Map of Ketchikan, Alaska by USGS, 1991 – Tongass Narrows, Gravina Island & Annette Island

Titled “Ketchikan B-5 SW,” this 1991 provisional topographic map was produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, the federal agency whose maps have long defined the visual language of American landscape science. Issued at the detailed scale of 1:25,000, it presents the intricate coastal world of southeastern Alaska with remarkable clarity: a terrain of steep slopes, broken shorelines, sheltered channels, forested islands, and maritime settlements. The “Provisional” designation gives the map a particular documentary interest, suggesting a working cartographic record assembled from the best available data at the time, pending later refinement. It captures Ketchikan and its surrounding waterways at a moment when the city’s fishing, timber, transport, and tourism economies were closely tied to the geography of the Alexander Archipelago.

Ketchikan appears here not as an isolated town, but as part of a richly interconnected coastal environment. Set along Tongass Narrows, the city occupies a narrow band between sea and mountain, a pattern typical of southeastern Alaska communities where buildable land is scarce and waterways function as highways. The map’s contour lines reveal how quickly the terrain rises from the shore, emphasizing the dramatic compression of human settlement against rugged topography. Nearby Herring Cove, Clover Pass, and smaller settlement areas speak to the importance of sheltered anchorages and navigable channels. In this landscape, every inlet, point, island, and passage matters, shaping routes of travel, patterns of habitation, and the working geography of salmon fishing, logging, and maritime commerce.

The surrounding islands give the map much of its power and complexity. Revilla Island, home to Ketchikan, is shown in relation to Gravina Island, Annette Island, Indian Island, and the broader island-studded coast that defines this part of Alaska. Across the region, coastal lines twist into bays, coves, narrows, and passages, producing a geography that is both beautiful and demanding. Prince of Wales Island and the nearby archipelago form part of a vast maritime frontier where tides, weather, and forested mountains have always influenced movement. The map’s topographic style transforms these features into a precise visual system: contour intervals, shorelines, and hydrographic detail combine to show not merely location, but the physical character of a living coastal landscape.

Tongass National Forest provides an essential backdrop to the map’s historical and environmental significance. As the largest national forest in the United States, the Tongass is a temperate rainforest of immense ecological richness, encompassing old-growth stands, salmon streams, wetlands, alpine ridges, and deeply indented fjords. On this sheet, the forested terrain around Ketchikan is rendered through the disciplined vocabulary of USGS cartography, where elevation, drainage, and shoreline geometry reveal the structure beneath the landscape’s dense vegetation. The topographic character is especially striking: closely spaced contours mark abrupt slopes and mountainous ground, while waterways and coastal margins indicate the region’s dependence on marine access. It is a map of both wilderness and utility, balancing scientific measurement with the practical needs of navigation, land management, and regional planning.

As a 1991 record, “Ketchikan B-5 SW” offers a valuable snapshot of southeastern Alaska before later decades of development, environmental change, and shifting economic priorities. Comparing it with modern mapping would reveal changes in infrastructure, settlement patterns, transportation links, and perhaps even the representation of natural features. Yet its appeal lies not only in what may have changed, but in what endures: the steep meeting of mountain and sea, the sheltered passages of Tongass Narrows and Clover Pass, and the island geography that continues to define Ketchikan’s identity. The map exemplifies late twentieth-century USGS craftsmanship, translating a remote and intricate coastal region into an elegant, information-rich composition. It is both a scientific document and a portrait of place, grounded in the landscape’s enduring drama.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Ketchikan
• Annette Island
• Prince of Wales Island
• Tongass National Forest
• Revilla Island
• Gravina Island
• Clover Pass
• Tongass Narrows
• Herring Cove
• Indian Island
• Settlement areas
• Various coastal lines and waterways

Historical context & cartographic details

• Map name: Ketchikan B-5 SW
• Produced by the US Geological Survey (USGS), a scientific agency of the U.S. government known for comprehensive geological maps and research
• Created and published in 1991
• Labeled as “Provisional,” indicating that it may contain preliminary data pending further verification or completion
• Presented in a topographical style at a scale of 1:25,000
• Uses contour lines extensively to show elevation changes, landforms, mountainous terrain, and coastal features
• Captures a 1991 snapshot of Ketchikan and its surroundings, including infrastructure, population patterns, and natural features of the period

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