The small community of HAINES sits on a peninsula between the Chilkat and the Chilkoot inlets at the northern end of the longest and deepest fjord in the US, Lynn Canal. The town tends to be overshadowed by its brasher neighbor, Skagway, but it remains a real Alaskan experience nonetheless. When the weather is clear, it is nothing short of spectacular, with snow-covered Mount Ripinsky rising up behind, the Chilkoot and Chilkat mountains hemming it in on either side, and glaciers spilling out into the deep fjord. The community itself is an interesting mix of unreconstructed rednecks and urban escapees from the Lower 48.

The Tlingit fished and traded here for years before 1881, when the first missionaries arrived and renamed the settlement for a prominent Presbyterian, Mrs F. Haines. Today the town survives on fishing and tourism, and though cruise ships tend to press on to Skagway, it remains a popular spot, which in mid-August hosts the cookouts, crafts and log-rolling of the Southeast Alaska Fair . The fairgrounds also hold Dalton City , a small pioneer theme park notable only in that its buildings came from the movie sets of Jack London's White Fang , which was filmed in the Haines area in 1989.


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