Ketchikan became known as "Alaska's first city" due to its strategic position at the southern tip of the Inside Passage, connecting the Gulf of Alaska to Puget Sound. Ketchikan has a mild maritime climate, characterised by heavy cloud cover and high humidity through much of the year and abundant rainfall throughout the year (even in the driest month), earning it the nickname of the "Rain Capital of Alaska". We are prepared for this with several different thermal layers and so we try not to access the warmest layer to go ashore, saving this for Mendenhall Glacier which will be colder than our warm, little Australian bodies can imagine! A major and first port of entry into Alaska, Ketchikan's economy has been based on fishing industries, canneries in particular, tourism, government, and forestry. The average annual civilian employment in 2017 was 4,070, with a substantial seasonal work force peaking in July.
After a casual walk around this quaint little town, we finally find a little place that serves Chowder. Initially, we line up to eat at a larger place on the water but make an instant decision to ‘vote with our feet’ when we find that a bowl of Clam Chowder is $24US. The place we finally settle on charges $13 for Salmon Chowder which we like just as much. We are booked into The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show which will commence at 5.15 p.m. and we’re thinking that something to line our bellies should put us in good stead in preparation for the temperature drop with the setting of the sun.
Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually referED to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled using hand tools and dragged by oxen to rivers. The work was difficult, dangerous, intermittent, low-paying, and involved living in primitive conditions. However, the men built a traditional culture that celebrated strength, masculinity, confrontation with danger, and resistance to modernization. It’s not surprising then, that the heavily female job of prostitution thrived in this sort of environment.
Our Show is certainly good value demonstrating all the logging skills in operation at the time. Before the era of modern diesel or gasoline powered equipment, the existing machinery was steam powered. Animal or steam-powered sliders were used to haul harvested logs to nearby rail roads for shipment to sawmills. Horse driven logging wheels were a means used for moving logs out of the woods. Another way for transporting logs to sawmills was to float them down a body of water or a specially-constructed log flume. Log rolling, the art of staying on top of a floating log while "rolling" the log by walking, was another skill much in demand among lumberjacks. Spiked boots known as “caulks” were used for log rolling and often worn by lumberjacks as their regular footwear. It’s amazing to see this in action - as our resident lumberjacks vie for best log roller in their four foot pond. As they slide along, it looks easy but I’m sure it’s not.
The term “skid row”, which today means a poor city neighbourhood frequented by homeless people, derives from the way harvested logs were once transported. Logs would be "skidded" down hills or along what was known as a corduroy road. One such street in Seattle was named Skid Road. This street later became frequented by people down on their luck, and both the name and its meaning morphed into the modern term. I recall on the Seattle Underground city tour, being told this as well. We are looking forward to revisiting this tour - it’s the most interesting city tour, I’ve ever experienced. As the temperature cools, we see some amazing examples of fit lumberjack-hood, including showing how some of the men climbed a tree by using their weight on a belt against the tree - this is how they staked out trees which they intended felling. They could also cut chunks out of the tree to insert horizontal ledges so they could get good axe cuts into the tree.
The high climber (also known as a tree topper) established a spar tree so logs could be skidded into the landing. Using tree climbing gaffs and rope to ascend a tall tree in the landing area of the logging site, he would chop off limbs as he climbed, chop off the top of the tree, then attach pulleys and rigging to the tree for the yarder.
In 1901 Sitka was the site of the transfer ceremony for the Alaska purchase from Russia to the US on 18th October, 1867. Russia was going through economic and political turmoil after it lost the Crimean War to Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire in 1856, and decided it wanted to sell Alaska before British Canadians tried to conquer the territory. Russia offered to sell it to the United States. Secretary of State William Seward had wanted to purchase Alaska for quite some time, as he saw it as an integral part of America's reach to the Pacific Ocean. While the agreement to purchase Alaska was made in April 1867, the actual purchase and transfer of control took place on October 18, 1867. The cost to purchase Alaska was $7.2 million, at 2 cents per acre.
The seat of government was relocated north to Juneau in 1906 due to the declining economic importance of Sitka relative to Juneau, which gained population in the Klondike Gold Rush. In 2010, Sitka's two largest employers were the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), employing 482 people, and the Sitka School District, which employs 250 people. However, there are more people employed in the seafood industry than in any other sector. An estimated 18% of Sitka's population earns at least a portion of their income from fishing and seafood harvesting and processing. Many Sitkans hunt and gather subsistence foods such as fish, deer, berries, seaweeds and mushrooms for personal use too. At this point, we are told that for approx 4,000 Sitkans, there are more than 7,000 registered vessels. Go figure!!
Sitka is only accessible by boat or plane as it is situated on a pair of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Vehicles are usually brought to Sitka via the ferry system or the barge. However, a vehicle is not an absolute necessity in Sitka, as there are only 14 miles (23 kilometers) of road from one end of the island to the other. Almost everything is within walking distance from the downtown area, which is where the majority of employers are situated. Public transportation is also available.
Old Sitka Dock, located at Halibut Point, one mile south of the Old Sitka State Historical Park, commemorating the 1800s Russian settlement, and six miles north of downtown Sitka, is a private deep water port offering moorage facilities. A 470-foot-long floating dock for vessels up to 1100 feet was constructed there by its owners in 2012 and was first used in 2013. We walk this way today, as we follow a map to the Raptor Centre. We enquired and found that it would have been $86US for a tour which includes the Totem Pole display and the Raptor Centre. Tourists are rarely able to judge the value of tours and we are no different, but Stephen says his offline map shows that the centre is only about one Mile in flat terrain. The walk is pleasant along the way of the Old Sitka dock in light, warm sunshine as we enjoy the ‘free’ totem’ poles along the way. We spy a Bald Eagle in the trees, keeping an eagle eye out for a flying fish.
The Raptor Centre is a charity established as a sanctuary for injured raptors and it is $16 to get in! Here, we meet Koi - who is a Red-Tailed hawk. Koi is a permanent resident because she was hit by a car which pushed one of her eyes back into her skull, rendering it useless to her and preventing her from flying evenly. She is rare because of her polymorphic colouring. As such, she is camouflaged perfectly against the Spruce and Snow coated hills. Her accident happened when she was three years old and so this also prevented her from being able to be rehabilitated due to her young age and lack of foraging skills before she was injured. We also have the opportunity to visit a Bear sanctuary, but run out of time. We reason that we’ll have plenty of time to check bears out in Bella Coola later in our holiday. Besides I’m not that keen on encountering one in an isolated corner of the track!
In Spring 2016, Holland America Line agreed to dock its ships at the Old Sitka Dock. Since then, the majority of the cruise ships calling on Sitka berth at the Old Sitka Dock, with the remainder anchoring offshore in Crescent Harbor and tendering their passengers to downtown Sitka. As we arrive in harbour, there is a very efficient manoeuvre to get as many of us off and onto shuttle buses as quickly as possible, before the Princess ship begins to divest her own ‘cargo’ and the Holland America ship starts to tender people to shore from their decks as well! In the 2017 season, there were 136 cruise ship calling at Sitka with more than 150,000 passengers in total; of these fewer than 30,000 were tendered, but this gives you an idea of how popular this area is and this is no doubt in part due to the pristine beauty of this area. We have enjoyed an amazing couple of days visiting this area and are in awe of its perfection and pristine beauty.
In case you were wondering about my picture of Skunk Cabbage. It is edible but preferred cuisine for bears after they’ve awakened after hibernation. Before they go to sleep, they swallow pebbles to slow things down to a stop in the digestive process. Skunk Cabbage gets things going again. I promise (!) not to talk about this at Family Dinners!! (much anyway)