Icy Strait Point

 

ABOUT HOONAH (TLINGIT: XUNAA, GAAW YAT’AḴ AAN)

Nestled against the base of White Alice Mountain, Hoonah is the largest Tlingit village in Alaska. The town is located on Chichagof Island, about 30 miles west of Juneau along Icy Strait in the Inside Passage. The Huna, a Tlingit tribe, have lived in the Icy Strait area for thousands of years. In 1912, the Hoonah Packing Co. built a large salmon cannery north of town. The cannery operated on and off under different ownership until the early 1950s, and it sat shuttered for decades until the local Alaska Native corporation, Huna Totem Corp., purchased and rehabilitated the facility to create the private cruise port now called Icy Strait Point.

After Inian Islands this was our second stop of the day. The sun came out and we were the only ship in this small port. You can take the tram up to the top of the mountain for $50 where they have shopping I think and the Worlds Longest Zipline, which we didn't do. We walked through the forest to the Cannery. You can take a free Transporter over there but we went for the forest walk. 

I meant to take the 1.5 mile walk to Hoonah but never did figure out how to get there. I thought that from the landing we would find the walk, so we ended up just going through the cannery museum, ordering a beer and making new friends from our cruise. 

There was a very small graveyard where the burial spots were adorned with coins. 

A coin left on a headstone lets the deceased soldier's family know that somebody stopped by to pay their respect. A penny means you visited. A nickel means you and the deceased veteran trained at boot camp together. A dime means you and the deceased veteran served together in some capacity.