KETCHIKAN, AK (907) 220-9201 3612 Tongass Avenue Ketchikan, AK 99901 [email protected]
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OUR TOWN DISCOVER KETCHIKAN ALASKA’S MOST VIBRANT COMMUNITY Official Publication of HISTORIC KETCHIKAN America’s Newest & Best Extended Stay Hotels NIGHTLY WEEKLY BEST MONTHLY RATES T PE Y L D F R I E N KETCHIKAN, AK (907) 220-9201 3612 Tongass Avenue Ketchikan, AK 99901 [email protected] myplacehotels.com • Toll Free (855)-200-5685 • Each franchise is independently owned and operated. Historic Ketchikan Inc. is pleased to present this book to our visitors, our prospective visitors and our residents as a record of a vibrant and progressive community. POPPEN GREGG OUR TOWN DISCOVER KETCHIKAN ALASKA PUBLISHED BY CO. KETCHIKAN KAYAK WHALE VIDEO: Historic Ketchikan Inc. The town and the Alaskan wilds: WITH SUPPORT FROM We think we have some of the best of both KETCHIKAN GATEWAY BOROUGH AND CITY OF KETCHIKAN here in Ketchikan—and we have the videos to prove it. Historic Ketchikan Inc. Historic Ketchikan Inc. This publication is a community profile with general factual information and residents’ opinions. It is designed to be informative and entertaining— Board of Directors P.O. Box 23364 a tribute to the spirit of a progressive community. It is not intended to be Terry Wanzer PRESIDENT Ketchikan, Alaska 99901 a primary historical reference. Ralph Beardsworth VICE PRESIDENT www.historicketchikan.org © 2018 Historic Ketchikan Inc. All rights reserved. This publication may not Deborah Hayden SECRETARY [email protected] be reproduced in any form except with written permission. Brief passages may be excerpted in reviews. Prior editions of Our Town were published in James Alguire TREASURER 907-225-5515 1994, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2011 and 2015. Cecelia Coenen DIRECTOR Historic Ketchikan Inc. is a private, Design | text | text editing — Gregg Poppen — Full Circle Media Arts Matt Eisenhower DIRECTOR nonprofit organization that promotes ON THE COVER A summer day in Ketchikan finds floatplanes landing and Len Laurance DIRECTOR economic development through historic preservation and heritage taking off, a state ferry churning southbound and a cruise ship tied at DIRECTOR Dave Rubin tourism. Our programs are designed the dock. Downtown Ketchikan was newly listed in 2017 on the National Pat Tully DIRECTOR to instill community pride and interest Register of Historic Places as a national historic district. Learn about our in Ketchikan’s history. historic neighborhoods on pages 58-67. Alaska Natives’ world-renowned Steven Villano DIRECTOR totem poles have looked down on these shores for uncountable years. Stephen Reeve EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR See our feature on Alaska Native culture on pages 24-26. Matt Armstrong PROGRAM COORDINATOR COVER PHOTOS BY Gregg Poppen DISCOVER KETCHIKAN 1 GREGG POPPEN GREGG Historic homes on upper Front Street have looked down on a century of waterfront activity—and innumerable spring days of mixed rain, sun and rainbows. Come summertime, small local boats heading to City Float will steer between massive cruise ships lined up nearly a mile long. NEIGHBORS we’re a gateway to great alaskan RECREATION pursuits from fishing to scuba, CONTENTS communities 37 footraces to snowmachines | facilities | historical WELCOME ARCH a fixture on mission street is recreation | the king salmon derby 78-82 A PLACE LIKE NO PLACE ELSE 4 closing in on a century 38 HUNTING big game and waterfowl 83 THE FOUNDING | A MINI-GAZETTEER 5 WORSHIP churches today and then 39 WATERFRONT port & harbors | ketchikan GETTING HERE: FERRIES AND FLIGHTS 6 AVIATION our busy skies | aviation pioneer shipyard | maritime crafts in history | new state MAP OF THE COMMUNITY 7 bob ellis | chopper legend ken eichner | ferries | a growing u.s. coast guard presence | testing u.s. subs in our waters | an old military TOWN SIGHT aerial guide to downtown 8 aviation history | floatplane operations through the decades 40-44 boat serves a modern dive business 84-90 MUNICIPALITIES cities and a borough | taxes 9 THE RAINBIRD local icon, tinseltown origin 45 MARINE TRANSPORT ferries & tugs do the MUNICIPAL FACILITIES & SERVICES heavy lifting for people & freight 91 museum | civic center | library | city of saxman | EDUCATION schools | achievers | the U | HOSPITAL & HEALTH CARE partnership of city firefighting & law enforcement | fire department history 46-50 & regional provider | facilities upgrades | hospital history | the volunteer firebug | transit system | THE ARTS visual and participatory arts | history in a frontier town | independent care parks & fields 10-14 public art & events | hometown musicomedy options | a mediflight base 92-94 UTILITIES hydro | telecomms | water 16-17 | books from the rain forest | organizations in arts and folk arts | the ballet school founder ROTARY & CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 95 C.P.V. the commercial passenger levy 18 remembers 52-57 WILDLIFE fauna in photographs 96-97 CLIMATE what a ‘temperate rain forest’ is 19 HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS downtown FISHING INDUSTRY a major american port | CHRONOLOGY notable dates on the timeline | creek street | newtown & hopkins alley | salmon and more | diversification is continuing | from vitus bering to cannabis sativa 20-21 stedman-thomas 58-67 aquaculture and mariculture: salmon and oysters ATTRACTIONS & ACTIVITIES excursions HISTORIC KETCHIKAN INC. committed to are hatching all over | history of our first major and explorations 22-23 programs that put heritage at the forefront of economic powerhouse | fish pirates! 98-101 NATIVE CULTURE native arts | totem heritage economic development 68-69 OUR UNIQUE IN-TOWN TUNNEL 101 center | what totem poles tell us | totem HISTORICAL BUILDINGS preserving heritage MEDIA print, broadcast & web | newspaper parks 24-26 while repurposing 70 history | alaska magazine born here 102-104 STATS | DATES | FIRSTS items of ketchikan’s ALASKA OUTBOARD a historic family business DEMOGRAPHICS & NUMBERS statistics from unique history, natural history and ways of features a sideline in politics 71 population to employment, taxable sales to life 28-29 FOREST & RESOURCES timber industry | housing, costs to congregations 105-111 VISITOR INDUSTRY entertaining a million | USFS | discovery center | biomass fuel as a new SENIOR LIVING leveraging longevity ketchikan story project | steamships | FAQ (fairly resource | majestic misty fjords | history of the on the last frontier 112 agonizing questions that visitors ask) 30-34 timber industry 72-76 CONTACTS IN THE COMMUNITY 113 RACE TO ALASKA a motorless 750 miles 36 MINING the region awaits big projects 77 2 OUR TOWN DISCOVER KETCHIKAN 3 A PLACE LIKE NO PLACE ELSE FELIX WONG Northern highlights—Our mountain backdrop is silhouetted by a sizzling aurora borealis behind Stedman-Thomas National Historic District and Thomas Basin boat harbor. KETCHIKAN SETS A VIBRANT, CONGENIAL COMMUNITY IN THE MIDST OF MAGNIFICENT NATURAL SURROUNDINGS. WE’RE IN A LUSH TEMPERATE RAIN FOREST BESIDE THE CALM, CLEAN INSIDE PASSAGE OF THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN— BUT WE’RE ALSO INTRICATELY KETCHIKAN MUSEUMS A photo from a century ago shows fishing boats at rest on the tide flats that were later dredged for the Thomas TIED TO REMARKABLE Basin boat harbor. A fast-growing frontier town scrambles uphill. The Chief Johnson pole is salient at the right. 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 ROUND IT OUT. NATURE MAKES THIS PLACE EXTRAORDINARY. Deep greens and blues are the colors we choose. A sailboat anchors between azure HISTORY MAKES IT UNIQUE. sky and an indigo cove on Pennock Island. In the city center beyond, on Revilla Island, verdant PEOPLE MAKE IT KETCHIKAN. mountainsides look down on Knob Hill homes. GREGG POPPEN GREGG 4 OUR TOWN UNIQUELY CREEK STREET — Ketchikan Creek boardwalk draws visitors to a site people have frequented for uncountable years. We invite you to use this book to look beyond this historic site and find a modern community that ships fish, builds ships, raises totem poles, runs on hydro power, trolls hoochies for kings and wears Ketchikan Sneakers amid Liquid Sunshine. KETCHIKAN MUSEUMS A young town stretched southward, ca. 1915—cathouses on the creek, a cannery on pilings in Tongass Narrows. KETCHIKAN, THE CAN-DO SPIRIT ANIMATED KETCHIKAN IN FACT WE’RE THE FIRST LINK IN THE CHAIN— EVEN BEFORE ITS HISTORICAL FAME Ketchikan is the first port of call for ships and aircraft entering Alaska. Ketchikan sits on AS THE CANNED SALMON CAPITAL three islands of the Alexander Archipelago, a 300-mile-long chain of islands in the almon made Ketchikan. Native Alaskans had a summer fish camp at Panhandle (about 1,100 islands in all). Sthe mouth of a creek that Tlingit people called Kich-xaan. Salmon lured ONE IF BY AIR, TWO IF BY SEA, AND NEVER entrepreneurs from the Pacific Northwest, eagle-eyed for new sources of fish; the BY ROAD—Ketchikan International Airport first scouts landed here about 1885. By the mid-1890s, pioneering business people is about 670 miles northwest of Sea-Tac had built a wharf and Tongass Packing Co. operated a cannery. (between Seattle and Tacoma). The City of An affable adventurer named Mike Martin and his partner George Clark bought Ketchikan is 90 miles north of Prince Rupert, Tongass Packing Co.’s land after the cannery burned down in 1897. The pair British Columbia—the nearest point on the established a saltery on a new wharf where Dock and Front streets meet today. continental road system. They opened the town’s first trading store. Martin and Clark sold their land to WE WERE MULTICULTURAL BEFORE Ketchikan Improvement Co.; the developers platted lots measuring 50 by 100 MULTICULTURAL WAS COOL—Listen to place feet. In 1900, 103 property-owning male voters incorporated “Ketchikan” and names to hear traces of many heritages. elected Martin as the first mayor. The first head count found 800 residents in this Most of Ketchikan is on Revillagigedo Island, “First City”—nicknamed for its place as the port of entry into Alaska. named in 1793 by English explorer Capt.