THERE is a saying in Ketchikan, Alaska's fourth largest city, that Creek Street was where 'fishermen and salmon went upstream to spawn'.
A boardwalk built on wooden pilings running down the creek, the street officially served as the red-light district from 1903 until 1953, when a grand jury investigation caused several scandals and closed the houses.
Today the street serves as one of Ketchikan's main tourist attractions, the houses renovated and occupied by craft businesses, art galleries and restaurants - the only remnant of the street's former trade being Dolly's House, once the home of Creek Street's most famous 'madam'.
During the street's heyday Dolly Arthur operated a bordello from the house, which has been preserved, along with many of her possessions, as an historic monument that is open to the public for the nominal sum of US$4.50 (about HK$35). Inside there are photographs, household furnishings and memorabilia relating to Dolly's life and the street in which she worked.
The city of Ketchikan officially began from a fish saltery at the mouth of Ketchikan Creek in 1881, although the area had long been used as a summer camping ground by the native Tlingit population.
The founding of the city is officially dated as 1887, but the Gold Rush of 1898 drastically changed its face.
