Ḵaatx’waaltú (Place with lots of Rocks)

Kluktu was the site of George Davidson’s “Station Kohklux” [17]. After the U.S. purchase of Alaska from the Russians in 1867, George Davidson was sent to survey the southeast coast of the new territory. That year, he placed U.S. Alaskan Survey monument #1 at the summit of Pyramid Island in Haines, and noted that Klukwan would be directly in the path of totality of the solar eclipse to occur in 1869 [16]. Davidson returned on July 26th, 1869, with a small scientific team and large payload of optical instruments to observe the eclipse. His team (which elected to proceed without soldiers for protection) was welcomed by the Chilkat chief Kohklux with hospitality. As the eclipse occurred between parted clouds, the Chilkats, who apparently knew nothing of eclipses and doubted the predictions of the white men, were awed by the natural spectacle that unfolded. Kohklux thought Davidson and his instruments to be responsible for the eclipse, and capable of strong magic. To learn from Davidson how he made the sun go away, Kohklux offered in return to draw for Davidson a map of the Chilkat route to Fort Selkirk and back [1] [16] [8]. This artful document, which took multiple days to complete entirely from memory, was drawn in 3D, with scale recorded by travel time rather than distance. It was the first time Kohklux had used a pencil. The map can be seen using the Map Overlay button in the top-left corner of the screen.