The City and Borough of Sitka, Alaska, USA (August 1995)
Sitka National Historical Park became the first park in Alaska to become Federally designated (map). It commemorates the 1804 Battle of Sitka that took place between the native Tlingits and agents of the Russian-America company. The 113 acre park also features totem poles placed at regular intervals along walking trails. We observed this one right outside of the visitors center.
The original totem poles came from a collection brought to Sitka in 1905 by Alaska’s District Governor John G. Brady. He visited villages throughout southeastern Alaska gathering particularly impressive specimens.
Artisans carve cedar logs to preserve the history of their people. Totem poles can be very large in some instances. You can get an indication of their size by looking at the person standing next to one.
While the totem poles last for decades, their wood will eventually rot. Many of the poles displayed along the two-mile walkway had to be reproduced after the originals placed there a century earlier decayed.
This wide, rocky beach became a bloody battlefield in 1804 when Alaskan Natives and Europeans clashed in their last major armed conflict. Members of the Russian-American company rushed across the beach, only to be repelled by well-entrenched Tlingits waiting in a protective stockade. Russian naval ships responded by bombarding the fort relentlessly until Tlingits abandoned their position a few days later.
See the article index from the 1995 Southeast Alaska trip.
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