If Sitka's Trees Could Talk: A Historical Walk

Sitka sits at the edge of the continent, where ancient rainforest meets a labyrinth of island-studded ocean. On this walking tour, you'll trace the relationship between this southeast Alaska town and the forests that shaped it, from Tlingit canoe-builders to the Pulp Mill era. You'll also hear how the Tongass National Forest – America's largest – got it's beginnings, and has changed throughout the years.

The tour starts at Harrigan Centennial Hall and follows Sitka's Sea Walk past the Russian Bishop's House, completed in 1842 using timber from Alaska's first sawmill. You'll learn how the Russians made charcoal on the slopes of Mount Verstovia to fuel their Russian American empire, and how Sitka Spruce – light, strong, and straight-grained – later became critical to Allied aircraft production in both World Wars.

The route along the Sea Walk will bring you to Sitka National Historic Park, where towering Hemlock and Spruce close in around you on the trail. Here you'll be amazed to discover all the richness of the ecology that defines the forests of Alaska panhandle. You'll also learn to identify Devil's Club, Witches' Brooms, fluted Hemlock, and the Red Alder clinging to riverbanks and shading salmon habitat. On your way back to town you will get to see a young-growth timber shelter that hints at forestry's future in the Tongass.

On this 90-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Examine a Tlingit dugout canoe and learn how fire and adze shaped it from a single tree
• See the Russian Bishop's House, one of the last surviving examples of Russian Colonial architecture in North America
• Walk along Yellow Cedar planking near the harbor and learn why this species was prized for shipbuilding
• Hear about a local logger named Porky Bickar and his exploits
• Discover a Dawn Redwood – a tree once thought extinct – grown from cuttings of a rare Alaskan survivor
• Learn how salmon, bears, and large woody debris in Indian River are all a part of this complicated ecosystem.

Bring your rain coat and a sense of curiosity – Sitka's forests have a past as complex and interesting as the ecosystem it is part of.

Photos Courtesy of Sitka Chapter of the Society of American Foresters, Alaska Digital Archives https://vilda.alaska.edu and USDA Forest Service Research Image Library (Barnard, Jeffrey C.; Nelson, Kellen N. 2025. Alaska forestry research historical images. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2025-0005