This is a tale of silver and gold, of the land, the sky and the sea.
It's the story of a place where stately eagles soar above a thousand unnamed inlets.
And where mighty whales gather on their annual migration to summer feeding grounds in the icy waters of the Arctic.
Here, towering forests stretch for hundreds of miles like an endless emerald carpet laid out from the mountains to the edge of the sea.
This is a place where sea otters feed and play, where wild bears roam along hidden crystal rivers.
A place of silent beaches and roaring waterfalls.
A region of a thousand vistas where nature's magnificence is on display.
This is southeast Alaska, the setting for a fascinating journey of discovery as we travel along Alaska's inside passage.
Alaska is a place of great diversity in its people and their lifestyles, and in the richness of the land on which they live.
Alaska is a huge state, more than twice the size of Texas.
And if it were placed over the lower 48 states, it would stretch from Florida to California.
Unlike areas further north, where winter temperatures can drop to 70 below zero or colder, southeast Alaska has much milder weather and snow is not as common.
There are rainforests with lush, thick underbrush and trees that seem to scratch the belly of the sky.
But it's the waterways of southeast Alaska that have always given the people life and tied the region together.
If these channels could talk, their stories would tell us of proud native peoples, of Russian explorers and the sloops of Her Majesty's Navy,
of naturalists, adventurers and the gold stampeters of the Klondike.
These silvery highways have carried all the history makers of southeast Alaska.
Thousands of years ago, the first inhabitants came to this coast.
They became the Haida, great carvers, and the Tsimshian, known as the people of many riches.
But it was the Tlingits who dominated the coast. They lived much like their neighbors, the Kwak'udls, to the south.
They forged remarkable civilizations. All were dependent on the sea.
The people were rich, but the sea was richer. For countless generations, the cycle was unbroken.
Every year, the salmon returned to the rivers. The harvests of whales, seal and sea lions, even the shellfish found along the beaches, added to the richness of life.
But suddenly, a change swept over their world.
In the 1700s, the riches of the sea brought a different kind of people to these shores, people who would change their lives forever.
Russian adventurers, with their recently enslaved Aleut hunters, came for the sea otter.
Its luxurious pelt was so highly prized in the markets of the Orient that the fur became known as soft gold.
Soon more ships set sail from England and the American colonies, looking for wealth and adventure.
Unchecked harvesting eventually wiped out the sea otter trade, and dangerous problems at home led the Russian Tsar to believe his colony in America was no longer worth the trouble and expense it required.
An agreement was struck. The United States purchased Russia's interests in Alaska in 1867 for $7.2 million. Many felt the purchase was a disaster.
There wasn't much American colonization in Southeast until the 1880s, when merchants discovered the commercial value of hooligan, a small fish that was loaded with oil.
Each hooligan had so much fish oil in its body that it was possible to stick a wick in a dried fish's mouth and use it as a candle.
The demand for hooligan oil was so great that ships loaded with the fish regularly sailed south to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
These ships steered a course that kept them between the mainland and the string of seaward islands that tempered the winds and currents of the mighty Pacific.
They charted a route inspired by their cargo. It was called Grease Alley.
Later, the 98ers, the gold rushers on their way to the Klondike, would rename it the Inside Passage.
Until the late 1890s, most Americans laughingly called Alaska Seward's Icebox or Wall Russia.
It was just a frozen outpost, a northern American territory with frightful natives and a few white people living there.
But in the winter of 1897, when the steamships Excelsior and Portland landed in San Francisco and Seattle,
men loaded with gold came down the gang planks and began telling fabulous tales of a strike in the Yukon territory on a tributary of the Klondike River.
Instantly, America and the rest of the world went mad for Klondike gold.
A fever unknown since the California gold rush 50 years earlier drew men and more than a few women north to Seattle.
Over 100,000 boarded any ship available and headed up the Inside Passage to what surely would be their fortune.
This was the opportunity of a lifetime, and Alaska drew stampeters like a magnet drawing iron.
Alaska's history is as diverse and wild as the land.
Sailing north, those hopeful miners encountered Ketchikan, their first Alaskan town, and still called Alaska's gateway city.
Even today, Ketchikan retains much of its gold rush heritage.
The oldest section of town is called Creek Street and is built on stilts to keep its buildings above the high tide waters.
Many of these buildings have trap doors in the floor, through which some say the residents could fish from their own living room.
Others, perhaps more knowledgeable, say the trap doors were how bootleggers delivered their illegal wares along the row.
Even through the 1950s, this was the wildest section of town, known around southeast for its two dozen colorful sporting houses.
Today, most of these buildings are boutiques and restaurants.
Ketchikan is known as one of the wettest cities in the world.
This is Alaska's liquid sunshine capital, with an average rainfall of 160 inches a year.
Some say the only time it's not raining is if it's snowing, that it rains so much no one ever tans here, they just rust.
Ketchikan is Alaska's fifth largest city, with a population of just over 8,600 people.
The community stretches along 31 miles of the Tongass Narrows and offers access to some of the finest fishing in Alaska.
Nearby ocean waters offer halibut, salmon and red snapper.
And the streams and inland lakes are the best part of Alaska.
The river is filled with rainbow, cutthroat, brook and steelhead trout.
The Ketchikan is the largest fish in Alaska.
Ketchikan is the largest fish in the world.
It has a population of over 3,000.
Ketchikan is the largest fish in the world.
It has a population of over 3,000.
Ketchikan is the largest fish in the world.
It has a population of over 3,000.
Ketchikan is the largest fish in the world.
Ketchikan is the largest fish in the world.
Three miles south of Ketchikan by road is Saxman, home to one of the most famous totem poles in the world.
Along with traditional Tlingit and Haida totems representing local tribes and clans,
there is a carving of an Abraham Lincoln looking figure on the top of one pole.
The story goes that in the 1800s the Indians from the Saxman area were fleeing south because they were afraid of being taken as slaves by warring neighbors.
Just out of the harbor they encountered a United States naval vessel,
and the captain informed them that Alaska was now property of the United States.
Slavery was illegal.
Who was the man who made such a wondrous thing possible, the Indians asked.
Abraham Lincoln, the naval officer, replied, and in Lincoln's honor a totem pole was carved.
Robert Service, the famous poet of the Yukon, once called Alaska the land that God forgot.
Just outside of Ketchikan by water is one of Alaska's many natural marvels that tends to prove him right. Misty fjords.
Here an ancient glacier scoured a 3,000 foot high mountain range.
This formation is the plug that was inside an ancient volcano when it became extinct.
After the wind and rain eroded the mountain, the
volcano's cone away, what remained is seen here today.
Misty fjords is home to many types of sea creatures.
The orca, also known as the killer whale, is easy to spot with its
six foot high dorsal fin. Travelers also find it easy to spot the
orca, also known as the killer whale, is easy to spot with its
six foot high dorsal fin. Travelers also find groups of sea lions hauled out on rocks along the channel.
Both the orca and sea lion feed on salmon and crab which abound in these inland waters.
As we continue our northward journey up the inside passage, our next location is Wrangel,
a small community of about 2,500 people.
Much of Wrangel's economy is based around the timber and fisheries of the
wrangel. It's also famous for its petroglyphs, mysterious rock carvings such as this one.
Unfortunately, there are no historical records explaining when or by whom these etched rocks were made.
Unfortunately, there are no historical records explaining when or by whom these etched rocks were made.
Though it's not on the itinerary of many cruise lines, Wrangel offers unusual rewards to the more independent adventurer.
The town of Petersburg on Mitkoff Island is next along the channel from Wrangel.
This small community has an almost picture postcard charm and is quite different from other towns along the inside passage
in that it has no historical ties to the gold rush, any native settlement or Alaska's Russian colonization.
Founded about a century ago, Petersburg is the home of hardy fishermen of Swedish and Norwegian descent.
The town was built around a cannery in 1900. In today's residence, ply the waters of the inside passage in the North Pacific,
hauling in salmon, halibut and crab for the dinner tables of the world.
Petersburg shrimp are famous worldwide.
The early grandeur of Petersburg is not diminished over the years.
Its idyllic setting brought Hollywood movie makers here 40 years ago to film The Ice Palace.
Based on a story by Edna Ferber, Petersburg was the backdrop for this classic drama.
And many still remember the impact the production had on the town.
Petersburg is a busy community with about 3,200 full-time residents.
Each May, the town celebrates Norwegian Independence Day with a lively Little Norway Festival.
A delicious highlight of this occasion is the chance to savor the wide variety of seafood that southeast Alaska has to offer.
Another unusual side-light to Petersburg is its tide.
It has peculiar characteristics brought about by Petersburg being equidistant from both the inside passage and the Pacific Ocean.
When the tide goes out of the Wrangell Narrows, the water in the channel from one side of town pulls toward the Pacific Ocean,
and the water at the other end of town pulls toward the inside passage.
Petersburg is thus the only town in Alaska which has two tides running in opposite directions at the same time.
Two other gyms on this part of the inside passage are Teneke and Angoon.
Rarely visited by outsiders, that is travelers from the lower 48, Teneke is famous among Alaskans for its hot springs, particularly during the winter months.
Angoon gained a sad bit of historical notoriety in 1882 by becoming the only native village in Alaska and possibly the United States to have been shelled by the American Navy.
The incident occurred when the local Tlingits demanded customary retributions for the life of a local shaman lost in the service of the whites on a fishing expedition.
As the conflict grew heated, the USS Thomas Corwin was called in.
As the US saw it, the Navy had to take action before the Tlingits.
The Corwin pulled in front of Angoon and bombarded the settlement until nothing remained but the burnt out remnants of a few canoes and longhouses.
There are local artists in Angoon who produce stunning work.
These lithographs are based on traditional motifs of the Tlingit and Haida.
Just as ancient craftsmen preserved and communicated their understanding of the world around them through symbols on totem poles, the Tlingits are also known as the Tlingits.
Just as ancient craftsmen preserved and communicated their understanding of the world around them through symbols on totems, contemporary Southeast Native artists still explore their feelings about the mystical relationships between humans, the spirit world, and the land, and are often inspired by traditional legends and lore.
The three largest islands in Southeast Alaska are sometimes known as the ABC Islands, standing for Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof Island.
Admiralty Island is a unique and uniquely Alaskan phenomenon, an island large enough to support its own lake system.
Admiralty is famous for its brown bears, perhaps the best known are those of Pack Creek.
Some of these bears weigh nearly 1,000 pounds.
But for years, a reclusive man by the name of Stan Price lived alone among them on the island.
Price died from natural causes in the early 1990s.
Admiralty Island was recently named a national monument, and the area has been turned into a state bear sanctuary.
Currently, the brown bear population is estimated at nearly one bear for each square mile of the island, the densest population of brown bears in the world.
The best time to view them is in late July or early August, when the bears leave the hills to feast on the spawning salmon in Pack Creek.
Continuing on the marine highway towards Sitka, travelers pass through perilous straits, a thin waterway dividing Chichagof Island to the north from Baranof Island in the south.
Here is another place of both fascinating history and exceptional beauty.
Alaska often reveals the unexpected. A humpback whale suddenly appears in front of your ship.
Or as the ferry boat turns a bend, a stunning vista is revealed that takes your breath away.
These are the kinds of discoveries that constantly greet the traveler in southeast Alaska.
The history of Sitka is rich and exciting.
Baranof Island was named for Alexander Baranov, the first Russian governor of Alaska from 1790 to 1818.
A famous battle was waged here in 1802 between early Russian settlers and angry Tlingit warriors.
Nearly 300 Russian colonists were killed by the fierce Kalash, the name the Russians gave the Tlingits.
The few who survived retreated to Kodiak, seeking the governor's protection.
Baranov was furious. He vowed not to lose this foothold in the New World.
Returning two years later with a warship, he was intent on destroying the native village near where Sitka now stands.
The battle raged for days, but in the end the Russian canon made the difference.
A new town was built called New Archangel.
It became a regular stop for merchants and fur traders on their way between Alaska and the Orient.
Its modern attractions at the peak of Russian colonization helped it to become known as the Paris of the West.
Sitka was still the capital of Russian Alaska when the United States purchased the territory in 1867.
The Russian past in Alaska is still visible here.
St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral is in the center of town.
While the building itself does not date back to the Russian period, it was burned down and rebuilt.
Most of the icons and religious artwork are originals from that time.
Other buildings in Sitka which predate American involvement in Alaska are a blockhouse from the old fort and the Russian bishop's house.
The cemetery across the street from the blockhouse has gravestones which date back more than 100 years.
Another remarkable example of the region's deep culture and history is only a 10-minute walk away.
Here, in a clearing, stand 18 cedar totem poles.
Nearby is a trail that meanders for two miles through the Sitka National Historical Park, leading to the spot where Baranov burned the Tlingit Valley.
The trail is a
site where Baranov burned the Tlingit village almost 200 years ago.
Sitka is also the site of Alaska's original pioneer home.
In front of it stands one of the best known statues in the state, dedicated in 1949.
The model for the statue was a local pioneer named Skagway Bill.
Bill has been gone for some time, but Sitka's pioneer home still cares for many other sourdoughs who chose to stay in Alaska rather than retire to the lower 48.
The fourth largest city in Alaska, Sitka has a population of about 8,500 and is built near the lip of an extinct volcano, Mount Edgecombe.
In addition to being a hub for fishing and tourism, Sitka is also an educational center.
In the early days of Alaska, natives from remote communities who had no local high school in their village would come here to attend Mount Edgecombe School.
Now most villages have their own schools, but many of Alaska's most prominent native leaders graduated from Mount Edgecombe.
Across town is Sheldon Jackson College, a private institution founded in 1882.
Twenty years ago it received national accreditation as a four-year college.
The acknowledged feature of the summer is the Sitka Music Festival.
Each June, world-class musicians gather here to perform amidst a stunning natural backdrop.
Their concerts draw classical music admirers from all parts of Alaska and the lower 48.
The next stop on the inside passage is Alaska's capital city, Juneau.
This community was established as a gold rush city, but not as part of the Klondike strike of 1898.
Actually, it predates the city of Juneau.
The city was founded in 1898, and the city of Juneau is the oldest city in Alaska.
Not as part of the Klondike strike of 1898. Actually, it predates the Klondike by 20 years.
In 1880, two gentlemen of highly questionable reputation discovered gold in what is now called, appropriately enough, Gold Creek.
Their names were Joe Juneau and Richard Harris.
In search of further strikes, they were quite literally dragged up a hill on the Gastineau Channel by the local Tlingit chief, Chief Cowie.
The gold, which Chief Cowie promised, was there all right, and settlers in a town were right behind.
Over the years, it was named Pilsburg, Flipptown, Rockwell, Harrisburg, and finally, Juneau.
Unlike the Klondike strike, the gold in Juneau was inside hard rock.
It had to be extracted from veins deep inside the mountains.
This required the resources of mining syndicates and meant large companies had to be formed to extract the mineral.
One of the largest companies formed was the Alaska Juneau Company, known as the AJ.
One remnant of that company can still be seen on the mountainside just outside of Juneau.
Across the Gastineau Channel, in Douglas, was the Treadwell Mine.
At one time, the Treadwell Gold Mine was the largest in the world, which helped Douglas become one of the largest cities in Alaska.
The mine opened in the early 1890s and remained a viable operation until 1917, when salt water invaded the tunnels.
Thus ended one of the richest mines in Alaska, a strike that produced more than $67 million in gold and employed over 2,000 men.
It's been speculated that there's at least that much gold still in the ground on Douglas Island.
Alaska's famous gold fields were known around the world.
By the time of the Klondike strike, 20 years after Juneau was founded, the two big mines in Juneau and Douglas alone had produced 10 times the amount of the original sale of Alaska to the United States.
Popular sites in Juneau include the historic buildings in the downtown area, many of them dating back to the city's founding at the turn of the century.
Juneau is an outdoor wonderland for those who can take the time to get outside the city.
There are over 162 miles of hiking trails nearby, with abundant wildlife, historical mining remnants, and 20 minutes north, the dramatic Mendenhall Glacier, an ancient tongue of ice that extends all the way into Canada.
All summer long, there's clamming, float plane fishing, beach combing, and salmon bakes, a great variety of unusual delights for travelers and home folks alike.
There are several interesting side trips outside of Juneau for the adventurous travelers.
To the south is Tracy Arm, a twisting water passage which waddles through the
coast of Alaska, and winds its way 35 miles into Alaska's coastal range.
A favorite place for kayakers, Tracy Arm has cascading waterfalls and rain forested shorelines home to bald eagles, black bear, and deer.
The mountains follow an ancient glacial scrape. Sheer cliffs rise above the icy waters, and seal and sea otters often rest on the small ice flows that float nearby.
North of Juneau is Glacier Bay, one of the most spectacular locations in Alaska.
Geological history in the making underscores every moment in Glacier Bay, a region which, when first observed by naturalist John Muir less than 100 years ago, was covered by ice.
Now it's a water inlet, fringed by still-calving glacial walls.
Gliding by islands crowned with tufts of green, ice flows covered with sunbathing harbor seals, passing quietly by the towering mountain ranges, it's easy to feel humbled and somewhat overwhelmed by the grand scale of nature's design in Glacier Bay.
Here, whales gather to rest before they start their long trek around Alaska's western coast to feeding grounds in icy waters farther north.
And in the fall, they return on their way down the coast of North America to their calving grounds off Baja California.
The air is filled with eagles. Puffins, kittywigs, and murrelets roost on nearby rocky outcroppings.
There are bears, wolves, and mountain goats foraging throughout the mountain foothills.
Breathtaking cliffs of crystal blue and pearl gray ice tower ahead. From more than 200 feet above the waterline, enormous chunks of ice crack, tear, and fall, crashing into the sea with a sound of power so arresting, there is an Indian word for it that means white thunder.
For sheer extravagant displays of nature, few places on earth match the stunning experiences enjoyed by those who travel in Glacier Bay.
Naturalists and wildlife photographers from all over the world come to Haynes to witness one of the most impressive sights in nature's kingdom.
Here, on the Chilkat River at the top of the Lynn Canal, is a place known as Eagle Council Grounds, where several thousand American bald eagles gather. The largest eagle congregation in the world.
Even while Alaska is locked in the grip of winter, the warm waters of the Chilkat River keep it free of ice, allowing the bald eagles to feed year round.
These majestic animals, frequently with wingspans as great as seven feet, gather in the trees along the bank or on the shifting sandbars, feeding on chum salmon that run through the river.
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While visiting Haynes, a favorite stopping place is Fort William H. Seward, established in 1903 to help police the northern gold camps.
Fort Seward was named in honor of Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State, the man who successfully negotiated the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Tsar.
The fort has several restaurants and small shops that sell local art.
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This is also the performance home of the renowned Chilkat dancers, who perform authentic Tlingit dances.
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Haynes, like Petersburg, has also made it into the movies.
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A full-scale Gold Rush movie set for the fictitious Dalton City is here, a leftover from the 1990 filming of the Hollywood feature White Fang.
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Sixteen miles across the top of the Lynn Canal from Haynes is an Alaskan community cut off from the Alaskan road system by Canadian territory.
This is Skagway, one of the two legendary gateways to the Klondike strike.
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The name Skagway comes from the local Indian name for the home of the North Wind.
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The Red Onion Saloon goes back to those wild and woolly days of 1898, when gold seekers bellied up to the bar four and five deep.
Across town, at the Skagway Inn, the women who occupied the rooms still have their names above the door.
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Near the turn of the century, Skagway was the largest and busiest town in Alaska. For a wild, brief moment, really only about a year and a half, thousands of frantic men and women rushed here on their way to the famed Chilkoot and White Pass trails, gateways to the Yukon gold fields.
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Although the stampede was short, while it lasted, thousands were thrown together, facing hunger and greed, notorious outlaw gangs, and the horrors of being unprepared for the brutal Alaskan winter.
Skagway was unlike anything most of them had ever seen before.
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Some of the local ladies had nicknames, like Dirty Gertie, Nellie the Pig, and the Chinless Wonder. Newcomers, fresh off the boats, knew they weren't in Kansas anymore.
Shots rang out in broad daylight, and at night the shouts of men fighting mingled with the cracked voices of singers in the variety halls. It was a terrible place.
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Hoping to get most of the stampeders through at least one winter without starving, Canadian Mauties required every miner traveling across the Chilkoot to take at least a thousand pounds of food with them into the Yukon.
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Travel up the trail was excruciatingly slow. If a miner had to step out of line, it might take hours to get back in.
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Skagway's most notorious citizen, Soapy Smith, is remembered each night with a play. Soapy was the best known con man of the Klondike.
He earned his name with a scam that involved slipping a $100 bill inside a wrapped bar of soap, and then dropping it into a collection of other bars of soap.
Then he would sell them for $5 a piece, with each rube hoping he or she would buy the bar with the $100.
Needless to say, no one ever won that bar of soap with the $100 in it.
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But Soapy's luck eventually ran out. On July 8, 1898, Frank Reed and Soapy had a shootout on the old Skagway dock. Both men went down and died.
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Not as steep as the Chilkoot Trail, the White Pass attracted the attention of railroad engineers, and eventually a line was established through what was considered to be impossible terrain.
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Before the railroad was built, everything bound for Dawson and Whitehorse had to come over either the Chilkoot or White Pass, whether it was as large as a piano or small as an egg.
Today, the White Pass and Yukon Railroad is one of the only narrow gauge rail systems still working anywhere in the world.
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It's been said that there are many Alaskans, and it's true.
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This land is so vast and its people so diverse that visiting one region is just not enough to say you've really seen Alaska.
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But here, tucked away along the coastal shores of the Inside Passage, are truly some of the most beautiful and majestic vistas that Great Land has to offer.
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From Ketchikan to Skagway, southeast is a mixture of the ancient and the modern, the noble and commonplace.
From her original native peoples to Russian governors and gold rush scoundrels.
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From soaring eagles to feeding orcas.
From private coves and hidden inlets to vast silvery stretches of open sea.
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Southeast Alaska has stories and places of adventure enough to capture the heart and mind of anyone traveling north.
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This is Alaska, the Great Land. And once you've seen Alaska, you'll never go all the way home.
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