Page 131 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

SOUTHEAST ALASK A  129

In the early 1900s, well-heeled
newcomers to the north side
of town decided to clean up the
neighborhood by banish ing the
“working girls” to the south side.
Creek Street was soon notorious
for its bars and bordellos, and
it was here that Frenchie, Black
Mary, and Dolly Arthur plied
their trade.
Most of their houses have
been turned into shops and
eateries, but Dolly’s House is
now a museum. Visitors learn
interesting facts about those
bawdy days, such as how Creek
Street’s construction lent itself to
surreptitious trap-door deliveries
of alcohol after it was banned
by the 1917 Bone Dry Law.
The street is a perfect spot to
watch spawning salmon swim
upstream. Visitors can also take Totems along a forest walkway, Totem Bight State Historical Park
the funicular from the end of
the street up to the Cape Fox Presbyterian missionaries. Begun As Europeans established
Lodge or follow the Married in the late 1930s as a Civilian permanent settlements in
Man’s Trail, once used by men Conservation Corps (CCC) Southeast Alaska, many Natives
hoping for a clandes tine Creek project, Saxman Totem Park has joined them, and their tradi-
Street encounter. grown into a popular attraction. tional villages fell into ruins.
In addition to the renovated In 1938, the CCC launched
E Saxman Totem Park poles brought from surrounding a project to restore old totem
2 miles (4 km) S of Ketchikan at Mile villages, there is the colorful poles that lay rot ting in aban-
2.5, S Tongass Hwy. Tel 225-4846. Beaver Clan House and the Frog doned villages. Native carvers
@ Ketchikan city bus. Open daily, Wall, which features dozens were hired to re-create the
tours in summer. 8 7 = of frog faces. A large carving damaged poles, which were
∑ alaska.org/detail/saxman- shed houses the workshops placed in a forested site near
totem-park of Alaska’s best totem carvers. the Tongass Narrows, and by
Founded in 1894, the Native 1942, 15 poles and a clan house
village of Saxman today has the P Totem Bight State had been completed. In 1970,
finest display of totem poles in Historical Park Totem Bight was designated
Southeast Alaska. The village was 10 miles (16 km) N of Ketchikan. a State Historical Park. Today,
set tled by Tlingit from the villages n 9883 North Tongass Hwy, 247- a walkway between the totems
of Tongass and Cape Fox at the 8574. @ Ketchikan city bus. 7 = leads to the water and a rep lica
southern tip of Alaska, who were ∑ dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/ clan house that once would
persuaded to move here by totembgh.htm have held 30 to 50 people.
Totem Poles
Alaska’s Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples carve at least
six types of totem poles to support buildings, tell stories,
and honor people or special events. Never meant to be
objects of veneration, poles were cultural symbols, carved
of western red cedar with designs that included stylized
clan totems, such as Raven, Beaver, Frog, Bear, Wolf, and
Killer Whale, and painted in symbolic colors. Due to the
iron tools gained by trade with Europeans, the mid-19th
century saw an especially prolific carving period. This ended
with the arrival of missionaries in the late 19th century,
who discouraged pole raisings and potlatches, the gifting
feasts that accompanied them. Pole carving was revived in
the 1930s by the CCC, which launched a project to restore
old poles and com mission locals to carve new ones.
Detail of a totem pole at Saxman Totem Park Today, master carvers still create poles and pass on the
near Ketchikan craft to apprentices.

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