{"id":112,"slug":"welcome-to-ketchikan-sign-ketchikan-alaska","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The 'Welcome to Ketchikan' sign arching over Mission Street is the first thing most of the town's million-plus cruise visitors see — the photographed gateway to Alaska's self-declared First City, where the docks meet Creek Street's old red-light boardwalk.","Its legend is young and locally supervised. KRBD's July 2026 report on an American Ghost Walks tour records guide Joe Kovac's telling: decades ago, a storm is rumored to have warped the sign's face into a menacing frown, and a frowning sign is bad luck — so townspeople keep an eye on its mood, and visitors are advised to do the same."]},{"heading":"An omen with a press clipping","paragraphs":["The dossier files it as a media-reported omen legend, and the research notes keep the limits plain: the tour's starting point is documented, but the exact spot and the earliest appearance of the bad-luck story remain unverified.","What the record supports is a piece of living street theater — a civic landmark carrying a curse story delivered by megaphone, in a town that has always known how to greet visitors with a tale."]}],"name":"Welcome to Ketchikan sign","aliases":[],"type":"SIGN","type_label":"Sign","cats":["LOCAL_LEGEND"],"groups":["legends","roads"],"desc":"Downtown welcome sign associated with a bad-luck story.","full_desc":"Welcome to Ketchikan sign is a sign in Ketchikan, Alaska. Downtown welcome sign associated with a bad-luck story. The dossier holds 1 reported claim — all telling, no verified spine yet, and the file says so plainly. Access details are unverified — research before visiting. For HauntHunt it is exactly the kind of file the archive exists for: a real place, a real record, and a story still being told.","address":null,"city":"Ketchikan","county":null,"state":"Alaska","postal":null,"region":"West","lat":55.357145,"lon":-131.674552,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"UNKNOWN","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"KRBD places tour beginning at the iconic downtown sign. Exact point and earliest appearance of the omen story need verification.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"LOW","score":43.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0,"source_quality":0.6,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":78,"type":"OMEN_LEGEND","description":"Guide Joe Kovac relates a story that storm damage changed the sign’s face into a frown associated with bad luck. The site in Ketchikan, Alaska gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. Coverage gave the claim its audience; proof remains another matter. Sources including 'Walking tour highlights Ketchikan’s paranormal history' keep the claim in circulation. As folklore it's unkillable: the story is too good, and the place too fitting, to let go.","evidence":"MEDIA_REPORTED","evidence_label":"Media reported","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Walking tour highlights Ketchikan’s paranormal history","url":"https://www.krbd.org/2026/07/08/walking-tour-highlights-ketchikans-paranormal-history/","publisher":"KRBD","type":"LOCAL_JOURNALISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access details are unverified; research before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Walking tour highlights Ketchikan’s paranormal history","url":"https://www.krbd.org/2026/07/08/walking-tour-highlights-ketchikans-paranormal-history/","publisher":"KRBD","type":"LOCAL_JOURNALISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":0,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":1}}