Ketchikan to Klawock

Guest Bloggers: Mihalis Protopapadakis and Amanda Flory

This year the College of Wooster Tree Ring Lab flew to Ketchikan for our 2024 Alaska trip. July 6th and 7th were spent in Ketchikan, where we collected samples from Deer Mountain after a rigorous hike. On July 8th we took a ferry to Prince of Wales Island, where we collaborated with Alaska Youth Stewards in the city of Klawock to create a new tree-ring record of the region. While in Klawock, we had the opportunity to bond with the AYS team and explore the local Tlingit culture.

The city of Ketchikan on a rare sunny day.

The Wooster team in front of a Tlingit totem pole.

The view from halfway up Deer Mountain.

Dr. Wiles riding the saddleback of two cedars.

The Wooster team hard at work.

Sun-rays peeking through remnants of possible staurolite crystals in the phyllite bedrock.

The Deer Mountain tree-ring data up to 1998. The chronology highlights the volcanic eruptions of the 1690s and 1809, extending the tail-end of the Little Ice Age. The team collected samples to update the record with the last 25 years.

Kite surfer catching the waves of the ferry to Prince of Wales island.

Meeting the AYS team and other collaborators in Klawock.

The team after a hard day’s work, in front of a magnificent yellow cedar.

The Wooster team coring a dead cedar deep in the mountains.

The AYS experts coring a cedar.

Bob, the instructor of the AYS group, posing with style.

The temperate rainforest around Klawock.

A beautiful moth posing on cedar.

Old logging road on the way to our second site of the day.

Monument of chainsaws by the team’s airbnb.

We spent our third day in Klawock at the Craig Tribal Association’s Culture Camp.

Nick and Proto carving traditional halibut hooks.

After the Culture Camp, we visited Sealaska’s totem tree yard to collect more samples.

Marked totem log, soon to be sent off to Alaskan artist DB.

Proto coring an enormous cedar log (could not reach the middle).