Sitka National Historical Park turns 100 years old today. I wish I could be there to mark the occasion!
Sitka National Historical Park Exhibit Hall (Photo: Mark Zeiger).
Despite the long and grand name, this park will always be “Totem Park” to me, and to untold numbers of people who like me, have known and loved the place. Particularly, I’m thinking of those, like me, who were lucky enough to be children there.
100 years ago, the park held original totem poles from Tlingit and Kaigani Haida villages in Southeast Alaska. Many of the poles in the park had previously been exhibited at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. Many of the poles were replicated in the 1930s. Some have been replicated again since then.
I wrote about Totem Park here last October. I don’t have much to add, unless I just start rambling on about my many memories of the park. Instead, I’ll just share a few of the hundreds of photos I’ve taken there over the years.
The bottom figure of the "Mosquito Legend Pole" Sitka National Historical Park (Photo: Mark Zeiger).
The bottom portion of the "Mosquito Legend Pole" Sitka National Historical Park (Photo: Mark Zeiger)
The top portion of the "Mosquito Legend Pole" Sitka National Historical Park (Photo: Mark Zeiger)
Totem commemorating "the battle for Sitka," Sitka National Historical Park (Photo: Mark Zeiger)