Ketchikan Totem Poles: Where to See Them

Ketchikan has four places to see totem poles, and each shows you something different. The Totem Heritage Center keeps the old originals indoors. Saxman, Totem Bight and Potlatch Totem Park stand their poles outside, and a Ketchikan city tour often links two of them.

The poles are the work of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples, who have lived in the region for more than 10,000 years. Below, each site in turn, then which tour stops where.

Totem Heritage Center: the 19th-century originals

The City of Ketchikan's center, at 601 Deermount Street, keeps original 19th-century poles indoors, out of the rain that would otherwise rot them. Travel Alaska counts 17 displayed inside. Carvings, baskets and regalia are shown with them.

Hours: May to September, daily 8am to 5pm. October to April, Monday to Friday 1pm to 5pm.

Getting there: on foot from the downtown berths, up Ketchikan Creek from Creek Street. Admission is charged at the door, and the trolley tour and the small-van loop include it in the fare.

Saxman Native Village

Saxman is a Tlingit village south of downtown, with 24 totem poles standing in the open. A clan house and a carving centre sit beside them, where master carvers make new poles in the traditional way.

On a tour: the All in One road tour gives you 30 minutes at the Saxman tribal house, with admission included. The small-van loop and a nature tour drive through the village without stopping.

Totem Bight State Historical Park

Totem Bight is an 11-acre state park about ten miles north, at milepost 10 on the North Tongass Highway. The Civilian Conservation Corps began building a model Native village here in 1938, on a site then called Mud Bight, under the architect Linn Forrest.

By the time the Second World War slowed the work, the community house and 15 poles were in place. A house like it could shelter 30 to 50 people, and you can step inside. A short path through the rainforest leads to the poles on the shore.

Entry: the tours disagree on whether a fee is charged. Check with Alaska State Parks before you go on your own.

Potlatch Totem Park

Potlatch Totem Park has a carving building, a traditional clan house and a dugout canoe, along with a gift shop, antique cars and a small Russian museum. The photo safari spends about 40 minutes here, which gives you time for pictures and the guide's stories.

Reading a totem pole

A pole is not an idol. Poles are carved from red cedar to record a family's crests, a story or a person honoured. Each animal or being on a pole stands for a clan or for a figure in the story it tells.

The guides tell you the stories behind each pole. At the Totem Heritage Center, the photo safari's guide tells the legend of Fog Woman.

Seeing the poles on your own

You can reach the Totem Heritage Center on foot and see it in under an hour. For the other three you need transport, and on a port day a tour is usually the simpler choice. Allow an hour or two for Totem Bight with the drive, and remember the fee question.

Which tours stop where

For a totem-heavy morning, the photo safari links the Totem Heritage Center and Potlatch Totem Park on foot. For Saxman, the All in One road tour is the one that stops.

Ketchikan totem poles: questions