Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show

Performed in Ketchikan, Alaska, the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show is located close to the mouth of Ketchikan Creek, near the city's waterfront. The show's venue is one block away from where cruise ships anchor. It is next to the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center. The show takes place on the former location of the Louisiana-Pacific-owned Ketchikan Spruce Mill, which was built in 1898 and ceased operations in 1983 and used to be the biggest spruce mill worldwide. Lumberjacks employed at the mill produced lumber for the Klondike Gold Rush, nearby canneries, and World War II airplanes. The show is performed in an all-weather amphitheatre containing a heated and enclosed grandstand. The grandstand has 475 seats and is accessible to people with disabilities. The venue showcases historic photos and relics related from the timber industry. ==History==

in 2009. The Scheer family lived in Hayward, Wisconsin, where the Lumberjack World Championship is held every year. The six Scheer siblings took logging classes in their youth and subsequently created several lumberjack shows. Founded by Rob Scheer in Ketchikan, Alaska, the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show was first performed in May 2000. The show is run by the Wisconsin-based Lumberjack Sports International, which has events shown on ABC, ESPN, the Outdoor Life Network, and TNN. The company employed two groups who traveled in semi-trailer trucks equipped with tree trunks people could scale. Running between May and September, it is performed between one and five times every day. Ketchikan's economy used to rely significantly on the wood industry, reaching its height at the beginning of the 20th century. Southeastern United States lumberjacks visited Ketchikan in the summers to vie for the title of "King of the Woods". The lumber industry diminished in the 1990s, and the city's economy became fully committed to tourism. The show pays homage to the city's lumber history. Between 1995 and 2000, the number of loggers in Naukati Bay who went every day to the forest for work dropped from 70 to roughly nine. When the show premiered, the loggers believed that the show could offer employment to them. The show, however, hired its cast from outside of Alaska. By 2006, the Travel Channel had called the show Alaska's second most visited tourist attraction. The venue underwent renovations in 2013 after that season's performances had finished. The grandstand was moved to be several feet further from the Thomas Basin seawall. The show moved the accessible seating, the poles for climbing, and the logrolling pond. The aim was to move the audience nearer the performers and to improve the efficiency of moving within the venue. Eight contestants vie in eight activities such as a boom run, "rigging", sawing, and wood chopping. The event gives contestants $6,000 in cash rewards. Boone Scheer, Rob Scheer's son and Sheila June Scheer's stepson, won the competition in 2016, 2017, and 2018. ==Show==

, axe throwing, hot sawing, woodchopping, tree climbing, and logrolling The show has a one-hour run time and has 13 events. It features experienced Alaskan lumberjacks displaying a decent amount of theatricality while vying in assorted events including axe throwing, boom running, bucksawing, chainsaw carving, crosscut sawing, hot sawing, logrolling, obstacle pole racing, relay racing, speed climbing, tree climbing, tree topping, underhand chopping, and woodchopping. For tree climbing, the contestants scale a tree that is tall and then free fall. In another tree climbing version, they climb up a pole, equipped with only a leather strap and shoes with spiked soles. The logrolling event takes place in a pool of water that is not deep. While trying to get the other person to fall off the log first, the two lumberjacks seek to soak each other. While using complicated footwork to remain on the log, they submerge their foot and splash their adversary. The competition is between two groups. One group of two lumberjacks competes for the Spruce Mill team of Ketchikan, while another group of two competes for the Dawson Creek team of the Yukon. A master of ceremonies (MC) discusses Southeast Alaska's lumber industry history. Some of the lumberjacks previously appeared on the Outdoor Channel and ESPN. When the performance ends, the lumberjacks take photos with audience members and sign autographs. The audience members can purchase more expensive tickets for additional activities. One add-on is an axe throwing contest. ==Notable performers==

• Mark Bouquin, who used to perform for the show, won the reality television series American Grit in 2016 with teammate Clare Painter and team leader Noah Galloway. Bouqin was a summertime resident of Ketchikan between 2008 and 2015 and spent two winters there. He graduated in 2012 from Paul Smith's College, where he took part in the woodsmen team. • Rob Scheer, the founder and a performer for the show, is the inaugural winner of the Ironjack World Championship. ==Analysis==

event in 2009. Eric Moya of Travel Weekly compared the show to the television show Hee Haw and the medieval-style dinner theater show Medieval Times. He found that there were numerous "gentle, dad-jokey puns" and audience participation through call and response. According to Moya, the show emphasized showmanship above winning. In one event, a lumberjack feigned having trouble with carving a rabbit. Within several seconds, he reshaped the flawed rabbit into a chair for kids with several adept cuts. Moya continued that he was uncertain whether lumberjacks usually wore "sleeveless flannel", though there were no reports of discontent regarding the "bare, muscular, ax-wielding arms" visible to the audience. Fran Wenograd Golden and Gene Sloan of Frommer's said a lot of the character of Ketchikan they had enjoyed had disappeared owing to tourist attractions including the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. ==Reception==

event in 2009. Len Testa and his coauthors praised the show, writing, "The lumberjacks impress with their feats of skill, and anyone who appreciates male eye candy will be delighted". Saying the show will captivate children, Fodor's found the show to be a "Disneyesque" showcase of olden woodsman prowess and "a little hokey" yet "good fun". Paul Whitfield, a Rough Guides author, deemed it an "extravaganza" with "the tenor of a circus sideshow". The Everett Heralds Jennifer Bardsley stated that the show's name should be "the Really Expensive Lumberjack Show, but at least it was entertaining". ==Footnotes==