Our final stop on the Alaskan cruise, Ketchikan

As our cruise comes to an end, they saved the best for the last. No, I’m not talking about beautiful scenery. No, not amazing totem carvings or stories of gold mining. No, not a shoot-out or heroic adventures. It is lumberjacks! Yep, those wild and crazy guys out in the woods, living together, and having fun cutting down native hardwoods so we can have toothpicks. Those plaid-shirt fellows that according to Collette, rate second only to firemen!

By now you should have guessed what show we signed up for in Ketchikan, the lumberjack show! The show starts at 12pm so Collette and I got in line around 7:45am, as soon as the gangplank was lowered. After several minutes of discussion, I did convince her that we could do a little exploring of Ketchikan and still make it back for the show. Promise. Now off to see Ketchikan.

Best known as Alaska’s “First City” as the entryway to the Inside Passage, Ketchikan has a history of mining, fishing, and logging. Today the city thrives mostly on fishing and that ever popular industry, tourism. As a matter of fact, tourism is a huge part of Ketchikan’s economy. In 2018, cruise ships alone dropped a cool 1,073,000 passengers on this little hamlet. And most, if not all, were going to the lumberjack show!

Guess what…Totem pole

Lumber was instrumental in the development of Ketchikan. Two prominent camps appeared in the 1800’s, one American, one Canadian, cutting as many Spruce trees as possible. The American camp used a “floating camp” which was a barge with make-shift houses on it that could be floated up or down the coastline depending on where they were logging.

Additionally, salmon fishing has been in Ketchikan before settlers could spell its name. The Tlingit native tribe lived here and fished these waters for what’s believed to be 12,000 years. They used this area as a summer fishery to stock up on fresh salmon for the winter. Not until 1885 when Mike Martin appeared in the area did commercial fishing take over. Mike was sent by an Oregon canning company to scout out new locations rich in salmon. He purchased land from one of the Tlingit elders and opened the Ketchikan cannery. By the late 1880’s fishing was the major industry of Ketchikan. Soon there were 13 canneries canning as much salmon as they could, over 1.3 million cases of salmon a year. This led to overfishing and a collapse of the canning industry.

Back to the town. As with most towns back in the 1800’s, Ketchikan had a certain area that also prospered with the influx of miners, fishermen, and lumberjacks. A nice little boardwalk along Ketchikan Creek became known as the towns “red light” district with brothels lining both sides of the creek. Today these houses are shops selling more acceptable goods for tourists.

Creek Street

Getting close to 11:30 so time to make our way to the lumberjack show. As expected, this was a packed to capacity show. Two teams, one representing the American camp, one the Canadian camp, would compete in 12 different events with axes, saw, chainsaws, and climbing ropes. These events are part of the Timbersports competition held annually today, and televised on ESPN.  I think Collette took over 50 pictures of this event. That is, once she caught her breath. Fun show, lots of laughs and a big competition but the USA pulled out the win. Sorry Janine, maybe next time.

All that lumberjacking makes you hungry so off to find that crab house we couldn’t find in Sitka. As luck would have it, there are 2 crab houses right outside the arena. The first one received a 3.4 rating for poor service so we decided to try the second, 4.8 rating. I guess price isn’t part of the rating system. ½ Dungeness crab goes for $25.00! Nope, time to head back to the ship and eat lunch for free.

And so endth the day. Tomorrow we cruise all day making our way back to Vancouver and the end of our journey. It’s been a wonderful trip, great weather, amazing sites and interesting history.

Fixer-upper Collette spotted

There’s always that guy…

Might be a hard sell…

That’s our boat, 3rd on the left

Couple of humpbacks making their way north