For the 2011 Labor Day Long Week-end we took a trip up to Stewart where British Columbia borders Alaska, USA. Just over the border past Hyder, Alaska is a creek where the bears still come for their daily feed of fresh salmon. Hence our incentive for this road trip.
However, when we turned onto our road that lead us to Alaska at Kitwanga (Gitwangak) the last thing we were expecting to be greeted with was this…
This is the top of the totem on far left.
Finding information on these amazing historic works of art is quite the feat. From what I can glean is the aboriginals of the area carved and erected these wonderful creations back in the late 1800′s. The carvings on top were the guardians of this area, in particular the important trade routes of the aborigines of that time.
The size of these carvings is unbelievable, for instance here is Miss Eight sitting at the base of one of them…
What even more extraordinary was this beautiful church just to the other-side of these Totem Poles.
In front of this church was the most incredible tower. If only there’d been someone around to share some history on it!
