The Southeast Alaska Discovery Center is a visitor center in Ketchikan, Alaska, operated by the United States Forest Service as part of the Tongass National Forest. [1] The center provides interpretive exhibits and activities about the ecology, economy and culture of Southeast Alaska and its temperate rainforest ecosystems.
The building was designed by Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects, led by the team of Grant Jones and noted indigenous architect Johnpaul Jones.
The Discovery Center has four main exhibit halls, focusing respectively on the coastal rainforest ecosystem, Alaska Native cultures, other ecosystems of Southeast Alaska, and modern human uses of natural resources. Additionally, there is an exhibit honoring Elizabeth Peratrovich, a Tlingit civil rights leader, for whom the center's theater is named.
Southeast Alaska, often abbreviated to Southeast or Southeastern, and sometimes called the Alaska(n) Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The majority of Southeast Alaska's area is part of the Tongass National Forest, the United States' largest national forest. In many places, the international border runs along the crest of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. The region is noted for its scenery and mild, rainy climate.
Totem poles are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large trees, mostly western red cedar, by First Nations and Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast including northern Northwest Coast Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian communities in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth communities in southern British Columbia, and the Coast Salish communities in Washington and British Columbia.
Ketchikan is a city in and the borough seat of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough of Alaska. It is the state's southeasternmost major settlement. Downtown Ketchikan is a National Historic District.
Klawock is a city in Prince of Wales–Hyder Census Area, in the U.S. state of Alaska, on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, on Klawock Inlet, across from Klawock Island. The population was 755 at the 2010 census, down from 854 in 2000. It is located 90 kilometres (56 mi) from Ketchikan, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from Craig, and 39 kilometres (24 mi) from Hollis.
The City and Borough of Wrangell is a borough in Alaska, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 2,127, down from 2,369 in 2010.
The Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska is the largest U.S. National Forest at 16.7 million acres. Most of its area is temperate rain forest and is remote enough to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and fauna. The Tongass, which is managed by the United States Forest Service, encompasses islands of the Alexander Archipelago, fjords and glaciers, and peaks of the Coast Mountains. An international border with Canada runs along the crest of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. The forest is administered from Forest Service offices in Ketchikan. There are local ranger district offices located in Craig, Hoonah, Juneau, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, Thorne Bay, Wrangell, and Yakutat.
The Pacific temperate rainforests of western North America is the largest temperate rain forest region on the planet as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The Pacific temperate rainforests lie along the western side of the Pacific Coast Ranges along the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America from the Prince William Sound in Alaska through the British Columbia Coast to Northern California, and are part of the Nearctic realm, as also defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The Pacific temperate rain forests are characterized by a high amount of rainfall, in some areas more than 300 cm (10 ft) per year and moderate temperatures in both the summer and winter months.
The Tlingit language is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada and is a branch of the Na-Dene language family. Extensive effort is being put into revitalization programs in Southeast Alaska to revive and preserve the Tlingit language and culture.
Admiralty Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska, at 57°44′N134°20′W. It is 145 km (90 mi) long and 56 km (35 mi) wide with an area of 4,264.1 km2 (1,646.4 sq mi), making it the seventh-largest island in the United States and the 132nd largest island in the world. It is one of the ABC islands in Alaska. The island is nearly cut in two by the Seymour Canal; to its east is the long, narrow Glass Peninsula. Most of Admiralty Island—955,747 acres (3,868 km2)—is protected as the Admiralty Island National Monument administered by the Tongass National Forest. The Kootznoowoo Wilderness encompasses vast stands of old-growth temperate rainforest. These forests provide some of the best habitat available to species such as brown bears, bald eagles, and Sitka black-tailed deer.
Cape Fox Village is a locality in Southeast Alaska near present-day Ketchikan. It is the site of a former village called Gaash of the Cape Fox people of the Tlingit. The location of the village is on the east side of Revillagigedo Channel, four miles south of Boca de Quadra. The name was recorded in 1880 by Ivan Petroff during the 10th Census, who reported 100 Tlingit still living there. During the Harriman Expedition of Alaska that took place in 1899 several native artifacts that were important to the neighboring populations of Cape Fox were removed and relocated to several academic institutions across the United States, including the Field Museum in Chicago, and Cornell University. The expedition saw the artifacts as inanimate objects from a deserted village. To the Tlingit living nearby, the artifacts were a sacred part of their identity. This event is referred as the "Looting of Cape Fox." Since the looting, several artifacts have been returned to Tlingit communities near Cape Fox in an effort to return stolen artifacts to the ancestors of who created them.
Fort Tongass was a United States Army base on Tongass Island, in the southernmost Alaska Panhandle, located adjacent to the village of the group of Tlingit people on the east side of the island. Fort Tongass was the first US Army base established in Alaska following its purchase from the Russian Empire in 1867 and was garrisoned by the 2nd U.S. Artillery under the command of Captain Charles H. Peirce. Historian Hubert Howe Bancroft notes: "the site was well chosen, containing a plentiful supply of timber and pasture, while fish and game abound in the neighbourhood.
Nathan Jackson is an Alaska Native artist. He is among the most important living Tlingit artists and the most important Alaskan artists. He is best known for his totem poles, but works in a variety of media.
On Your Knees Cave (49-PET-408) is an archaeological site located in southeastern Alaska. Human remains were found at the site in 1996 that dated between 9,730 ±60 and 9,880±50 radiocarbon YBP or a calendrical date of 10,300 YBP. In addition to human skeletal remains, stone tools and animal bones were discovered. DNA analyses performed on the human skeletal remains document the presence of mitochondrial haplogroup D which occurs widely in the Americas. Isotopic analysis indicated that the individual had a primarily marine based diet.
Located in Ketchikan, Alaska, the Tongass School of Arts and Sciences is a creative school. It has its own preschool and is available to grades K-6.
The Totem Heritage Center is a historical and cultural museum founded in 1976 and located in Ketchikan, Alaska. The center is operated by the city of Ketchikan.
Tongass Narrows is a Y-shaped channel, part of Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage. The waterway forms part of the Alaska Marine Highway and as such, is used by charter, commercial fishing, and recreational vessels, as well as commercial freight barges and tanks, kayaks and passenger ferries.
Ketchikan Creek is a salmon spawning stream on Revillagigedo Island in the U.S. state of Alaska. It heads in a lake and travels through downtown Ketchikan 6 miles (9.7 km) to Tongass Narrows. The historic Creek Street in Ketchikan runs along the creek banks as a piling-perched boardwalk.
Saxman Totem Park is a public park in the city of Saxman, Alaska, just south of Ketchikan in southeastern Alaska. The park is home to a collection of totem poles, some of which are old poles relocated to this place from unoccupied Tlingit villages in the region, or were reconstructed by skilled Tlingit carvers under the auspices of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The poles originated in the communities of Old Tongass, Cat Island, Village Island, Pennock Island, and Fox Village. One of the carved items recovered from unoccupied villages is a marble statue of a grizzly bear. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The Pioneer Square totem pole, also referred to as the Seattle totem pole and historically as the Chief-of-All-Women pole, is a Tlingit totem pole located in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, Washington.
Coordinates: 55°20′26″N131°38′39″W / 55.34056°N 131.64417°W
 | This Alaska museum-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This article about a location in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |