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Harbor Notes 2026

In July 2025, Brandon Calhoun officially became the new Harbormaster for the City & Borough of Sitka. Previously, Calhoun served as the Harbor Maintenance Supervisor. Sitka welcomes Mike Martello as the new Harbor Maintenance Supervisor.

For the 30-year-old Eliason Harbor (built in 1996, with a second phase in 1998), Sitka received grant funding from the State of Alaska. The 2025 state harbor matching grant is dedicated to the $1.1 million project, specifically to “general electrical maintenance and float repair, the goal being to extend the life of the harbor,” acknowledges Calhoun. Richard I. Eliason Sr. Harbor is the furthest north of Sitka’s harbors.

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Lee Hanson: A Vocation in Maritime Salvage

1993. That was the year that Lee Hanson, fresh out of Sitka High School, raised his first boats at Crescent Harbor and Thomsen Harbor.

While these were relatively straightforward operations, since the boats actually went down “in harbor” this was still a significant landmark – or watermark – for young Hanson.

But the first whispers of what would become his obsession with marine salvage actually began even earlier, in 1984, when the self-described “local boy” became a Certified Scuba Diver.

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Rafe Hanson: Rubber Band Camera

Rafe Hanson was born and raised in Sitka. He attended a private Seventh-day Adventist school before earning his GED. His father is Salvage Master Lee Hanson. “I have grown up my entire life in that industry. I’ve worked on my dad’s current tugboat, and he taught me commercial diving.”

That background is closely tied to the subjects he photographs. His work focuses largely on landscapes and seascapes, along with documenting commercial fishing. Hanson has photographed throughout Southeast Alaska, including Baranof Island and Chichagof Island – places he describes simply as “the gorgeous tract of public lands we get to call our backyard.”

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Alaska Native Brotherhood & Alaska Native Sisterhood: Then & Now

A Timeline with Selected Highlights

“The Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) was founded in 1912 at a meeting held in the office of W. G. Beatty, General Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska. This meeting was a landmark in the history of American Natives, the aboriginal inhabitants of North America. Twelve Southeast Alaska men and one woman are known as the organizers and founders of ANB. They acted in response to the growing sense of frustration felt by the Natives of Alaska”

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