Haines is a small community that was our first port-of-call. It's origins started as a Tlingit village. Then Christian missionaries were invited by the Tlingit in 1881. Boundry disputes arose when the U.S. purchased Alaska from the Russians and resulted in the creation of Fort Seward in the early 1900s. Some of those historical buildings can be seen in the picture of Haines.

In the winter months, Haines is renowned for the largest gathering of bald eagles in the world. Some of which we saw on our raft trip down the river. These pictures were taken from a bouncy rubber raft on a 7mph current and up to 200 feet away. We saw better than a dozen of them.