longhouse – Riveted

We’re Back in Kasaan

Laura Domela — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 02:20:05 +0000

We left Ketchikan this morning after breakfast and headed across Clarence Strait to the village of Kasaan. Shortly after leaving Thomas Basin, we saw a very large humpback in Tongass Narrows, right in front of the airport (just past the airport ferry dock). Kind of weird to see one in that close and that shallow.

Clarence Strait was a little choppy on the beam, but still pleasant. We traded off manning/womanning the helm and got a lot of work done on our way across (30 miles or so to Kasaan from Ketchikan).

There was plenty of room on the Kasaan float, though things will likely change the closer we get to the longhouse re-dedication and celebration on Saturday. We showered and then walked into the village to check out the carving shed and chat with the carvers a bit. They’re working on a HUGE new totem pole that will eventually stand just at the beginning of the Totem Trail that leads to the Chief Son-i-Hat Whale House. We stopped in the cafe to check out the menu…it looked good! We may go over for breakfast or lunch tomorrow. Anyway, then we continued on to the longhouse. The trail from the float takes you along the water’s edge on a boardwalk, and then it winds through the village. They’re either building a new section of boardwalk here or replacing an old section…I can’t remember if this section was here or not last year.

The carving shed, with the bottom of the new totem pole at the entrance:

Stormy Hamar (lead carver) walked us through the design and concept of this new totem pole (past, present, future) and it’s super cool. For one thing, it’s a new design, not a reproduction of another older totem pole…which is rare. Can’t wait to see it standing next summer!

The bridge that crosses over the stream, on the way to the longhouse:

Pretty cool to see the longhouse finished. Here’s what it looked like last year when we were here:

And here it is now (kinda dark in there with the main door closed):

And the exterior last year:

And today:

There are some great details too, like this copper on the edges of the beams:

Joinery:

Door knob:

No camping in the longhouse, folks:

The beach in front of the longhouse:

Note: It’s pretty fun looking at my post from last summer (on September 1, so one year ago tomorrow). I took many of the same photos, but it’s interesting to see the differences: the stream was steady and flowing last year; this year it’s very thin and dry under the bridge. I took some photos of the totems on the trail near the longhouse on our hike today, but I took some last year too and in last year’s post there’s quite a bit of information about them, so instead of reposting, I’ll just link to that post here!

Canoe, heading back to the carving shed after a water test:

Heading back toward Airship:

Quite a few people arrived today (with suitcases) via float planes…the village seems busy for sure, and that’ll just increase as we get closer to Saturday. I looked at the weather for Dixon this morning and it was calm calm calm today! (Wind variable, 5-15 knots, seas 1 metre). The Central Dixon Entrance buoy this afternoon was reporting waves of 1 foot, 8 seconds apart, and the Green Island light station said “seas: rippled.” So…I hope that lasts until after this weekend!! I’m glad we decided to come over for this though…I think it’s going to be pretty cool. (I need to find out if it’s cool or lame to go out in the dinghy and take photos of the canoes landing on the beach in front of the longhouse on Saturday morning, because that’d be fantastic!)

Another Visit to Ketchikan, AK

Laura Domela — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 21:56:49 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska

Last night's sunset in Kasaan:

We left Kasaan early this morning and headed toward Ketchikan. The weather was beautiful.

As we got most of the way across Clarence Strait, we started seeing humpbacks in the distance, off to our right. Pretty soon I heard a very close blow, then another, and what do you know…there are two of them, fairly close to the boat (of course). I put us in neutral and we sat and watched as they paralleled us for a bit and then dove.

Approaching Ketchikan…would you look at this insane weather?!?!

Just put 'er there between those two behemoth cruise ships, thanks:

We're docked at the Casey Moran city dock, right in front of town. It's fun! There are of course a ton of people out because the weather is perfect (not to mention the three giant ships full of tourists), so there's quite a bit of pedestrian action on the boardwalk next to the boat. (It was fun when we came in to the transient dock…there was an older man and his wife standing up on the boardwalk watching me dock the boat, and I heard him say to his wife "She's doing a helluva job there!")

Here we are at the dock. The tide was lowish when we got in, but now that it's getting close to high tide we're almost eye level with the peds on the boardwalk:

We headed over to the Bar Harbor Restaurant for lunch. We both got some killer halibut fish tacos and a beer, and then went wandering around town.

We stopped in at Soho Coho to see if Ray was around (and to buy a few things), and then went into Parnassus Books (a great independent bookstore here in Ketchikan) for a couple more books. Loot, below:

The raven and the humpback are enamel zipper pulls by William Spear.

Another shot of the Chief Johnson totem pole, next door to the book store. The Chief Johnson totem pole is 55 ft. tall and carved out of one single western red cedar log. The original version stood from 1901 to 1982. This replacement was carved by Israel Shotridge, Tlingit carver and member of the Tongass Tribe, and erected in 1989.

Kevin has a conference call in the morning at 8am, then we have to run down to Frontier Shipping to pick up a package, and then our plan is to fuel up and head out to Foggy Bay tomorrow afternoon and then on to Prince Rupert on Friday morning. The weather window for Thursday and Friday to cross Dixon Entrance looks good, so I think we're gonna take advantage of that window and get that crossing behind us.

The cruise ships will all be gone by 6pm, which is good, because this one here would be blocking our sunset:

Here's today's route from Kasaan to Ketchikan, about 30 nautical miles:

The Village of Kasaan

Laura Domela — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 23:22:47 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska

We left Meyers Chuck this morning and headed out into Clarence Strait and headed for the village of Kasaan, across the Strait and on the east side of Prince of Wales Island about 30 miles northwest of Ketchikan.

Kasaan (population around 53) is one of the only two Haida villages in Alaska, and gets its name from the Tlingit word meaning “beautiful place.” The Haida people migrated north from Haida Gwaii and established the village Gasa’aan, now known as “old Kasaan” on Skowl Arm seven miles from today’s Kasaan.

We tied up on the public float, which is very nice. In many of the reviews about Kasaan, there’s talk of how bad the dock is (things like “awash in anything but fair weather” and “a disaster waiting to happen” etc.) but from what we can see, things have been much improved since those reviews were written. The dock portion we’re on appears like new, and the other sections must have seen some improvements in recent years.

We headed up to explore the village, and find the trail to the once abandoned, now being restored Haida longhouse.

Boardwalk trail along the waterfront:

Cool stuff, this way:

The trail took us through rainforest, along the water, and over streams (with salmon still heading up ’em):

This longhouse is Alaska’s oldest Haida longhouse, called Naay I’waans (“The Great House” — also known as Chief Son-i-Hat Whale House), originally built by Chief Son-i-Hat in 1880. (Although Son-i-Hat is a Tlingit name meaning “well respected,” both the Chief and his wife were of Haida descent.)

There were 32 (I think) clan members who originally lived in the house. After Chief Son-i-Hat’s death in 1912, the family moved out of the longhouse and the structure eventually deteriorated (wood + rainforest = eventual ruin). The Civilian Conservation Corps rebuilt it in the late 1930s. (The totem pole in front of the house was carved by James Peele in 1939 during restoration, copied from the original.)

But of course the house would eventually need further restoration and repair, and in November 2013, the restoration project received a $450,000 grant from the Rasmuson Foundation. (The Rasmuson Foundation is an Anchorage-based private foundation to promote better lives for Alaskans, with focus on areas such as arts & culture, health, and social services).

The lead carver on the Whale House restoration project is Stormy Hamar, working with apprentices Eric Hamar (his son), Harley Bell-Holter, and Justin Henricks. We were greeted by Harley Holter who was super nice and from this spot on the roof gave us a thorough rundown on the project and some history of the longhouse and totems:

The totems inside the longhouse with the white faces are the originals from 1880, and the one in the center is much older. (I don’t think we learned where the center one came from, just that it was probably a couple hundred years old.)

They are all in remarkable condition considering their age!

The smoke hole in the center of the roof:

The view from in front of the longhouse, looking out into Kasaan Bay:

Birds on a log:

In the forest surrounding the Whale House are more totems:

Skáwaal Pole (below, aka First Eagle Pole). This pole is about 50-feet high and was one of two poles which stood in front of Chief Skáwaal’s Rib House. When the pole was moved to New Kasaan, the thunderbird figure at the top was replaced and the surface was carved down to solid wood during the CCC restoration. The carved figures below the ring appear the same for each pole: Raven with the moon in its beak; Raven holding his beak bent down in his hands; and at the base, a bear with cubs in its mouth. This pole was removed from the village and restored at New Kasaan:

The 40-foot Spencer Pole (below) was raised by Kate Gamede, a Kasaan woman of Táas Láanas clan, as a memorial to her husband, a photographer from Victoria, BC. The image of Mr. Spencer appears at the top of the pole; below appear scroll patterns; Raven carrying the moon in his mouth; and Black Skin, the strong man, holding the sea lion. The last figure illustrates a story familiar to the Haida and Tlingit; a weak boy who trained and finally overcame all of his stronger relatives. His chief exploit was tearing a sea lion in two to the consternation of his companions. This pole was taken down on December 22, 1938 in Old Kasaan and barged to the new site where it was adzed and re-carved by David Peele. [source]

Killer whale grave figure (a CCC reproduction):

Here are a couple of photos of old Kasaan, for reference:

The goal is to finish the Whale House restoration by December. We told Harley we’d come back next summer to see it, and he said we should come back for the big potlatch on September 3. (He also said to just beach the boat over in front of the longhouse, and that many people would be arriving by canoe.) We’ll definitely come back, but perhaps not beach the boat.

We walked back through the village and stopped at the carving shed and chatted with Justin. He was hand adzing some wall boards, but seemed happy to give it a break to show us some of the projects they’ve got going in there:

The curl on the sides of this canoe is from the tree’s original shape. To do the final shaping (so it’s not just a rollover-machine) they’ll take it out and fill it about half full of salt water and then place hot lava rocks inside, creating hot water and steam that will enable them manipulate the wood.

Paddles:

The carving shed recently hosted a free paddle workshop. So cool!!

After we left the shed we walked up to the school to check out the Unity Pole (raised in 2007) carved by Tsimshian master carver Stan Marsden (1930 to 2015). The pole’s base depicts a bear holding up a healing man with a basket of roses (also referred to as the “uninvited guest” who appears with a rose for everyone — the rose representing love, peace, and beauty–the guest is asked to stay). It also has a killer whale, eagle, raven and thunderbird, with three watchmen at the top.

On the way back to the dock, we saw a giant white slug (two of them, actually):

The weather just keeps improving, which is great because there’s a good chance for more Northern Lights tonight (if the sky is clear enough to see them):

Looking from the trail toward the public dock:

We are back at Airship now doing some work and our plan is to head over to Ketchikan tomorrow to start the watch-and-wait for a good Dixon Entrance crossing (and to do some laundry, and get some mail, and more groceries, but not the stuff we can’t take into Canada, like eggs or potatoes or garlic or lemons).

Not sure what we’ll do for dinner tonight yet, but it’s beautiful out, so we probably should take advantage of that and grill something.

Today’s route from Meyers Chuck to the village of Kasaan (our track in green, about 30 nautical miles):