Petersburg, AK: Ketchikan

Sunrise in Petersburg from the ferry. This is around 4 am.

Bear Claw Mountain, across the narrows from Petersburg.

The back deck of the ferry had a solarium. It was open with these lounge chairs and heat lamps.

This is the ferry we took to Ketchikan, the Matanuska. This boat rammed a cannery in Petersburg a couple of months ago and while the boat was not damaged the cannery is not able to process fish this year. The ferry ride south was almost 12 hours long.

Chief Johnson totem in Ketchikan.

Here is a creek running through part of Ketchikan. There is a hatchery up this stream and it runs down into the harbor.

This shot is looking the opposite way from the previous photo. To the left is Creek Street. Most if not all of these structures were brothels that operated as recently as the 1950s.

This is the entrance to Saxman totem park. Saxman is a native community south of Ketchikan. We came down here to see a totem raising.

One of the totems at the entrance to the park.

These folks are working on the totem that was going to be raised. The ceremony was supposed to start at 1:30 but they were a little behind schedule. There were people drying the paint with hair dryers to try speeding this along.

Here is another totem that is just starting to be carved.

The guy here in the black sweatshirt is a local artist named Ray Troll. He seems to be pretty popular around SE Alaska since most of his work revolves around fish. His website is http://www.trollart.com

This is the clan house at Saxman.

Another totem at the park. This tells the story of how Alaska got its three different types of bears, brown, black, and polar.

This is the stage inside of the clan house. During the winter there are talents shows put on here once a month or so.

Back to the carving. They are a lot closer to the finished product now.

The man in the background with the silver hair is Nathan Jackson. He is a very well known totem artist and while he was not the lead on this totem he supposedly designed an image on the lower part of the totem.

When the paint was finally dry they began getting everyone ready to carry the totem out. Anyone was welcome to help out.

The totem is almost in place now. They are installing two raven poles at the entrance to the clan house. They are just replacing some that have gotten a little old and worn.

This is Nathan Jackson again and the guy on the right with the glasses and the red beard is the one who was commissioned with the carving.

This is supposedly the portion that Nathan Jackson designed. The rest was by Donny Varnell.

This picture and the next one are from the solarium on the Columbia, which is the boat we took back north. This boat started in Bellingham, WA and was destined for Juneau. Anyone is allowed to put up a tent on the ferry and most of these people had been on the boat for two days already and had one more to go before they reached their destination. My ride was only around 9 hours.