Shoal Island

Sitka, is an island community, on Baranof Island (named for the Russian leader of “Russian America”, Alexander Baranov) and has a current population of 8,530 permanent residents and many more that just work here for the season. It is a beautiful land of brown bears, bald eagles, all 5 species of Pacific salmon, rainforests and temperatures that range from 30-60 (never too bad and maybe a place to live) with ice covered mountains on one side (Mount Edgecumbe ) and is the only inside passage town that opens up to the Pacific Ocean.

The Kiksadi Clan of the Tlingit Indians lived in Sitka for centuries before the Russians or Americans ever stepped on this land. The Russians arrived in 1799 and in 1804, after too many battles where many lives were lost, the Russians took control. They built a very profitable fur trade and Russian Orthodox clergy buildings replaced Tlingit American clan houses. In 1867, the Russians sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million and a transfer ceremony took place in Sitka on October 18. Their blend of history that include Native, Russian and Americans make it an incredible unique town. The ancient native culture still survives in the arts, music and stories.

We were in Sitka in the past, but this was a very different type of tour. Our first stop was the Alaska Raptor Center which provides medical treatment to over 200 injured birds of prey each year (owls, hawks, falcons and eagles). Their goal is to heal, rehabilitate and then to release their patients. Some are injured too severely to fully recover to survive in the wild so they become part of the “Raptors-in-Residence” program, jokingly the bird retirement home. Those permanent bird of prey residents are used to teach the public about raptors. In addition, the “Bald Eagle Flight Training Center” here provides critical flight conditioning space for bald eagles, and allows visitors to watch the birds regaining their flight abilities, without the birds ever seeing or hearing people (one way mirrors- see photos). We got to see eagles flying from perch to perch, exhibiting natural behaviors, exercising in the clinical aerobic flight tube and preening their feathers after feasting.

Next, we “hiked” among the Spruce, Western Hemlock Alter trees into the Tongass National Forest (the largest in America at 16.8 million acres) part of it located in the Sitka National Historic Park. We learned about the salmon swimming up stream, spawning and their busy 2 year lives. We saw trees that were up to 500 years old, some more recent blown down trees and the trees that have grown out of falling trunks (nurse trees) with roots that are over ground (very interesting, see photos).

We saw “lovers lane” among the forest as it opens to the waterfront, where there is a fun and interesting row of totem poles. Each has a story as they are hand carved and are often put up to tell a family history, be a to memorial, or a memory, serve to welcome , or to be a shame pole (Seward’s pole) I got to walk around the work shed where workers (one that has being carving totems for 51 years) are replicating totems that have worn over time. Today he was working on one that was part of a pair where one had come down and needed replacement.

In 1904, the first governor John Brady, took totems to the Worlds Fair in St Louis in order to “sell” Alaska to Americans that thought of it as just a large cold wasteland. It seemed to have worked in a big way. Sewards "icebox" was not just a great decision for giving the US a base to expand American trade in Asia but a few little things called: salmon, logging, gold and oil discovered here didn't hurt either!Read more