Totem Poles

Ketchikan is famous for it's collection of totem poles which are to be found around the town. When the first white man arrived here bringing illnesses that the Native Americans had no resistance against the villages around Ketchikan became depopulated and fell into disuse. The totem poles from these villages were relocated to Ketchikan to keep them in the public eye I suppose. None of the ones today are originals, they are recarves, an exact copy. This is the practice when a pole eventually rots so that the stories and family histories that they tell can be preserved.

I was just glad to find something that didn't move to photograph easily after the last couple of days!