Organic Act allowing for local governments and
allocating funds to school Alaska Native children.
1887 Presbyterian Father William Duncan and his Tsimshian followers from B.C.
establish Metlakatla on Annette Island.
1890 Large
corporate salmon
canneries appear.
1891 Oil claims
staked in Cook Inlet.
1897-1900 Klondike
gold rush.
1897 First shipment
of fresh halibut sent
south from Juneau.
1898 Nome gold
Undersea cable provided the first fast link to the south.
rush. Congress
appropriates money
for telegraph cable from Seattle to Sitka.
1900 City of Ketchikan is incorporated. Alaska capital moves to Juneau. White
Pass railroad completed.
1902 President Teddy Roosevelt establishes Alexander Archipelago Forest
Reserve in southern Southeast Alaska.
1904 Underwater cables are laid from Seattle to Sitka and from Sitka to Valdez.
Rough-hewn Ketchikan in 1895, five years before the city’s incorporation.
1906 Alaska sends a non-voting delegate to Congress. Governor’s office moved
from Sitka to Juneau.
1799 Alexander Baranov establishes a Russian post known today as Old Sitka.
1802 Tlingits drive Russians from Old Sitka.
1907 Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve and other U.S. lands are
consolidated as Tongass National Forest by President Teddy Roosevelt.
1804 Baranov re-establishes a Russian settlement at site of present-day Sitka.
1908 Alaska’s first cold storage plant is built in Ketchikan.
1848 Cathedral of St. Michael dedicated at New Archangel (Sitka).
1911 International agreement by U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Russia, and Japan
controls fur, seal, and fish harvests; sea otters completely protected.
18 Our Town
1912 Alaska gains territorial status.
Alaska Native Brotherhood organizes in
Southeast.
1913 First Territorial Legislature.
1915 Alaska Native Sisterhood has first
convention.
1916 First bill for Alaska statehood
President Harding visited the First
introduced in Congress. Alaskans vote
City during his tour of Alaska in 1923.
in favor of banning liquor by a 2 to 1
margin: the “dry-state law” three years before national Prohibition.
1973 Ketchikan
International Airport
opens on Gravina
Island. Congress passes
Trans-Alaska Pipeline
Authorization Act.
Limited-entry program
for salmon fisheries
becomes law.
1922 Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines opens in Fairbanks.
Native voting rights established in federal court.
1976 Alaskans
approve constitutional
amendment for Alaska
Permanent Fund. 
1923 President Warren G. Harding comes to Alaska to drive the last spike in
the Alaska Railroad. We honored the president’s visit by naming Warren, G and
Harding streets in Newtown.
1977 Trans-Alaska
Pipeline completed,
Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.
1924 Congress extends citizenship to all Indians in the U.S. Tlingit leader
William Paul Sr. is first Native elected to Alaska Legislature. Airmail delivery to
Alaska begins.
1928 Court case resolves the right of Native children to attend public school.
1980 Congress passes Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act.
Legislature increases Permanent Fund’s share of oil revenues from 25 to 50
percent and establishes Alaska dividend fund to distribute Permanent Fund
earnings. Legislature repeals state income tax.
1932 Radiotelephone communications open in Ketchikan, Juneau and Nome.
1982 First Permanent Fund dividends distributed.
1935 Jurisdictional Act allows Tlingit and Haida Alaska Natives to pursue land
claims in U.S. Court of Claims.
1983 All of Alaska except the westernmost Aleutian Islands is consolidated in
Alaska time zone; previously, Alaska spanned four time zones.
1942 Japan bombs Dutch Harbor and invades the Aleutians.
1986 Price of oil drops below $10 per barrel, state revenues plummet.
1945 Territorial Gov. Ernest Gruening signs the Anti-Discrimination Act, the first
such legislation passed in the U.S. or any of its possessions.
1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs aground and spills 11 million gallons of oil
into Prince William Sound. Permanent Fund reaches $10 billion value. Alaska
Supreme Court throws out Alaska’s rural preference subsistence law.
1946 Boarding school for Native students opens at Mt. Edgecumbe in Sitka.
1947 First Alaska Native land claims suit filed by Tlingit and Haida people
introduced in U.S. Court of Claims.
1948 Alaskans vote by a 10 to 1 margin to abolish fish traps.
1953 The first big
Alaskan pulp mill opens
at Ward Cove north
of Ketchikan. Oil well
near Eureka on Glenn
Highway opens Alaska’s
modern oil history.
First Alaska television
broadcast at KENIAnchorage.
1955 Alaska
Constitutional
Convention opens.
TV coverage of statehood celebration showed
Alaskans hanging a 49th star on Old Glory.
1990 Tongass Timber Reform Act in Congress sets aside more Southeast
Alaska forest in wilderness.
1991 Congress closes Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development.
1993 Sitka pulp mill announces indefinite suspension, idling hundreds.
1994 Voters defeat latest proposal to move the capital to Southcentral.
1996 Congress lifts ban on export of Alaskan crude oil.
1997 Ketchikan Pulp Co. shuts down, throwing hundreds out of work and
effectively ending 45 years of large-scale timber harvesting and processing
in Southeast. Fishermen in Prince Rupert, B.C., blockade an Alaska ferry to
protest Alaska salmon-fishing practices; ferry service is cut off for 19 weeks.
1999 A proposal to spend Permanent Fund earnings on state government is
rejected by 83 percent of voters.
2002 Alaskan voters reject, by 67 percent to 33 percent, a proposal to fund
moving the Legislature to Southcentral.
Fish traps depleted natural salmon stocks until outlawed
in 1959. They disappeared at statehood.
1956 Territorial voters
adopt the Constitution.
Two senators and one representative are sent to Washington to push for
statehood.
1958 Statehood measure passes. President Eisenhower signs statehood bill.
1959 Statehood proclaimed. Sitka pulp mill opens. U.S. Court of Claims issues
judgment favoring Tlingit and Haida claims to Southeast Alaska lands.
2005 The U.S. transportation bill has a $223 million earmark for a bridge
from Revilla Island to Gravina Island in Ketchikan—a hard link sought since
1973, but derided nationally by some as the “Bridge to Nowhere.”
2007 Gov. Sarah Palin diverts funding from the proposed bridge to other
Alaska projects and orders study of improved ferry service.
2009 Alaska’s population is 698,473—47th among the states and greater
than populations in North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.
2009 Gov. Palin resigns office on July 29.
1963 Ketchikan Gateway Borough incorporated.
2010 Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens dies in an airplane crash near Dillingham.
1964 Good Friday earthquake devastates Anchorage and Prince William Sound.
At magnitude 9.2, the most severe earthquake ever in the U.S.
2014 Gov. Sean Parnell signs a contract with Vigor Alaska for $102 million to
construct two state ferries—the first state ferries to be built in Alaska.
1968 Oil discovered at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope. Ted Stevens
appointed to a vacant U.S. Senate seat; he was elected to the seat seven times
and became the GOP’s longest-serving U.S. senator.
2014 Independent candidate Bill Walker defeats incumbent Republican
Sean Parnell in the gubernatorial election after forming a “unity ticket” with
Democratic nominee Byron Mallott, who is elected as lieutenant governor.
1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act signed into U.S. law: Natives get a
tenth of Alaska’s land and $1 billion; village, regional corporations created.
2014 Alaskan voters approve a citizen initiative legalizing limited possession
and use of marijuana as of Feb. 24, 2015. Pot sales are to begin in May 2016.
19 Our Town
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20 Our Town
Ziplines offer opportunities to ride gravity through the rain forest.
■ Go fishing with a local guide; saltwater
trips can be on powerboats or open
kayaks. Half-day charter trips are
available for visitors with tight timelines.
All-day trips also take off from our docks
and multi-day lodge stays in remote areas
provide all-inclusive adventure. Check
online for your options.
■ Take a walking tour of downtown or the
West End to breathe in our town’s past.
Maps are at KVB Tour Center on Berth 2 and
in many businesses. Sponsored by Historic
Ketchikan Inc.
■ Visit the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center
on Main Street for interpretive displays and a
film. One of Alaska’s premier attractions. ■ Totem Bight State Park 10 miles north of
town has great totem poles, a long house and Spring blossoms under the Chief
an extraordinary oceanside setting. Kyan pole—on the walking tour.
■ Visit Misty Fjords National Monument by
boat, floatplane or kayak; it’s grand country
from any angle. ■ Historic Creek Street has been home to
a shingle mill, totem poles, homes and
brothels. It’s now lined with shops and
eateries above the watercourse; Dolly’s House
Museum displays the red-light days. ■ Totem Heritage Center between Deermount
Street and Ketchikan Creek presents Native
culture and historically significant totems in
an interpretive setting. harold adams
■ Saxman village south of Ketchikan offers a
world-class collection of totem poles and a
cedar clan house.
Paddle the Pacific near shore for quiet excitement on our clean, cold waters. Waterproof the camera!
21 Our Town
carl thompson
Take a young person out for shore fishing and exploration of the tiny ecosystems in tide pools.
■ Hike Perseverance Lake or Talbot Lake
trails to see the rain forest. Ward Creek Trail
curves along a scenic stream and is an
easy walk. Deer Mountain Trail is a 2,500foot challenge with superb vistas. Rainbird
Trail above Third Avenue Bypass has intown access and great vistas.
■ Thomas Basin harbor is home to working
and pleasure boats. Walk down from the
Potlatch Bar to stroll the floats or amble
out the breakwater for a great view of
town and mountain. Performances by Alaska Native
dancers wearing traditional
regalia can be seen on some tours.
■ Take a kayak tour for a close, quiet and
exciting encounter with Alaska. Southeast
Sea Kayaks and Southeast Exposure offer
tours.
■ Our tall conifers have inspired zipline
adventures at Southeast Exposure north of
town and Alaska Canopy Adventures south of town.
Visit Creek Street— historic and truly like no other place. Art, food, souvenirs and a brothel museum mix with residences.
gregg poppen
gregg poppen
ATTRACTIONS | ACTIVITIES
hall anderson
Master carver Nathan
Jackson fine-tunes
the Kaats the Bear Clan Hunter totem
pole as his wife,
Dorica, paints details. The pole was
commissioned by
the Smithsonian
Institution’s National
Museum of the American Indian. Dorica Jackson
is expert in the
traditional Native art
of Chilkat weaving.
A tall cedar tree falls. A story is written as wood chips fly beneath a handmade adze. It’s been that
way for longer than anyone knows.
Northwest Coast Natives—between
a land of plenty and a sea of plenty,
and having no
written
language—
developed a
unique art form
in carved
wood. Totemic
works related
legends,
honored
ancestors and
praised leaders.
Even posts
holding up clan
houses were
Chief Johnson
incised by stone
is depicted in “The Rock.”
to further the
Sculptor Dave Rubin had
carver Nathan Jackson
heritage.
model for the Tlingit chief.
22 Our Town
Totem poles are just the start
A
rt and practicality are linked in Northwest Coast Native
cultures. Creative work is integral to the way of life of
the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian
peoples of Southeast Alaska.
Gorgeous woven cedar bark
baskets were traditionally used to
hold foods and household goods.
Ornamented robes expressed
family backgrounds—a sort of
walking genealogy. The canoes
The art of fishing in an artifact: a halibut
carrying Alaska Natives to trading
hook carved with totemic designs.
sites and fish camps were carved
and painted with mythical and
family emblems. Even halibut hooks bore artistry: carved
figures believed to beguile fish.
Too often lost in fascination with visual
art is the utilitarianism in Northwest
Coast Natives’ decorated objects:
cedar baskets woven tightly enough
for parboiling food, and halibut hooks
sized to catch medium-aged fish, not
young spawners nor old fish.
A woven basket by Delores
Churchill, master Haida weaver
and internationally known
researcher of traditional
weaving.
Totem Heritage Center on Ketchikan
Creek is indispensable for learning
about ancient ways and artistry.
Southeast Alaska Discovery Center
on Mill Street also presents Native
culture. Parnassus Bookstore on
Stedman Street has material on
Northwest Coast Native culture.
Potlatch Totem Park, a private
business at Totem Bight, displays
totem poles and replicas of village
houses.
Arts and dance enliven a legacy
Native artists and dancers in Ketchikan take their
traditions to coming generations, as well as to visitors.
Almost 20 percent of Ketchikan’s population claims Alaska
Native lineage and cultural preservation is important to
identity.
Carvers and weavers take on apprentices and students to
extend the culture. Many more young Natives get involved
through dance groups. Prime examples in this area are
the Haida Descendant Dancers, Tongass Tribe Dancers,
Cape Fox Dancers and New Path Dance Group. Youths
and elders work together on regalia, language and dances,
fashioning cultural links while presenting the art form to
non-Natives.
A local program brings Native elders to elementary schools
to introduce their arts and folkways. Educational projects
through the University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan
campus—such as anthropological visits to abandoned
village sites—double as conservation and outreach.
gregg poppen
Subsistence harvests and traditional foods also help to
keep culture alive. Village corporations and regional
corporations set up in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement
Act in the 1970s boost heritage. Through economic
development (such as Cape Fox Corp.’s lodge, tours and
store) and foundation support (such as Sealaska Heritage
Foundation), corporations project the past forward.
Forward motion—Youngsters in dance groups learn traditional forms as well
as contemporary extensions of cultural legacies. This image looks in on a
rehearsal for a Tsimshian group, the New Path Dancers.
ketchikan museums
totem heritage center
Early photos of Kasaan and other villages are
in the interpretive program at Totem Heritage Center. The center’s mission of
preserving ‘heritage’ has an educational component; artists teach Natives and
non-Natives in areas such as tool-making, carving, weaving and regalia-making.
Preservation of objects from the past was a key mission
when the City of Ketchikan founded Totem Heritage
Center, but the facility has become integral in moving
traditional Native culture forward. The center opened in
1976 to hold 19th-century totem poles retrieved from
uninhabited Tlingit and Haida village sites near Ketchikan.
Functioning as a museum, the center displays these
priceless cultural artifacts and more recent carved poles,
along with Native Alaskan artifacts.
23 Our Town
The Totem Heritage Center also furthers the traditional
arts and crafts of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian
cultures in a nationally recognized program of Native
arts classes and activities. Master carver Nathan Jackson
and master weaver Delores Churchill—both recipients
of National Heritage Fellowships—have taught at the
center, as have many distinguished artists from across
North America.
The center is open to visitors year-round.
World-class totem collections distinguish Ketchikan
P
ublicly accessible collections of Northwest Coast
totem poles in Saxman and at Totem Bight offer
comprehensive looks at an art form known around the
world. Carved cedar artistry in museums and at private
sites also contributes toward making Ketchikan the best
place in the world to explore this unique cultural legacy.
waterside setting, where a clan house fronting on the
cove replicates the traditional communal gathering
place of Native villages. For years, a Native dance group
has performed weekly; check community calendars.
Totem Bight State Historical Park eight miles north
of Ketchikan has an outstanding collection of poles
replicating those raised in Alaska Native villages. An
interpretive brochure and interpretive signage along the
easy forest path provide information on Native culture,
the forest and wildlife. The trail leads to a dramatic
Six modern poles can be seen between Cape Fox Lodge
and the civic center in the commissioned Council
of Clans array. Privately commissioned totem pole
collections can be seen on paid tours at Rainforest
Sanctuary at Herring Cove and at Potlatch Park at
Totem Bight.
Both public totem parks are on borough bus routes.
Totem Heritage Center off of Deermount Street has
Saxman Totem Park has been prominent for most of a
preserved and contemporary totem poles for viewing;
century as a monument to totemic art—and as a training
there is a fee for interpretive tours in this city facility.
ground for several generations of Native carvers.
Chief Johnson Pole along Stedman Street and Chief
Contemporary poles and
those dating back to the New
Deal stand sentinel on Totem
Row, which leads to Beaver
Clan House. Cedar poles
in Saxman are for the most
part painstaking replications
of village poles dating to
the 1800s and early 1900s—
although some express more
modern themes. Native dance
performances and interpretive
programs are conducted in
the clan house. The carving
Saxman Totem Park and Totem Bight State Historical Park stand out as world-leading collections of authentic Native artistry.
shed in Saxman provides a
work site for master carvers and apprentices. The totem
Kyan Pole in Whale Park on Mission Street are notable
park along Saxman streets is open to the public; Cape
public replications, placed by a community that’s proud
Fox Corp.’s paid tours and programs take in the clan
of its First Peoples. Another recent addition to our totem
house and carving shed in addition to guiding visitors
skyline is in front of the downtown facilities of UAS
through the totem park.
Ketchikan campus on Stedman Street.
24 Our Town
CHRONICLES, MYTHS AND STATUS are WRITTEN in cedar
Raven Steals the Sun
Northwest Coast peoples
possess a sophisticated suite of
fine arts and crafts, but their
totem poles are best-known.
This art form predates Western
contact, but flourished in the
prosperity of the fur trade in
the 1700s and 1800s.
Poles were commissioned
by wealthy village leaders
to display their status and
affluence. Some poles tell
of legends, clan lineages or
notable events. Some celebrate
cultural beliefs and others
merely demonstrate carvers’
artistic talents. Poles also
illustrate stories, commemorate
historic persons, represent
shamanic powers or incorporate
ridicule—the so-called shame
poles.
One of the most-told and mostcarved Northwest Coast stories
is that of the Theft of Daylight,
or Raven Steals the Sun.
A fine example stands beside
Tongass Historical
Museum on Dock Street.
25 Our Town
T
he Old Man at the Head of the Nass River was very
rich and owned three boxes containing the stars, the
moon and the sun. Raven wanted these for himself. Raven
transformed himself into a hemlock needle and dropped
into the water cup of the Old Man’s daughter while she
was picking berries. She became pregnant with him and
gave birth to him as a baby boy. The Old Man doted over
his grandson, but Raven cried incessantly. The Old Man
gave him the Box of Stars to pacify him. Raven played with
it for a while, then opened the lid and let the stars escape
through the chimney into the sky.
Later, Raven cried for the Box of the Moon, and after much
fuss the Old Man gave it to him, but after stopping up the
chimney. Raven played with it for a while and rolled it out
the door, where it
escaped into the sky.
Finally Raven cried for
The Old Man gave him
the Box of the Sun, and
the Box of Stars to
after much fuss the
Old Man relented and
pacify him. Raven played
gave it to him. Raven
with it for a while, then
knew well that he
could not roll it out the
opened the lid and let
door or toss it up the
chimney because he
the stars escape through
was carefully watched.
the chimney into the sky.
So he waited until
everyone was asleep
and changed into his
bird form, grasped the sun and flew out the chimney. He
took it to show others, who did not believe that he had the
sun—so he opened the box to show them and it flew up
into the sky, where it has been ever since.
SAXMAN SIBLINGS FOLLOW
FATHER INTO PUBLIC SERVICE
T
he Williams brothers inherited public service along
with their Tlingit blood. Raised in an Alaska Native
village within two miles of the First City, they took
after their father when it came to sitting down, talking it
through and getting things moving.
“My father was the mayor of the City of Saxman for 38
years,” said Joe Williams Jr. The mayor is chosen by fellow
Saxman City Council members. Both Joe Williams and his
older brother, Bill Williams, earned the honor—just one line
on their resumés.
Bill Williams was also chosen by his peers as Saxman city
mayor; he served on the city council from 1976 to 1992 and
was mayor for about eight years. He was also president
of the Cape Fox Corp., the village corporation founded in
Saxman under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
As a young man, Bill Williams was a longshoreman—back
when Ketchikan’s industrial waterfront was as busy with
freighter traffic as with cruise ships. The pulp mill was turning
out dissolving pulp for export to Asia. Two sawmills in the
area were producing rough lumber. Canneries on the wharf
packed salmon all summer. Alaska Steamship Co. freighters
tied up with goods for local stores. “We’d work from 7 or 8 in
the morning until midnight, then go back at 7. You had to get
those ships in and out,” he recalled. “And I was married. We
had children.”
By the early 1990s, he saw a political opportunity on a
larger scene. He considered a run for the Alaska State
House as a Democrat. “The Republicans were fighting
amongst themselves and I decided it was timely for me. But
it was close. I won by just 12 votes,” he said. Service in the
legislature was a challenge, but fun for a while. He was reelected twice to two-year terms and said he had “friends in
both the majority and minority. But then one session, a guy
in the majority told me, If you want us to help you, you need
to come over.” Bill Williams joined a bipartisan caucus in the
House and later changed party registration to Republican. He
was elected to five terms, ending legislative service in 2003.
Joe Williams Jr. ran his own community-wide campaign two
years later, signing up at the last minute to stand for mayor of
the Ketchikan Gateway Borough.
“I finally got talked into running for borough mayor,” he said.
“It turns out I actually enjoyed it.” Joe Williams was the first
Alaska Native elected as mayor of the borough. He lost his
campaign for re-election to a younger Ketchikan-area lifer.
Joe Williams said his father, born in Saxman in 1903, grew up
listening to Cape Fox village elders who remembered their
ancestral village. The Cape Fox people joined Tlingits of other
villages in creating a new community at Saxman in the 1880s.
26 Our Town
gregg poppen
Joe Williams Jr. was president of Alaska Native
Brotherhood Camp 15 at the age of 16 because, he said,
he “was good at keeping people active, building a gym for
the young people, chopping wood for the elders.” After
earning a bachelor’s degree in business at Alaska Pacific
University in Anchorage, he came home. In time, he served
simultaneously as mayor of the City of Saxman and of the
Ketchikan Gateway Borough. He was also president of the
Saxman IRA Council, the tribal governing body organized
under federal law.
Bill Willams, left, and Joe Williams Jr. at the totem park in Saxman. Their family has
been deeply involved in the small town’s development for decades. The brothers
have also achieved electoral success beyond Saxman city limits.
“The leadership at the time wanted their children to go
to school and to go to church,” Joe Williams said. “That
generation agreed to move from the villages.” Presbyterian
ministers and the Office of Indian Affairs influenced Alaska
Natives in this area and in others to “move to town.”
Bill and Joe Williams’ father was a commercial fisherman who
skippered a seine boat. He stayed on the water after giving
up fishing and used his boat for beach logging.
Joe Williams touches on family and tribal history as a
walking-tour guide, taking visitors on an informative stroll
among local sites. He calls the business Where the Eagle
Walks. “It started as a favor to the manager of a sightseeing
boat who wanted an activity ashore for the passengers,” he
said. “She said, do a walking tour. She asked whether I had a
script. I said no. She said, you don’t need one—you’ve been
here forever.”
Saxman is two miles from Ketchikan. A narrow highway
connects the communities. As the mayor in Saxman decades
ago, Joe Williams Sr., with his wife, Elizabeth, advocated for
a safe pedestrian path. “It was his and my mother’s desire to
have a walking path,” said Joe Williams Jr. “That stemmed
from my grandfather’s and grandmother’s walking into town
on that difficult road for so many years.”
Bill Williams fulfilled his parents’ and Saxman residents’ wish
while he was in the Alaska Legislature, securing funding
for a scenic paved seaside path to Saxman. The much-used
blacktop—for much of its length, separated from the
highway—extends five miles south of Ketchikan to Mountain
Point. It’s called the Joseph C. Williams Sr. Coastal Trail,
named for the Williams brothers’ father, but only after Bill
Williams left the House.
“I worked to get the trail built,” Bill Williams said. “But I didn’t
work to get my dad’s name on it.”
STATS | DATES | FIRSTS
Selected features of Ketchikan’s natural history, our unique human history
and our way of life between the rain forest and the ocean
Hours and minutes
of daylight in Ketchikan on the
summer solstice in June. (4:18 a.m.
to 9:46 p.m.)
954,000 Estimated tourists
7:06 Hours and minutes of
became the first Alaskan city to
pave a street, replacing Front
Street planks between Grant and
Mill.
17:28 on cruise ships calling in Ketchikan
in 2014.
1923 Year when Ketchikan
daylight on the winter solstice in
December. (9:24 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.)
20 percent, 1,231 feet Slope and length of
22.04 feet
Greatest predicted
range between
successive tides in
Ketchikan in 2015 (on
April 19: high of 18.55
ft. at 1:32 a.m., low of
-3.49 ft. at 7:50 a.m.)
$28 million, 0.9 mile Making the grade: Thousands of cubic yards of rock were blasted out for Schoenbar Bypass
linking Bear Valley to Water Street. The vista is a wedge of ocean and Gravina Island.
ketchikan museums
Schoenbar Bypass, built in the late
1980s. It’s not our most vertiginous
street: a portion of Washington
Street in the West End
slopes at 24 percent.
Cost and length of Third Avenue
Extension, completed in 2004. The
bypass above Newtown provides
an alternate route from the
West End to Bear Valley and
downtown. Its engineering
centerpiece is a wall 1,000 feet
long and 90 feet high made
of 120,000 tons of compacted
concrete.
J.R. Heckman Founder
$25 Annual fee levied by the Forest Service for lease of an entire Tongass
Forest island for fox farming in 1907. Nine fox farms started up near Ketchikan
area and a number around Prince of Wales Island before World War II. A blue
fox pelt was worth $100-$150 to brokers for Europeans in 1925. But the cost of
starting a fox farm was estimated at $7,300.
of Ketchikan’s first mercantile
store, at Main and Dock
streets. Heckman is also
historically credited as the inventor of the floating
fish trap. His namesake building is still in use.
U.S. Senator Elective office held by John F. Kennedy when he visited here in
the 1950s and spoke in Coliseum Theater.
5,800 visitors called here on excursion steamships in 1898. 954,000 visitors called here on cruise ships in 2013.
4 hours Number to add to local time for Eastern time; add 9 hours for
Greenwhich mean time.
1913 Year when the first concrete building was constructed in Ketchikan:
4,592 feet Elevation of Reid
Mountain, tallest peak on
Revillagigedo Island.
5,800 Number of people who
visited Ketchikan as tourists on
excursion steamships in 1898,
according to U.S. Forest Service
records.
27 Our Town
ketchikan museums
3,001 feet Elevation at the peak
of Deer Mountain (which is only about
6,500 lateral feet from the nearest
shoreline).
This is not cow country, but defiant farmers faced down
difficulties for decades to provide fresh dairy products.
Tongass Trading Co., still standing and
in use at Front and Dock streets.
1959 Year when Ketchikan’s last
milk cow was shipped out, from
Homestead Dairy four miles south of
town. Between 1902 and 1959, half a
dozen commercial dairies produced for
the local market, operating on Revilla,
Pennock and Gravina islands.
The first was the Pittenger
dairy at the top of Bawden
Street, established about
1902. A street bears the
name of the dairy’s founder.
EDUCATION
Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District
907-225-2118 — www.kgbsd.org
MUNICIPALITIES | UTILITIES
Ketchikan Gateway Borough
907-228-6625
www.borough.ketchikan.ak.us
Ketchikan International Airport
907-225-6800
www.borough.ketchikan.ak.us/130/Airport
Parks and Recreation
907-225-9579
www.borough.ketchikan.ak.us/141/Parks-Recreation
Planning and Community Development
907-228-6610
www.borough.ketchikan.ak.us/142/
Planning-Community-Development
Transit System
907-225-8726 — www.borough.ketchikan.ak.us/145/Transit
City of Ketchikan
City Hall
907-225-3111 — www.city.ketchikan.ak.us
Port and Harbors
907-228-5632
www.city.ketchikan.ak.us/departments/ports/index.html
Ted Ferry Civic Center & Convention Center
907-228-5655
www.city.ketchikan.ak.us/departments/civiccenter
Tongass Historical Museum
907-225-5600
www.city.ketchikan.ak.us/departments/
museums/tongass.html
Totem Heritage Center
907-225-5900
www.city.ketchikan.ak.us/departments/
museums/totem.html
City of Saxman
City Hall
907-225-4166
Saxman Totem Park
907-247-2502
Ketchikan Public Utilities
907-225-1000 — www.city.ketchikan.ak.us/public_utilities
KPU Telecommunications
907-225-1000 — www.kputel.com
STATE OF ALASKA | U.S.
state of Alaska
Alaska Legislative Affairs 907-225-9675
U.S. government
U.S. Coast Guard Base Ketchikan
907-228-0210
U.S. Forest Service / Tongass NatIonal Forest
907-225-3101 — www.fs.usda.gov/tongass/
University of Alaska Southeast
Ketchikan Campus
907-228-4567
www.uas.alaska.edu/ketchikan
MEDIA
Ketchikan Daily News
907-225-3157
www.ketchikandailynews.com
KFMJ-FM
907-247-3699 — www.alaska.fm/kfmj
KRBD-FM
907-225-9655 — www.krbd.org
KTKN-AM & KGTW-FM
907-225-2193 — www.ktkn.com | www.gateway1067.com
sitnews (Stories In the News)
www.sitnews.us
The Local Paper
907-225-6540 — thelocalpaper.com
THE ARTS
First City Players
907-225-4792 — www.firstcityplayers.org
Ketchikan Area Arts & Humanities Council
907-225-2211 — ketchikanarts.org
Ketchikan Theatre Ballet
907-225-9311 — ktbdance.com
BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce
907-225-3184
www.ketchikanchamber.com
Alaska Small Business Development Center
907-225-1388 — aksbdc.org
Historic Ketchikan Inc.
907-225-5515 — www.historicketchikan.org
INFORMATIONAL RESOURCES
Ketchikan Public Library
907-225-3331 — www.firstcitylibraries.org
UAS Ketchikan campus library
www.uas.alaska.edu/ketchikan/library/
index.html
MEDICAL CARE
PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center
907-225-5171
U.S. Congressional Office
907-225-6880
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT | HEALTH CARE
Ketchikan Indian Community
907-228-4900 — www.kictribe.org
28 Our Town
PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND
Prince of Wales Chamber of Commerce
907-755-2626
www.princeofwalescoc.org