Alaska’s skinniest city has totem poles on every corner and all five salmon species in its waters

It’s called Alaska’s First City

Ketchikan sits on Revillagigedo Island in southeast Alaska, stretched along the shoreline like a ribbon. The city runs 31 miles but never grows wider than 10 blocks.

It’s the first port ships hit when sailing north from the Lower 48, which earned it the name “Alaska’s First City.”

All five species of Pacific salmon return here every year, so it also carries the title “Salmon Capital of the World.” About 8,200 people call it home, and what they live next to is something most Americans never see.

Tlingit people fished this creek for thousands of years

Long before European settlers showed up, the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people lived in this part of Alaska for over 10,000 years.

Ketchikan Creek served as a Tlingit summer fish camp, and the city’s name comes from the Tlingit word for the creek, often translated as “thundering wings of an eagle.” In the 1880s, settlers built a salmon cannery on the site.

The town was incorporated in 1900, and by the early 1930s, Ketchikan had 13 canneries and ranked as the largest town in Alaska.

Totem poles line the streets and forests here

Ketchikan holds the world’s largest collection of standing totem poles, spread across four major sites in and around the city. Tlingit and Haida artists carved these poles to tell stories of people, places and events.

They were never objects of worship. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps rescued many original poles from abandoned villages and hired skilled Native carvers to restore or replicate them.

You’ll see ravens, eagles, frogs, bears and orca whales carved into the wood, each one representing a different clan or story.

Walk a rainforest path to the clan house at Totem Bight

Ten miles north of downtown, Totem Bight State Historical Park covers 33 acres along the coast of Tongass Narrows. Fourteen restored and re-carved totem poles stand throughout the grounds.

A rainforest trail winds through the park to a replica Tlingit clan house, built to hold 30 to 50 family members. The entrance sits low and oval, designed that way on purpose to slow down invaders.

The CCC built the park in the late 1930s, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

Watch carvers work at Saxman Totem Park

About 2.5 miles south of downtown, the small Tlingit village of Saxman sits with a population of around 475. More than two dozen totem poles stand in the park here, making it one of the largest collections anywhere.

CCC carvers gathered and restored poles from abandoned villages across the region during the 1930s. The park earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Inside an on-site carving shed, you can watch skilled Tlingit carvers shape new poles, keeping a tradition alive that stretches back generations.

The originals are downtown, some over 150 years old

Most totem poles you see around Ketchikan are replicas or restorations. The Totem Heritage Center is different.

This downtown museum holds original 19th-century poles pulled from uninhabited Tlingit and Haida village sites, and some of them date back more than 150 years.

The collection earned the center a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. You’ll also find traditional masks, carvings and art on display.

The center runs programs to teach and promote Native arts, and it sits a short walk from the cruise ship docks on Deermount Street.

Salmon jump under the boardwalk on Creek Street

Creek Street is a wooden boardwalk built on stilts right over Ketchikan Creek, and it’s one of the most photographed spots in Alaska. Builders put it over the water because the rocky hillside was too tough to blast away.

Today, art galleries, local artisan shops and Dolly’s House Museum line the walkway. The boardwalk was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

From late June through September, you can lean over the railing and watch salmon fight upstream, sometimes with harbor seals chasing right behind them.

The largest national forest in the country starts at the edge of town

The Tongass National Forest covers close to 17 million acres of southeast Alaska, making it the largest national forest in the United States and the biggest intact temperate rainforest on the planet. It wraps right around Ketchikan.

Brown bears, black bears, bald eagles, wolves, mountain goats and all five species of Pacific salmon live here. Old-growth Sitka spruce, western hemlock and red cedar make up the canopy.

The U.S. Forest Service runs its Tongass headquarters out of Ketchikan, so you’re at the front door.

Rock walls rise 3,000 feet straight out of the sea

Misty Fjords National Monument covers about 2.3 million acres of protected wilderness, roughly 22 miles east of Ketchikan. Glaciers carved deep valleys here over 17,000 years ago, and seawater now fills many of them.

The fjord walls climb up to 3,000 feet from the waterline.

President Jimmy Carter proclaimed the area a national monument in 1978, and Congress designated it wilderness in 1980.

Black bears, brown bears, mountain goats, humpback whales, orcas, harbor seals and bald eagles all share the monument.

Eagles and bears line up when the salmon run starts

All five species of Pacific salmon, king, silver, pink, chum and sockeye, return to Ketchikan’s waters every year. From mid-July to mid-September, the fish crowd Ketchikan Creek and fight their way upstream to spawn.

The salmon ladder near Creek Street gives you one of the best views of fish jumping and climbing through the rushing water. Bald eagles, black bears and harbor seals gather along the creek to feed.

The annual run draws some of the biggest wildlife viewing crowds in all of Alaska.

Deer Mountain trail climbs 3,000 feet just east of downtown

Ketchikan pulls in more than 140 inches of rain a year, earning it the title “Rain Capital of Alaska.” All that water feeds a rainforest that grows right to the edge of town.

If you want a challenge, the Deer Mountain trail rises about 3,000 feet and gives you views of the city, islands and surrounding water on clear days.

For something easier, the Rainforest Trail through the Tongass runs about 2.6 miles. Keep your eyes open for black bears, Sitka black-tailed deer and bald eagles along the way.

Step inside a life-size smokehouse one block from the docks

The Southeast Alaska Discovery Center sits in downtown Ketchikan, one block from the cruise ship docks. The National Park Service runs it as the gateway to the Tongass National Forest.

Inside, you’ll find interactive exhibits on the rainforest, Native cultures and the natural history of southeast Alaska. A life-size smokehouse and a hand-carved canoe sit among the displays.

The center also has a theater showing films about Alaska’s wildlife, landscape and people. You can walk there from the ship in about five minutes.

Getting to Ketchikan, Alaska

You can’t drive to Ketchikan, and that’s part of what makes it feel like a different world. No roads connect it to the rest of Alaska or the Lower 48.

You get here by air, with daily jet service from Seattle, Juneau and Anchorage, or by the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system. Close to a million cruise passengers arrive every summer.

Once you’re in town, you can walk to most of the downtown sights or ride public buses out to Totem Bight and Saxman.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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