Ketchikan History

Ketchikan's history dates back to 1883, when a man named Snow built a salmon saltery. Two years later, businessmen from Portland, Oregon, hired Mike Martin to investigate possibilities for building a salmon cannery on the banks of Ketchikan Creek. By the early 1900's, Martin and the cannery's manager, George Clark, had set up a partnership and had opened a saltery and a general store. Two years later, with the fishing trade flourishing, Ketchikan was definitely in business. And by 1900, with a population of 800, the town was officially incorporated.












With mining activities beginning in the area, Ketchikan became an important trading community, with an estimated two-thirds of miners' wages reportedly ending up in the bars and bordellos of Creek Street. Despite a mining decline, the fishing industry and timber operations began to grow with establishment of the Ketchikan Spruce Mills early in the century. In 1954, Ketchikan Pulp Mill was completed at nearby Ward Cove, assuring jobs not only in town, but in the surrounding woods as well. Today, the logging industry has nearly disappeared and Ketchikan is now starting to focus on another mainstay, tourism.