In the Americas with David Yetman

[DAVID YETMAN] The rainiest place in North America lies not in the tropics, but in the panhandle of Alaska.

[GUEST] One of the more historic parts of Ketchikan.

[GUEST 2] There is a story behind every totem pole.

[DAVID] One small city, Ketchikan, is home to temperate rainforests and a national treasure only accessible by boat and air.

{DAVID ON RADIO COMMUNICATIONS} We are heading into Misty Fjords national monument.

{UPBEAT GUITAR CONCLUDES} [ANNOUNCER] Funding for in the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Robert and Carol Dorsey.

The Guilford Fund.

Arch and Laura Brown.

and Hugh and Joyce Bell.

{THEME PLAYS} [DAVID YETMAN] Ketchikan is the main city in the extreme southern Alaska.

The U.S.

purchased Alaska from Russia and negotiated with Great Britain over the boundaries.

Much to the dismay of the people who now live in Canada.

But we got the Panhandle.

It was first home to the salmon capital of the world.

{UPBEAT ACOUSTIC GUITAR} And then it became the gold capital of the United States and is now a tourism capital more than anything.

{UPBEAT ACOUSTIC GUITAR} You can only get there by boat or by air.

But its location at the southern end of what's called the Alaska Inland Passage is strategic.

It's the first city that you encounter in that particular passage, and it is a way that thousands of boats, each year can avoid the boisterous storms of the Pacific Ocean.

Ketchikan is close to a seldom visited unit of our national park system: Misty Fjords National Monument.

The rain is so intense here that the flight we hope for was canceled.

A boat ride will take us even through the rain, though, to see the fjords from below.

{UPBEAT GUITAR CONCLUDES} [CAPTAIN FISH] So this boat trip is called the Misty Fjords Trip.

The way I describe it to people is that instead of taking, say, a bus ride through Yosemite Valley, you're taking a boat ride through one.

So just like the Yosemite Valley, our misty fjord was carved out during an Ice Age event.

So we have really steep cliffs.

[DAVID] It's a treasure and viewed locally as a source of fame and small fortune for Ketchikan and for southeastern Alaska.

The most noted landmark in all of southeastern Alaska is this formation.

Its known as New Eddystone and its been known ever since the first European explorers, and probably the Native Americans, had names for it hundreds of hundred years before that.

It was the throat of a volcano, where rocks got caught as it erupted and hardened on the side.

And that becomes much harder than the surrounding ash.

And as the volcano aged about 5 million years ago, the softer stuff eroded away, leaving this.

It's also not far from the one of the entrances into Misty Fjords National Monument.

As we go around the corner, we'll enter into it and it's known as a landmark that marks the beginning of Misty Fjords.

{CALM ACOUSTIC GUITAR} There are only a few places in the world where fjords exist, and that's for good reason.

You have to have very specific conditions.

First of all, you'll have to have mountains that are underlain by very hard rock.

Second, you have to be far enough north to have a cold climate.

And third, you have to have huge amounts of rainfall to form glaciers.

The glaciers then, as they fall through the cracks, the faults in the rock carve it out and leave their mark.

So that they round out the bottom, ultimately into a V-shape.

And that's where the fjords are.

And usually what that means is that the canyon is big and has steep sides.

That's what we mean by fjord; its a Norwegian word, because the best known fjords are in Norway.

{LOUD WATERFALL} It's a never ending, cacophony of sounds of water and the whiteness of the water that shows up against the green of the vegetation and the dark colored granite, too.

{MUSIC CONCLUDES} The variety of waterfalls here is completely dependent upon the angle of the rock.

And in many places, like right here, it's not completely perpendicular.

So the water kind of slides down.

And as it does, it actually deposits some of the minerals that is absorbed, especially the phosphates, and it nourishes the growth of the lichens that grow all along here and gives it this odd green appearance.

[CAPTAIN FISH] It all depends on whether the fjords have been, refreshed with, rain as we had today.

So we had lots of, cascading waterfalls, in some parts of the summer when we don't have a lot of consecutive days of rain.

Those waterfalls will eventually dry up.

[DAVID] Above us, we can see what they call a cirque, which is a top ridge that is carved into the bowl shape by the action of the glaciers.

The amount of rainfall here and the elevation of the top as the warm air from the water rises, produces a constant appearance of fog and mist.

And so seldom do you see it completely clear days here.

So the fjords are misty and mysterious.

{MYSTERIOUS ORCHESTRAL MUSIC} Ketchikan is a town of 8000 people.

It is the fifth largest town city in Alaska.

{MUSIC CONCLUDES} {DAVID ANNOUNCES} Back from the boat ride, we meet up with the mayor of Ketchikan, who was eager to show us the more colorful spots in his city.

[DAVE KIFFER] What we're looking at here is, is one of the more historic parts of Ketchikan.

It was our red light district.

It was called Creek Street.

It was actually famous.

It was called in newspapers up and down the coast from California to New York City, it was called the Barbary Coast of the North. {DAVID LAUGHS} [DAVID] With good reason.

[KIFFER] With good reason.

It was basically and a semiofficial, you know, prostitution zone.

And at different times there were anywhere from 50 to 75, women working the houses along the creek.

It lasted for 50 years, from 1904 to 1954.

Though initially it was all kind of hush hush because the earlier parts of Creek Street was during prohibition.

Virtually every building on this street has trap doors in the basement, and boats would come up at high tide and unload alcohol.

You know, through the doors.

In fact, almost all the downtown businesses that still have, you know, on pilings, have trap doors for that, for that very reason.

{LOUD WATER RUSHES} The cloudyness you should see is basically the runoff from the from the rain.

[DAVID] From the rain we're having right now?

[KIFFER] Yeah.

As you can see, we see salmon all over the place.

[DAVID] That splashing is all salmon?

Are they spawning, going up to spawn?

[KIFFER] They are.

Basically every year about 2 million salmon come back to this stream.

[DAVID] And that's what the gulls are waiting for?

[KIFFER] Yes, the gulls are waiting for them to die.

We also have seals that come up here.

Sea lions.

[DAVID] So here we are right next to this boardwalk in town and we are looking at vegetation that would not be seen in very many other places, just the density of it here.

[KIFFER] One of the challenges here is people want to go for hikes around here.

And the reality is it's not safe because it's truly like a rainforest.

I mean, you can get 20 feet off a trail or boardwalk and you're totally lost.

[DAVID] When I see this real dramatic change in the vegetation, that's the high watermark for the tide?

[KIFFER] It is for the most part [DAVID] Thats a lot.

[KIFFER] There's a, well, it's about 20 foot tidal range from lows to highs during the day.

{UPBEAT GUITAR} There are numerous mines in this area that were built, you know, a hundred years ago.

You can't find any example there that they ever existed.

[DAVID] Because Ketchikan is not apparently a place where there were a lot of people, its not clear what resources they have.

What its history represents is a clear example of boom and bust economy.

There were originally salmon.

There were gold mines.

There certainly was timber.

And each of those had a rapid rise.

And an equally rapid descent as the resource panned out.

The timber industry was forced out by law.

The others were simply by a lack of no more of the resource.

But the challenge to a community like this, which is so isolating, you cant drive here, you have to either fly or take a boat, is how do you maintain a good economy?

The boom now is mostly tourism, but again, it is a an industry that booms in the summer months.

And when the rains set in, and itll rain almost every day, that industry somewhat dries up.

{DAVID ANNOUNCES} In Ketchikan, roads are limited.

We're fortunate to find a lake only a few miles from town.

The weather is hardly unusual, but it invites us on a wet hike.

{DAVID WALKING} We're on the island called Revillagigedo, which is where Ketchikan is located.

Named after a viceroy of New Spain.

We are lucky enough to find old growth rainforest, one of the great forests in the world.

And in terms of actual biomass, the actual amount of growth material probably the best in the world, the densest biomass anywhere more than even tropical rainforest.

The growth here is, maintained by this huge amount of rainfall.

150 inches of rain a year, and if we look ahead there, we can see these trees are a couple of hundred feet tall.

These, this is a typical old growth tree.

Its never been lumbered.

And when the lumbering does occur, an its been the object of huge controversy here in Tongass National Forest, the replacement trees, although there are a lot of them, and they grow and you can in a few decades, they can be harvested, these trees are a host of biodiversity of species that have taken millions of years to evolve with this forest, and the old growth maintains them in a balance that can't be matched by human activity.

There are only three areas in the world where this kind of forest is found, but this one is the lushest and the richest of all those forests.

One of the great controversies about the Tongass forests was the value of these trees.

Tree of this size on the market for this lumber is probably worth about 50,000 dollars.

Hence the desire of the lumbermen to cut them down and sell them.

But it will never, ever, if it is cut down, replace itself.

{DAVID ANNOUNCES} People who have lived here for hundreds of years know where the best trees grow for their cultural purposes.

Just south of Ketchikan is a smaller town of Saxman.

It was actually an old Tlingit settlement, and today many of the people who live here have Tlingit ancestry.

They have assembled here the largest collection of totem poles gathered from all over Tlingit territory.

Theyre of immense importance to Tlingit culture.

[JOE WILLIAMS] The intent was to bring, from outlying villages of the totem poles that stood on the beaches of of the villages.

[DAVID] So normally these would be on beaches, not up in the-- [JOE] That's correct.

That's correct.

And always totem poles were in front of a home.

There is a story behind every totem pole, but not all poles tell stories.

Start off with the, there is the story pole.

There's a potlatch pole and memorial pole.

Mortuary Pole.

A pole to show you which tribe or clan the owners belong.

There are two tribes.

Youre Eagle or Raven {unintelligible}.

We local people refer to them as tribes.

Eagle tribe.

Raven tribe.

You're one or the other.

A woman's role plays a very major part.

Why?

Because all the children become what the mother is.

I'm an eagle because of my mother.

And she is an eagle because of her mother before her.

Right on up the line.

When one marries, one must marry into the opposite tribe.

That's what's really exciting for me today, is that the younger generation speak their language more fluently than I do.

And it's because of the internet.

Our elders taught us to take care of our elders.

So here in the community of Saxman, we have and respect other cultures like the Haidas and the Tsimshian folks, and of course the non-native, the whitemen.

In the Tlingit culture, we never do anything to embarrass the family.

The most important part is the salmon, but it comes in seasons.

Chinook is the first to come.

Then that's followed by coho salmon.

That's followed by sockeye salmon.

And now here we are, mid-late August, we're in the dog salmon time.

I always taught never take anything more than you can eat.

Don't ever let anything spoil.

All these, totem poles.

They were brought from outlining communities to create this park, to, continue to pass on the the culture.

And then that's what put Saxman on the visitor industry map.

Over 100,000 visitors annually come into this community just to view the totem poles.

Not many folks see such a huge piece of art.

{HAPPY GUITAR ENDS} And as you see, the top here is of the dorsal fin of the killer whale.

The killer whale, and the brown bear are like cousins.

And so this can be proudly displayed as it's being done.

The pole could have been just with the brown bear.

But also keep in mind, the taller the pole, the greater the wealth.

[DAVID] Those are two pretty powerful symbols too.

Theyre about the most powerful we got.

[JOE] Story of this pole is to show you how the Eagle Tribe claimed the brown bear as a family.

This house post poll, okay?

Meaning inside a house.

[DAVID] Inside a house?

And that's why its short.

[JOE] In this case, there are two.

As you can see, here, and one on the other side.

This is the Tired Wolf Poll.

[DAVID] And hes got his tongue hanging out?

[JOE[ And this is how the eagle tribe claim the wolf as part of their clan.

[DAVID] The islands that make up this part of Alaska are unending and some of them huge, some of them tiny.

There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them, but each one of them then creates interesting habitat for passing mammals as well as the boats.

The great cruise ships come right through here, as well as the orcas and even occasionally whales.

The number of highways is limited.

There are only 40 miles of actual highways on the island, so you can't drive very far.

We've received a message from a pilot that bears have been seen visiting a remote location.

Only a plane and a hike can get us there.

{INSPIRING MUSIC BEGINS} {PLANE ENGINE OVERHEAD} We're heading down a trail that leads to a stream where the bears are fishing for salmon.

We have already been cautioned to watch for bears on the trail.

Were all keeping together, which is a requirement.

The Forest Service has set up this really nice pavilion here with little holes for bear watching.

If we're lucky, we'll see bears.

We certainly know that it's the time the salmon are running.

So we would expect to see the salmon.

The salmon are jumping.

Looks like the Forest Service and maybe Game and Fish has put in a little, salmon ladder here for them.

In case the current is too strong, they can go up that ladder and get around the waterfall.

And they are of the world's supreme salmon fisher.

They know how to catch the fish.

They know how to strip them.

They will eat the parts they want and throw the rest of it away.

For most northwest people, the bear is a totemic animal.

As we look at the totem poles, which the Tlingits have made, we find the bear frequently represented.

{LOUD STREAM} Mama black bear just showed up.

She's a young one.

She's not a really big one.

But behind her, yeah, she has a cub.

And, she is teaching the cub how to fish.

Staying pretty close to mom, which is a good idea.

{INSPIRING GUITAR} As we return from the bear sighting, the pilot tells us that through some meteorological miracle, the weather is clearing.

She can take us to Misty fjords.

{PLANE ENGINE SOUNDS} [MICHELLE MASDEN] On a flight with us to Misty Fjords, in a two hour time span, you'll see approximately 5% of the total monument.

And in the 70s, when Jimmy Carter made this a monument, logging was the main economy here in Ketchikan.

So Jimmy Carter's decision to set aside a national monument here was not popular in 1977.

[DAVID] {OVER RADIO COMMUNICATIONS} We are heading into Misty Fjords National Monument, one of the least visited of all the national park units.

[MICHELLE] I came to Alaska in 1985 to work a summer job as a college kid with the idea I was going on to, work for the airlines.

I started flying in high school, got my license when I was 17, and the first day I got here, I went for a ride in a floatplane because Im from Nebraska and I'd never seen a floatplane before, and actually went on a tour to Misty Fjords National Monument.

It only took me about a minute and a half in a floatplane to realize that this place would never get old.

The reality is, this area has about 5000 total islands, and Alaska has 3 million freshwater lakes.

So if you own a floatplane here, the world is your oyster.

And that kind of freedom doesn't exist anywhere else on earth.

{INSPIRING MUSIC} {PLANE ENGINE} [DAVID] The number of islands in the Alexander Archipelago is astonishing.

[MICHELLE] If you look out to your right here, You're going to have a really great view of quite a few islands looking towards the Canada border.

There you have eagles, ravens, river otters, bears, mink, martin, sable, timberwolves, all feeding on salmon.

About 70% of our forest is western hemlock followed by Sitka spruce.

So if you look at the shoreline here, you'll see there's some beaches exposed.

Now the tides in Southeast Alaska can range between 12ft and 24ft, depending on the moon phase.

Coming up on our left side is our first waterfall.

So Jimmy Carter was the one who set this aside back in 1977.

He was interested in preserving some of our rainforests.

So he set aside 2.2 million acres, which is approximately the size of Connecticut and land area.

The predominant underlying rock in this region is granite, and granite is not a porous rock.

Anywhere that's flat will just hold the water.

It can't drain through the granite and it forms this boggy area we call muskeg. So a fjord is a glacial valley that was dug out both above and below sea level by the advancing ice.

So in this region, the ice was 5000ft above sea level, and a place is 3000ft below sea level.

But we also have many glacial valleys.

So on your far left there, that's Punchbowl Cove.

Below us is Punchbowl Lake, and up ahead of us here is the punchbowl wall.

If we could go back in time 17,000 years, the ice would be 1500 feet over our head.

Where we are in space.

Right here.

[PRODUCER] A lot of these waterfalls, they'd have to flow year round, right?

Because one lakes are higher than others?

[MICHELLE] Yep.

Yep.

They do flow year round.

So that's where fjord and glacial valley meet right there.

The only difference between a fjord and a glacial valley is a fjord has the ocean at the bottom and a glacial valley does not.

And that's where they meet on your right.

So the headwall of a glacier, when it starts its downward curving trajectory, creates a cirque.

And the beginning.

[DAVID] It's hard to comprehend the amount of granite that existed, in this whole range.

And the arrival of these, the vast ice sheets the mile thick away and the direction, the configurations that the ice sheets move to carve these intricate canyons and then the fjords, at the ocean bottom.

But the complexity of it all, adds to the majesty and depth of the sculpting of the canyons.

[MICHELLE] Coming up here, guys you got one last look up into the fjord.

So, in flying to Rudyerd Bay, we've seen only about 5% of the total Misty Fjords National Monument.

There's 13 more fjords and countless more lakes that we haven't seen.

They've done some carbon dating on the animal bones in this area.

And the oldest animal remains are about 2000 years old.

So prior to that, they figured this was completely covered in ice.

[DAVID] Ketchikan has experienced numerous booms and busts in its history, which is not much more than 100 or so years.

The current boom seems to be connected with the cruise ship population that comes in the summertime, when thousands and thousands of people are disgorged into the town, overwhelming its ability to deal with them.

But when those cruise ships are gone, what remains behind is a town located at the edge of the greatest rainforest of temperate nature in the world, the great temperate rainforest of Ketchikan in the panhandle of Alaska.

{MUSIC CONCLUDES} Join us next time In the Americas with me, David Yetman.

The Mexican state of Chiapas shares a border with Guatemala.

Until the 21st century, most of its people were Mayas or descendants of Mayas.

Today, one very traditional people continue their lives close to the earth in the Lacandon jungle.

Their information is proving critical to understanding the archeology of that region.

{HAPPY GUITAR STRUMMING} [DAVID] So what's over here on the right?

[MICHELLE] Thats, the big building is an old salmon cannery that was built in the 1800s.

{GUITAR STRUMMING CONCLUDES} {ANNOUNCER} Funding for in the Americas with David Yetman was provided by Robert and Carol Dorsey, The Guilford Fund, Arch and Laura Brown, and Hugh and Joyce Bell.