Fort Tongass Fort Tongass was a United States Army base on Tongass Island , in the southernmost Alaska Panhandle , located adjacent to the village of the group of Tlingit people on the east side of the island . Fort Tongass was the first US Army base established in Alaska following its purchase from the Russian Empire in 1867 and was garrisoned by the 2nd U . S . Artillery under the command of Captain Charles H . Peirce . Historian Hubert Howe Bancroft notes : " the site was well chosen , containing a plentiful supply of timber and pasture , while fish and game abound in the neighbourhood . The post was commissioned in 1868 and abandoned in 1870 . After Alaska was established as a customs district by legislation in 1868 , a deputy collector was posted to Fort Tongass as well as to Fort Wrangel , meant to intercept prospectors and commercial traffic bound for the Stikine River goldfields , and a revenue cutter was stationed in the area ' s waters . In 1868 , Jefferson C . Davis , commander of the army ' s Military District of Alaska , visited Fort Tongass as well as Fort Wrangel and Prince of Wales Island aboard the USS " Saginaw " , with Jefferson requesting an armed steamer be sent north to support troops in those garrisons , who had no water transport . The USS " Cyane " was sent north in 1869 , being fitted out for Alaskan service and stationed at Sitka , as support for these bases . In 1869 a newspaper was published at Fort Tongass named the " Tongass Wa - Wa " ( " Wa - wa " in the Chinook Jargon means " talk , speech , conversation " ) . After the fort ' s closing the name Fort Tongass became current for the name of the native village which remained . Despite the army ' s withdrawal , a Customs Inspector remained in residence , though having difficulty in controlling trade between the various Tlingit tribes and the Hudson ' s Bay Company post at Fort Simpson , which was just 15 miles south . In 1879 there were 700 Tongass under a chief named Ya - soot . Name origin and Tlingit village . The name Tongass is derived from the name of the people , which has been variously spelled Tomgas , Tont - a - quans , Tungass , Tungass - kon and Tanga ' sh . The name of the Tongass people in the Tlingit language is " " Taantʼa Ḵwáan " " ( Sea Lion Tribe ) , and today they mostly reside in Ketchikan . Royal Navy Captain Daniel Pender , in surveying and naming the region in 1868 , misconstrued Captain Peirce ' s name as " Pearse " , in the course of naming nearby Pearse Island , which is on the Canadian side of the boundary , which runs through Tongass Passage to the east of Tongass Island . Other officers stationed to the garrison were a Lieutenant Lord , Lieutenant Murphy and a Surgeon Chismore . The Tongass Pole , Pioneer Square , Seattle . In September 1899 , a tour by Seattle businessmen , artists and others of the Alaska Panhandle , sponsored by the " Seattle Post - Intelligencer " and aboard the vessel " City of Seattle " , removed a Raven clan totem pole from Tongass Village while most of the village was away fishing , and took it to Seattle , where it was erected on at First Avenue and Yesler Way on October 18 , 1899 , the anniversary of Alaska ' s transfer to the United States from Russia . The Tongass people pressed suit for damages , to the tune of $ 20 , 000 , and were supported by a grand jury in Alaska which indicted twelve of the Seattle party for theft of government property ( as the village was attached to Fort Tongass , then revived as a minor military base during the Klondike Gold Rush and associated boundary dispute ) . The case was eventually shunted aside , partly due to intervention by state representatives and senators from the all the Pacific Coast states , and while the " Post - Intelligencer " did offer $ 500 compensation , these funds never reached Tongass village or the Raven clan . The pole was burned by an arsonist on October 22 , 1934 . A new , replica , pole was commissioned and was created by carvers at Saxman , Alaska and shipped south on the SS " Tanana " , and was erected at the same location on July 25 , 1940 , and stands at Pioneer Square to this day . Climate . The extreme rainfall at Tongass was noted in a report concerning for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1880 , with the mean annual precipitation having been recorded by that point as being 118 . 3 inches a year , with 200 days a year being either rainy or snowy .