Ketchikan

JUNE 15, 2014: Ketchikan (Tlingit: Kichx̱áan) is the port of entry to southeastern Alaska. Situated on southwestern Revillagigedo Island and part of the Alexander Archipelago, it lies 235 miles (380 km) south of Juneau. The site was originally a fishing settlement for the Tongass and Cape Fox Tlingit Indians, who named a creek in the area Kitschk-hin, meaning “Thundering Wings of an Eagle.” In the 1880s, a cannery was built, and the area became a supply center for miners during the gold rush of the 1890s. The canning of fish (particularly salmon) subsequently became the city’s chief economic activity. Logging and lumbering also developed, especially during World War II, though Ketchikan’s pulp mill closed in 1997. More than a sixth of the city’s population is Alaskan native or American Indian.