On Aug. 20, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt picked up a pen and circled a small section of map along the coast of Alaska's southeast territory. Here is land, he said, that should be managed and preserved for the public interest.
That was the beginning of the Tongass National Forest, which was officially designated that in 1907.
In reality, the inked circle took in millions of acres of forest and thousands of miles of shoreline. In those early years, all the managing was done by a single forest supervisor.
William Weigle, who took up the post in 1911, offered this insight into the job: "The motorboat takes the place of the saddle and pack horse; hip boots and a slicker the place of chaps, and it is much more essential that a ranger know how to adjust his spark plug than be able to throw a diamond hitch."
One hundred years later, with nearly 17 million acres of forest stretching along 500 miles of the coast from Yakutat Bay to Portland Canal, the Tongass is the largest national forest in the country. It is managed — by a host of rangers —for multi-use: recreation, wilderness, mining, fishing and timber. But some things have not changed.
Somehow, this vast expanse of temperate rainforest embodies the spirit, the wildness that has always been Alaska. And nowhere is that more clear than in Ketchikan, a city perched on its edge that acts as gateway to both the national forest and to Alaska.
Because of its location, Ketchikan is often a visitor's first introduction to our 49th state. (It's a 90-minute flight from Seattle and often the first Alaskan stop for northbound cruise ships. It's also a stop on the Marine Highway ferry system; there are no roads that will get you there.)
If so, it's a good choice. Ketchikan, called the First City of Alaska, offers an exciting mix of history, culture and activity, all played out against the spectacular backdrop of the national forest.
Ketchikan is on the southwest side of Revillagigedo Island, the fifth largest of the islands that form the Alexander Archipelago (the site of the fabled "Inside Passage" of shipping and cruising fame). With a population of just under 15,000, it is full of small-town
flavor and friendliness — even if it is the fourth largest city in Alaska.
The town is spread out along the narrow margin of land between the shore and the mountains. A walking tour of downtown, easily accomplished, will take you past ship-lined docks, houses built on pilings, a plethora of arts and crafts boutiques, old wooden churches. A boardwalk wanders by the historic buildings of Creek Street. A tram will take you to the hotel on top of the hill.
A bit farther on is the eagle center, which rehabilitates injured birds, and fish hatchery, where more than 350,000 coho and king salmon and steelhead trout are raised and released annually. A Welcome Arch down by the docks proclaims Ketchikan "The Salmon Capital of the World."
The town's name comes from the Tlingit natives who first used the area as a fishing camp — each year pink salmon return to spawn in the creek that tumbles down from Deer Mountain. "Kitschk-kin," they called it, in honor of the "thundering wings of eagles," which were also drawn to the fish. Those fish still attract both sport and commercial fishermen.
Russia laid claim to the territory after Vitus Bering first spotted it in 1741, but the Russians did little to settle it. After the United States purchased the area in 1867, cannery and whaling ships began to ply the waters of the Inside Passage.
But not until 1885 did it get its first permanent citizen, an Irish-American named Mike Martin, who purchased property that now includes the townsite from a Kwakiutl Indian known as Paper-Nose Charlie (he had apparently lost his nose in a fight and so fashioned ones made of brown paper bags to cover it).
No one knows how much he paid — or why a Canadian Flathead Indian was in charge of the territory — but Martin's claim held up in court in 1900, when the town was officially incorporated. It was likely, too, that Martin's brogue softened the original name into the Ketchikan we know today.
Gold (the metal was discovered in the Klondike in 1897) and fish (1896 saw 20 canneries in operation) drew hardy settlers to these Alaskan wilds. A travel writer for Ladies' World Magazine was charmed by the "happen-so" architecture of Ketchikan in 1904. "Perched on the steep side of the island of Revilla Gigedo, at the Tongass Narrows," she wrote, "Ketchikan has 'accumulated' itself and become a town."
No doubt, she was less approving of another of Ketchikan's early claims to fame: its notorious red-light district, a collection of bawdy houses set up on the north side of Ketchikan Creek.
Despite sporadic attempts to shut it down, the district managed to survive until 1953. Its history is told at Dolly's, a popular visitor's attraction on Creek Street that honors the town's most famous Madam, Dolly Arthur.
Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes are still an integral part of the Ketchikan community, comprising about 15 percent of the population. You can get a feel and flavor of this culture at places such as the Saxman Totem Park, three miles south of Ketchikan; at the Totem Heritage Center on Ketchikan Creek; or at the Tongass Historical Museum downtown.
The most visible icon is the totem. This indelible symbol of the culture was used as history book, repository of lore, family pedigree and more. The carved cedar poles, painted with the reds and blues of natural dyes, now stand in parks and museums and on streets as silent storytellers. To "read" them, start at the top; the more important figures give way to lesser ones at the bottom.
Most of the standing poles you see around town are approximately 50 years old. Original 19th-century totems are carefully displayed and preserved in the museums. At the Heritage Center, you may also see modern craftsmen at work, using the same tools and methods of their forefathers.
"Wood work" of a different sort can be found at the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, a re-enactment of the competitions among logging camps that were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The show is held at the site of the Ketchikan Spruce Mill, once the largest spruce mill in the world. It not only supplied timber for the Klondike Gold Rush and early fish canneries, it also cut timber for aircraft construction during World War II. It was shut down in the 1970s, but its spirit lives on in the ax throw, crosscut sawing, pole climbing, log rolling and other competitions performed by world-class loggers, who now compete for the likes of ESPN and TNN.
You can learn more about the early fish and timber camps at the Tongass Historical Museum and also at the new Southeast Alaska Discovery Center, which includes exhibits on the area's human history, natural history and ecosystems.
There, for example, you will learn about the rainforest — and rainforest it is. Ketchikan averages more than 137 inches of rain per year (about a fourth of that comes as snow). This creates a habitat where trees easily grow to be 100 to 150 feet tall, and a variety of flora and fauna thrive.
You'll learn about the rivers, estuaries and muskegs — places of boggy, swampy areas scattered throughout the forest that act like sponges to soak up excess water — that make up the ecosystem.
Of course, it will all make you want to go see the forest firsthand. And Ketchikan is an ideal place for that, offering a number of day-trip options into the forest ideally suited for cruise passengers as well as other visitors.
Andy White came to Ketchikan to work in the canneries. It didn't take him long to figure there had to be a better way to make a living. Now, he takes guided Jeep safaris on some of the old lumber roads into Ketchikan's back country.
He makes the trip daily, rain or shine, taking visitors up to Harriet Hunt Lake. But if you're lucky enough to be there on a sunny day, you will get panoramic views of surrounding mountain tops. You will see red alders, Western hemlock, Sitka spruce (Alaska's state tree) and red and yellow cedar. You will learn that logging is still permitted in certain areas, but that 10 percent of everything that is cut must remain on the ground to decay, to act as nursery trees, to return nutrients to the soil.
From an elevation of 1,200 feet, White might tell you, "you get miles of smiles in every direction." He might also teach you the "Ketchikan Wave," used to ward off mosquitoes (everything in Alaska is big, as they say). He may try to call a bear or a moose out of the woods, using a grass whistle he whips up on the spot. He will claim it works, but maybe you won't be too disappointed if it doesn't this time.
As nice as the mountains of Revillagigedo Island are, for wildlife viewing, as well as spectacular scenery, it's hard to beat Misty Fiords National Monument, a 2.3 million-acre preserve tucked in the Tongass forest on the nearby mainland.
The roadless location of Misty Fiords (sometimes written as Fjords) makes it accessible only by floatplane or boat. A popular option is to fly one way (35 minutes) into Nooya Lake and take the boat (a three-hour cruise) back (or vice versa), although you can do the boat both ways for an all-day trip. You can also arrange kayaking and camping trips, if you have more time.
In Misty Fiords, rock walls rise precipitously from alpine lakes — both remnants of glacial action during the Ice Age — to provide mouth-dropping views. Waterfalls, glaciers, trees add constantly changing ornamentation. And an abundance of wildlife — everything from Alaskan brown bears and black bears to bald eagles and mountain goats to seals and sea lions, whales and dolphins and porpoises — adds to the show.
As the boat makes its way down Rudyerd Bay, through Behm Canal, past 237-foot high New Eddystone Rock (a volcanic plug) and back toward Ketchikan, you will be in awe of the beauty and majesty nature offers.
And you can't help but be thankful for the vision of Teddy Roosevelt, who took a pen and set aside this area a hundred years ago.
E-mail: carma@desnews.com