Coastal historic site featuring ancient rock carvings etched into shoreline boulders, offering insight into early Indigenous culture and artistic expression.
General Information
How to Get There
From Wrangell (1 mi): Drive or walk north from downtown along Evergreen Ave, turn onto 5th Ave, and continue to the parking area at the park entrance.
Overview
Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site is an Alaskan beach and public historical site with the highest concentration of Native American petroglyphs in the southeastern region of Alaska. Located on the shore of Wrangell, Alaska barely a mile out of town, it became a State Historic Park in 2000. At least 40 petroglyphs have been found to date. The site itself is about 8000 years old.
The petroglyphs that remain here are found on the boulders and bedrock outcrops on the shore, just below and above mean high tide. It is thought that they were created by members of the Tlingit tribe and most of the petroglyphs can be found close to places of importance such as salmon streams and sites of habitation. They depict whales, salmon, and faces of the community. The rock here is metamorphic and tends to be a dark gray that is finely grained, moderately durable, and easy to fracture, which would make it easier to manipulate for petroglyphs. Here are some of the most concentrated petroglyphs in the world. Petroglyphs and associated site components are under the protection of federal laws and State of Alaska Antiquities Laws.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Petroglyph Beach State Historic Park", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
