Our header is a photo of Nob Hill, a large rock covered by upscale homes.
Overview of Ketchikan Downtown
Panorama of Ketchikan showing Nob Hill. Newtown is to the left of Nob Hill and downtown to the right.
Downtown Ketchikan. The main drag, Front Street, goes through the tunnel under Nob Hill. Lower right is the Tongass Trading Company. A great place to shop for a wide variety of goods at reasonable prices. I got a terrific winter coat for US$29 there. Note the swooping eagle statue in front of the Masonic Temple.
A swooping eagle native carving. Above the eagle, one of the houses on Nob Hill.,
A wider shot shows the tunnel under Nob Hill to the right of the eagle. Water Street swings around Nob Hill to the left. The tunnel was blasted through the rock in 1954. Water Street was “a narrow wooden, two-way viaduct on pilings that skirted Nob Hill” at the time but is now widened and paved. In 1967 the Tunnel was featured in as an item in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not cartoon as the only tunnel in the world that can be driven through, driven around, and driven over (Upper Front Street on Nob Hill).
Inside the Tongass Trading Company. Janis and a friendly moose.
Nine foot, 1400 pound polar bear shot in 1964 by an Inuit hunter. It’s a world record.
Seven figures populate The Rock, a sculpture by Dave Rubin. It depicts the history of Ketchikan. One figure is a Tlingit woman with her drum singing her song of Ketchikan. At the top is Chief Johnson, chief of the Gaanaxadi clan of the Tongass tribe from 1902 until his death in 1938. The other figures in the display are a fisherman, a miner, a logger, a bush pilot and a frontierswoman.
The Rock seen from another angle. Our cruise ship is in the background.
Near the bridge to Creek Street is Parnassus Books, a nice little bookstore that sells a variety of artifacts and souvenirs. I was intrigued by the name as it rang a bell. In Sidney, British Columbia there is a book store called The Haunted Bookshop, named after a book by Christopher Morley. That book was a sequel to his Parnassus on Wheels and I wondered if the name of this bookstore had a similar origin. Indeed it did! The founder of the store was a fan of the book.
The Salmon Run
Looking downstream from the bridge to Creek Street
Looking upstream from the bridge to Creek Street
This way guys! It’s not much farther!
The Yetatsie Salmon – Photo by Janis Baker
The upper part of Ketchikan Creek. Screen grab from video by Janis Baker
Creek Street
Creek Street.
Annie’s Place
They’re all gift shops now. But back in the day… that’s another story. Niblick’s is a general store and may have been such in the 1920s and 1930s. After all, working girls need their groceries too!
Another panoramic view of Creek Street, a composite of two photos.
And that concludes our tour of Ketchikan. A fascinating place to visit.