Juneau to Sitka, AK Part 2 (7/14/2017)

Friday, July 14, 2017 (continued)
We continued our walking tour of Sitka.

The Sitka Historical Society Museum was closed for renovation, but the
15 m/50' Tlingit dugout war canoe (1968, by Herman Kitka and Andrew
Hope with designs by George Benson, from a single log) was outside (KSS)

Russian Bishop's House (1841-1843)
is the oldest intact Russian building in Sitka 

Hanlon-Osbakken House (1892-1896, in Queen Anne style)

We drove out Sawmill Creek Road to the east, to find our accommodations at Sitka Eagle Bay Inn.

A sign directed Kent to call a number, and he was
then given a code to open a lockbox; he retrieved
a key for the front door so that we could enter
to wait for the receptionist

Apparently the motel has rented the ground floor rooms
to local retail businesses, so it looked like a strip mall

The first room we were given was being used. We hope no one is given the room we now have!
We drove back into town to meet Jan & Kirby for dinner at Rio's Wine Bar, which is above Ludvig's Bistro, the popular restaurant that was fully booked. However, at Rio's we could order Ludvig's famous clam chowder. The chowder included chourizo that gives it a nice zing.

Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall (1914), the original chapter
of an Alaska-wide Native organization, founded in 1912
to fight discrimination in restaurants and movie theaters

After dinner we drove to the Sitka National Historical Park to follow the Totem Trail.

Saanaheit Totem and a pair of house posts (KSS)

The original Saanaheit Totem was already 70 years old when it was donated to the park in 1901 by Haida Chief Saanaheit, and has deteriorated so that only a fragment of the raven head remains. The replica was made in the 1940s by a Native crew of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The house posts are 2002 replicas of the originals that were donated in 1901.

The trail heading into the hemlock and Sitka spruce forest

Jan & Kirby told us about "nurse logs" upon which
seedlings grew until the nurse log had completely rotted,
leaving a gap in the trunk/root system

Some root systems are more convoluted than others (KSS)

Indian River estuary (KSS)

Halfway along the trail is the site of the Tlingit
fort that was destroyed by the Russians in 1804;
K’alyáan Totem (1999, by Tommy Joseph and
Fred Beltran) was commissioned to commemorate
those who lost their lives seeing to protect and
preserve their land and its resources

The bottom of the K’alyáan pole has the frog, the
crest of the local Kiks.ádi clan, and the raven
helmet worn by K’alyáan, the warrior leader (KSS)

Nurse logs nourishing young trees

Mosquito Legend Totem (1938-1941 replica by
Frank Kitka of the CCC, to replace the pole that was
donated in 1903) is a Haida carving of a Tlingit tale

The Mosquito Legend Totem is topped by the
Village Watchman and below him is the Tlingit
figure, Guteel, who is the creature from
which mosquitoes originated

Raven Crest Pole (1983 replica of a totem donated
in 1903, by Nathan Jackson and Steve Brown) (KSS)

A closer look at the whale on the Raven Crest Pole

View across Crescent Bay

Yaadaas Crest Corner Pole (1982 replica by
Nathan Jackson and Steve Brown)
would stand at the corner of a clan house

Cormorant Memorial/Mortuary Column (2015
replica by Tommy Joseph of a pole donated in 1903)
was either used as a memorial or as a mortuary
pole if it contained the ashes from a cremation (KSS)

Tamiko approaching the Wolf Crest Pole (1982
replica by Reggie Peterson of one donated in 1903) (KSS)

Wooch Jin Dul Shat Kooteeya/Holding Hands Centennial
Pole (2011 by a team led by Tommy Joseph) to celebrate
Sitka National Historical Park’s 100 year anniversary)

An original section of Yaadaas Crest Corner Pole;
 many of the original totems can be found inside the
park's Visitor Center, or on the porch like this one (KSS)

Totems around the park's parking lot

 We took Jan & Kirby back to their hotel, and returned to ours.

It had cleared enough to see the mountains on Sitka's Baranov Island