Totems and tin cans

We arrived in Prince Rupert with the idea that we would get the ferry to Ketchikan. Unfortunately, that would mean staying in Prince Rupert for several days while we waited for a ferry that would travel during the day, give us some time to see Ketchikan, and find a ferry to take back to Prince Rupert. And all ended up being pretty expensive, even for a walk-on.

So instead, we browsed through the tourism books and picked a few things to see here. One of the reasons for going to Ketchikan was to see totems, and it turned out there were some to see here. There was also the Northern British Columbia Museum which had exhibits on the First Nations. The carving and basketry is really impressive. It is very similar to the sweet grass weaving that is done in Coastal Carolina, but quite a bit more intricate. Some of the littlest baskets are woven with grasses no bigger than a piece of thread.

We were able to find several of the totems around the city. They are carved out of one tree, but not solid. There is a pole inside, rather like a utility pole, that is in the ground which actually holds the totem up.

The travel booklets had talked about a carvers shed, but the young lady at the museum said that it was no longer available.

If you have read "Alaska" by James Michener, you will recall the history of the canneries on coast of Alaska and Canada. There was supposed to be a refurbished cannery that gave tours, had "delightful" dining opportunities, and performances depicting the daily lives of the people in the canneries. Well, not quite. It seems that the refurbished cannery has fallen on hard times, or maybe the writer of the brochures has high hopes and quite an imagination!

But it was interesting. They have done a good job of showing how canning was done manually next to the modernized, automated canning of the early 1900's.

Jim remembered this machine from the book and how it had to be custom made to chop up the salmon to get it ready to can. He says the job was messy!

Too bad it did not live up to the info about it, or maybe someday it will. There wasn't really anything to keep us in Prince Rupert, we did almost everything there, there were no cruise ships in, and it was a British Columbian holiday, so the town was very quiet.

So, off we go to the lower 48. We quickly changed from snow covered mountains and raging rivers to rolling hills and wheat fields. The rolled wheat looks a lot like home! We will head toward Washington to spend time in the Olympic National Park.

Jim and Sue