Someone along the way told us that Hazelton had the best collection of authentic totems in all of Alaska & BC, so off the beaten path we go to find a nice, low-cost municipal rv park. To our surprise, the park is located next to a row of preserved & re-created long houses, very authentic in their construction and the contents inside. The fronts of these were decorated in intricate patterns, all hand carved & painted.
They offered a great tour inside, complete with an individual guide, and ceremonial artifacts and a fire going in each. We respected their request of no pictures within, so I guess you'll just have to take a vacation there to see for yourself.
There were several nice examples of totems outside...but we learned from our tourguide that a few miles away, in the older section of town, a larger number of well preserved totems were standing at a public park. It was an overcast day withlight rain falling when we found the place. So, the light was pretty poor, I apologize for the pix, but at least you'll get a feel for the uniqueness of these giants....
