Ketchikan Kapers

While awaiting approval as a volunteer for the National Park Service I decide to adventure off to Ketchikan in the southeast extent of Alaska and catch a ferry north up the inside passage and back to Whittier, just south of Anchorage. Flying south I watch as we pass a surreal scene of snow-capped mountain peaks piercing the cloud layer before the flight stops briefly in at both Juneau and Sitka.

Clearly visible behind Juneau from the air is the Mendenhall Glacier that looks like a pale blue foaming mass of water, snap frozen just as it was about to cascade down into the lake that lays in its path. Apparently this glacier is part of an expansive ice blanket (?) measuring 136km long and 72km wide that feeds this and 37 other glaciers in the area! The Mendenhall Glacier has retreated a reported 4.5km since the 1700’s, most though - 2.5km - in the years since 1951.

Arriving into Ketchikan we land atop an island airstrip, levelled off with an improbably deep layer of gravel – well over 20m in some sections.  As I catch the ferry across to the mainland, the mammoth scar of a quarry on the side of the hill opposite indicates the quantum of gravel needed for just such a project. Once off the dock I made for a taxi surrounded by a flock of ravens eating popcorn, the raven being a popular motif in these parts. The legend I heard says the raven is a mischief-maker who opened a box containing the sun and the moon and the universe, and thus made it available for everyone to enjoy: an enabler if you like. It’s refreshing to find a place on earth where corvids are not hated.

The ample lady taxi driver first apologised for feeding the birds and watched as I heaved my bag into the boot of the car. Once we started into town she began to cough and wheeze and gasp in the grip of what seemed to me to be a fairly serious asthma attack. I sat at the ready in case I had to grab the wheel to save us from crashing (or having a wreck as it is known here). She noticed me eyeing the remains of a half-smoked cigarette in the ashtray as she sucked on her ventolin inhaler and assured me it wasn’t the smoking that caused the asthma, but the car cologne she had spilled in the vehicle earlier in the day. The sickly sweet smell seemed to intensify in my nostrils. As we rounded a bend along the waterfront I gasped myself as a monster cruise ship came into view that dwarfed every building in town. As we passed through its shadow she frowned and told me that 70% of the shops here are owned by the cruise lines and are routinely boarded up over the winter. She said instead of employing locals they ship in labour for the summer to sell gaudy jewellery and other mass produced ‘Alaskan’ souvenirs to the many thousands of unsuspecting summer cruise ship passengers that visit annually. I asked her if she was from Ketchikan and she sighed heavily as she told me she was from New York and had moved after 9-11 when her fireman husband died in the twin towers. ‘I’m so sorry’ is all I could say as we arrived at the hotel. ‘Enjoy your stay’ she wheezed cheerfully as she watched me drag my bag out of the boot.

After checking into the hotel and a feed of halibut, chips and coleslaw (awash with dressing) I wandered around town easily picking out the local shops over the glitzy cruise line stores. The town museum was fascinating with many old photographs of the fish canneries, local people and the old town from days gone by. Today many of the timber buildings lining the streets are original though none kept in better original condition than Dolly’s ‘Sporting House’ at 24 Creek Street. The blonde 6’9” Dolly was quite a sensation in Ketchikan when she arrived in 1914 and continued to be popular with local men until retiring at age 72 when prostitution was declared illegal. She said of Ketchikan – ‘I liked it here cause the men came in bunches’. It was suggested that exercise was her fountain of youth as she lived to the ripe old age of 95 despite being an insulin dependant diabetic. Dolly always worked alone and wouldn’t finish til she’d made $100 for the day. Her going rate was $3, which at that time was 3 times the average weekly salary. Dolly also served sly grog, and at a time when locally distilled moonshine was known to kill, she imported only the best from Canada. The tiny 2 storey mint green cottage is as it was, themed pink and red throughout, still filled with Dolly’s personal effects including a bed with a brass bedhead complete with pink canopy, very pretty flowery wallpaper, exquisite hand painted china, a kitchen with all modern conveniences and flowers made from silk condoms from France, apparently a dismal failure, tastefully sewn on the shower curtain.

Ketchikan certainly had bunches of men as local industries developed quickly once the place was discovered by outsiders. Fur trading kicked off in the early 1800’s and soon ran out after the Russians had hunted the prized sea otter almost to extinction with the Americans trappers finishing them off. Next came salmon fishing, with canneries springing up on each creek. A boom and bust cycle began as the price for fish plummeted through oversupply with the fishery finally collapsing in 1961 from overfishing. Mining also attracted many thousands of prospectors to SE Alaska looking to make their fortune when gold was discovered in the Klondike in 1897. Commercial timber harvesting began in earnest in the early 1900’s, originally for local use til the establishment of 2 pulp mills in the 1950’s launched a year round timber industry. And of course tourism started at the turn of the 20^th century as visitors discovered SE Alaska. John Muir visited and wrote of the beauty of the place that inspired many thousands more to come. Including me!