Whitman Creek is on the southeast coast of Revillagigedo Island, about 14 miles (23 km) north of Metlakatla and 7 miles (11 km) east-southeast of Ketchikan, Alaska. The stream originates from Blue Lake at an elevation of approximately 2,660 feet (811 m) on the southern flank of Roy Jones Mountain and flows southeast for 2.4 miles (4 km) to Whitman Lake and then continues for another 0.7 miles (1.1 km) to George Inlet. The creek was named in 1966 by the U.S. Forest Service after Whitman Lake, a name published in 1917 by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. The underlying bedrock is primarily composed of metamorphic rocks from the Cretaceous period. These rocks formed when sedimentary rocks, known as turbidites, were subjected to heat from a slowly cooling magma intrusion beneath the surface. The resulting metamorphic rocks are schists and hornfels, while the igneous rocks are classified as gabbro.

In 1906, the New England Fish Company began constructing a cold storage facility south of Ketchikan. However, the local power utility could not meet the electricity needs for the freezers. In 1927, the company built a 1,200-kilowatt hydroelectric plant on Whitman Lake. The lake was a natural impoundment of Whitman Creek until the company constructed a concrete gravity arch dam 39 feet (11.8 m) high and 220 feet (67 m) long, with a spillway 40 feet (12 m) wide. This increased the reservoir’s area to 148 acres (60 ha). In 2013, Ketchikan Public Utilities increased the hydroelectric capacity to 4.6 megawatts to provide additional electricity for the city of Ketchikan and Saxman Village. The project also included a new water diversion from Achilles Creek to Whitman Lake to boost the water supply and replaced the penstock supplying water to the Whitman Lake Hatchery.

Whitman Lake Hatchery, operational since 1978, is located at the head of Herring Bay, an estuary extending 0.8 miles (1.3 km) northwest from George Inlet. Herring Bay was first reported by Harry C. Fassett of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in 1904, and its name likely derives from the nearby village of Herring Cove, a suburb of Ketchikan. The hatchery serves as a central incubation facility, incubating and rearing a large number of salmon for release at remote sites. It is vital to local fisheries, as returning adult fish provide the eggs for Chinook, fall coho, and summer coho salmon. Chinook salmon released at Whitman Lake support Ketchikan’s most popular and productive sport fishery at Mountain Point, where the fish gather before entering the hatchery raceways. Several thousand fish are caught annually in this urban sport fishery. Read more here and here. Explore more of Whitman Creek and Herring Bay here: