Ketchikan Facts: Rain, Salmon, Totems and the Town in Numbers

Hours, prices and access verified by the Ketchikan Alaska Tours team — last checked 2026-09-17.

How wet, how old, how big and how busy: the figures behind a town of 8,192 people that meets more than a million cruise visitors a year. If you are weighing tours in Ketchikan Alaska, these are the numbers the guides will quote to you.

Ketchikan in numbers

Ketchikan is a narrow town on Revillagigedo Island, in Southeast Alaska, 90 miles north of Prince Rupert in British Columbia. It runs 31 miles along the water and is never more than ten blocks wide. Each figure below comes from the public body that publishes it.

Fact	Figure	Source
City population, 2020 census	8,192	US Census, via Wikipedia
City and Borough population, 2020	13,477	US Census, via Wikipedia
Incorporated	25 August 1900	Wikipedia
Island	Revillagigedo Island, Southeast Alaska	Travel Alaska
Length along the water	31 miles, never more than 10 blocks wide	Travel Alaska
Distance from Prince Rupert, BC	90 miles to the south	Travel Alaska
Average rain a year	149.54 inches (airport, 1991–2020)	NOAA normals
Wettest year on record	202.55 inches, in 1949	NOAA, via Wikipedia
Cruise berths downtown	Four, Berth I to IV, on Front Street	City of Ketchikan
Newest cruise dock	The Mill at Ward Cove, first ships in 2021	Ward Cove
Cruise calls in 2018	500+ calls, 1,073,000+ visitors	Wikipedia
Tongass National Forest	Nearly 17 million acres	US Forest Service
Misty Fjords National Monument	2,142,243 acres, all wilderness	US Forest Service
Totem poles at Saxman	24	Travel Alaska
Poles at Totem Bight by the Second World War	15, and a community house	Alaska State Parks

Rain: 149 inches, and the record year

On NOAA's 1991-2020 normals, the airport records 149.54 inches of rain a year. June is the driest month at 7.02 inches. October is the wettest at 18.37 inches, and November brings rain on almost 24 days.

The record is 202.55 inches, in 1949. You will also see "162 inches" quoted for the town; that figure comes from a different station and period. Tours here run rain or shine, and the rain gauge outside the Visitors Center on Front Street is a meeting point in its own right.

Nicknames, not rankings: "Rain Capital of Alaska", "Salmon Capital of the World" and "Alaska's First City" are the names the town uses for itself. Month-by-month rain and temperatures are on Ketchikan weather.

Salmon, and the nickname

The town began as a salmon saltery in the mid-1880s, and its name comes from the Tlingit name for Ketchikan Creek. Canneries followed, and fishing is still the working waterfront you walk past from the ship. The marine waters of the Ketchikan area hold all five Pacific salmon species:

King (chinook), the largest.
Coho (silver), which move into the freshwater creeks in late summer.
Sockeye (red).
Pink (humpy), the fish that crowd Ketchikan Creek in July and August.
Chum (dog).

The same waters hold halibut, lingcod, Pacific cod and rockfish, which is why the fishing charters sell salmon and halibut in one trip. A nonresident fishing licence costs $15 for a day, and a king salmon stamp another $15, from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The Tongass National Forest and Misty Fjords

The Tongass National Forest

A temperate rainforest of nearly 17 million acres, the largest national forest in the United States. The rainforest walks, the ziplines and the creek hike all run inside it.

Misty Fjords National Monument

Proclaimed in 1978 and set in 1980 at 2,142,243 acres of wilderness. Its cliffs rise thousands of feet from the water, and its western boundary lies about 22 miles east of town.

Getting into the monument

Only by boat or floatplane, through Behm Canal. The monument has 13 public-use cabins, 5 shelters and 10 trails covering 20 miles.

The Forest Service lists killer whales, porpoises, mountain goats and bears among the wildlife you may see there. From a floatplane you see the fjords in the time a boat takes to reach them.

Want to see those 2 million acres from the air?

The Misty Fjords flights leave from the downtown docks and include an all-aboard guarantee, so you are back before your ship sails.

See Misty Fjords tours Compare every tour

A timeline from saltery to cruise port

The Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian lived here long before the saltery, so the timeline starts with them. Canneries, a mill and the cruise berths each changed the town in turn.

When	What happened
10,000+ years ago	The Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples are living in the region
Mid-1880s	A salmon saltery opens, the start of the cannery town
25 August 1900	Ketchikan is incorporated as a city
1903	An ordinance moves the brothels to the east bank of the creek: Creek Street
1938	Work begins on the model Native village at Totem Bight
1954	The pulp mill opens at Ward Cove; Creek Street's red-light years end
1975	Dolly Arthur dies; her house on Creek Street later becomes a museum
1978	Misty Fjords is proclaimed a national monument
1980	Congress sets Misty Fjords at 2,142,243 acres of wilderness
March 1997	The Ward Cove pulp mill closes, with 514 direct jobs lost
2020	The census counts 8,192 people in the city
2021	The first cruise ships dock at The Mill at Ward Cove

The Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian

These three peoples have lived in the region for more than 10,000 years, and their carved poles are the most photographed things in town. The Totem Heritage Center, on Deermount Street, holds original 19th-century poles indoors. Saxman, south of downtown, stands 24 poles in the open.

At Totem Bight, the Civilian Conservation Corps began a model Native village in 1938 under the architect Linn Forrest. By the time the Second World War slowed the work, the community house and 15 poles were standing. A house like it could hold 30 to 50 people. Each site, and the tours that reach it, is on Ketchikan totem poles.

Where these figures come from

City of Ketchikan: the port berths and the Totem Heritage Center.
US Forest Service: the Discovery Center, the Tongass and Misty Fjords.
Alaska State Parks: Totem Bight State Historical Park.
Travel Alaska, the state's tourism site: the town's size, Saxman's poles.
NOAA 1991-2020 normals for Ketchikan International Airport: rain and temperature.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game: species and licence fees.
Wikipedia, citing the US Census: population, incorporation and the mill.

Ketchikan facts: quick answers

How much rain does Ketchikan get?

About 149.5 inches a year at the airport, on NOAA's 1991-2020 normals. June is the driest month at 7.02 inches and October the wettest at 18.37. The wettest year on record, 1949, brought 202.55 inches.

Why is Ketchikan called the Salmon Capital of the World?

The town grew from a salmon saltery and its canneries, and the marine waters around it hold all five Pacific salmon species. The name is a nickname, not a ranking. You can see salmon in Ketchikan Creek, downtown, in July and August.

What island is Ketchikan on?

Revillagigedo Island, in Southeast Alaska. The airport is on Gravina Island, across the Tongass Narrows, and a five-minute ferry links the two.

How many people live in Ketchikan?

The 2020 census counted 8,192 people in the city and 13,477 in the City and Borough. In a cruise season, more than a million visitors come ashore.

How big is Misty Fjords?

2,142,243 acres, all of it designated wilderness since 1980. It is the largest wilderness area in the Tongass National Forest, and its western boundary is about 22 miles east of Ketchikan.

Next: the story of Creek Street, things to do in Ketchikan, or every tour on Ketchikan Alaska Tours.