Creek Street Ketchikan: The Wild History of Alaska's Most Famous Boardwalk

Creek Street in Ketchikan is one of the most photographed spots in Alaska—a boardwalk of colorful wooden houses perched on stilts over a rushing creek, where salmon swim right under your feet.

Today it's full of shops, galleries, and cruise visitors. But a hundred years ago, Creek Street Ketchikan was something very different: the town's red-light district, where loggers, miners, and fishermen came to spend their pay.

Long before the boardwalk, the Tlingit people fished this creek for salmon. They called it Kitschk-hin, often translated as "Thundering Wings of an Eagle," for the rush of fish that filled its waters every summer. That name eventually became "Ketchikan."

TAKE A SELF-GUIDED TOUR OF KETCHIKAN:

The Ketchikan Historic Downtown Walking Tour is a self-guided GPS audio tour that ends right on Creek Street. It starts at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center and winds through downtown, then takes the wooded Married Man's Trail down to the creek.

Along the way you'll learn:

• Why the Married Man's Trail got its cheeky name

• Which Creek Street house was named for the star on its dance floor

• How a woman named Dolly ran her own business on Creek Street for decades

• Why locals say the creekside houses are home to playful ghosts

  
  

The walk takes about an hour and starts a short walk from the cruise ship docks.

Check out the Ketchikan Historic Downtown Walking Tour here.

HOW CREEK STREET BECAME A RED-LIGHT DISTRICT:

In the early 1900s, Ketchikan was booming with canneries, gold rush traffic, and timber camps. Saloons and brothels popped up all over downtown, and the city council wanted them out of sight. In 1903, a city order pushed the brothels onto the stilted houses along Ketchikan Creek, and Creek Street was born.

For the next 50 years, Creek Street was the wildest part of town. During Prohibition, the houses also hid bootleg whiskey. The brothels were finally outlawed in 1954, and the street slowly turned into the shopping boardwalk visitors see today.

WHAT TO SEE ON CREEK STREET:

Dolly's House—Creek Street's only remaining brothel, now a museum. Thelma "Dolly" Arthur lived here from 1919 until the 1970s, and the house still has her original furniture and cabbage rose wallpaper.

The Star—Once the largest brothel on Creek Street, named for the star inlaid in its wooden dance floor.

The Married Man's Trail—A wooded path that once let married men reach Creek Street without being seen from the main road.

The Salmon Ladder—Concrete steps beside a waterfall on Ketchikan Creek, where thousands of salmon leap upstream from July through September.

The Cape Fox funicular—A short tram that climbs from the Creek Street boardwalk up to Cape Fox Lodge.

The Chief Johnson Totem Pole—A totem pole near the mouth of Ketchikan Creek, honoring a Tlingit chief and his clan's eagle crest.

TIPS FOR VISITING CREEK STREET:

• Go early or late. Creek Street is busiest at midday when several cruise ships are in port.

• Look down. In late summer, salmon swim right under the boardwalk on their way upstream.

• Watch your step. The wooden boardwalk can be slippery in the rain, and it rains a lot in Ketchikan.

• Save time for Dolly's House. Admission was about $10 at the time of writing.

PLAN YOUR TRIP:

Want the full breakdown—where to eat, where to stay, and the best things to do in Ketchikan beyond Creek Street? Our Ketchikan travel guide covers all of it.

Check out our Ketchikan travel guide to plan your trip.