A history of Klukwan,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Klukwan from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Klukwan began as a Chilkat Tlingit village along the trade route later known as the Dalton Trail. In 1880, the U.S. Navy reported the name of the village as "Chilcat of Klukquan". The name is Tlakw Áan in Tlingit, meaning roughly "forever village" due to its antiquity. Klukwan is the only remaining of five Chilkat villages that were in the area before 1900.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Klukwan’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewChilkat Indians watching Klukwan …, 1898: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Klukwan, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Klukwan is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Klukwan has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Porcupine District in Covenant Life, 12.6 miles away.
Klukwan and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Chilkat Indians watching Klukwan Potlatch ceremony, Alaska, October 11, 1898 (1898) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15From Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.