Sitka National Historical Park

March 13, 2014

 I am linking up with  Oh, the places I've been @ Tablescaper   and check out  Gemma's  Scenic Weekend   And Friday Postcards

I have done many post on our trips to various National Parks in the USA, I wanted to do one I missed on the  Sitka National Historical Park. The park is within walking distance of the cruise ship docks.

The photos in this post are from my archives but I realized I never posted much on our stop in Sitka.  We had one day to see and do as much as we could.  We paid for a tour which took hubby, son and I on a guided hike thru a pretty forest. After our guided hike, we still had time to explore we decided to check out the Totem Pole trail in the Sitka Nat'l Historical Park. The photos above show the Totem trail, it is one mile long in a beautiful temperate rainforest and includes the Indian River estuary. 

Originally the poles were donated by various village leaders to the governor of Alaska for the people of Alaska.. The poles were on exhibit in the 1904 St Louis World's Fair and then the poles were shipped to Sitka to be erected in a goverment park. Since 1904 the original poles deteriorated and replicas were carved.  At the time of our visit the poles on the trail were replicas. 

The Totem Poles tell a story about the people who carved them. On the right is a replica of the Raven/Shark Pole..showing at the top is a Raven then a shark or dogfish, a wolf or a fox and a bear used at the base figure.

There are 15 stops along the trail each displaying a totem pole.

On the left totem pole is the Wolf Pole. The top figure is a man possibly a village watchman, the middle figure is a wolf and the bottom is a salmon.  The wolf and salmon may represent the clan's crest symbols.   On the right is the Raven Memorial Pole, the oldest type of totem pole. A memorial pole is in honor of an individual either living or dead.

We were able to complete the Totem Trail and walk back to our cruise ship. I hope your enjoyed our walk and the cool Totem Poles..you can see that they each have a story to tell.

Thanks for stopping by and  I wish everyone a happy day!

I hope you enjoyed my post.  I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.  

 Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comments. Thanks for stopping by to see my post and thanks to Gemma for hosting Scenic Weekends. also thank to Alma the host @ The Tablescaper
And Keryn from Friday Postcards