Glacier Point and the giant’s cascade
In the southernmost corner of Greater Chilkat Watershed once lay its only tidewater glacier, an expanded-toe type that purportedly calved into the sea along part of its terminus. In so doing, it built a 5.5-square-mile, semicircular shelf of glacial forelands, grading on outer edges to marine delta. Rumpled by arcuate recessional moraines, this lobe, though far from “pointed,” is known today as Sít’i X’aayí, glacier point.
Immediately north of this once-aggressive, now-shriveled ice lobe, for which we currently (2021) lack a Lingít name, is a cascading ice-front that does figure in oral history: Lkoodaséits’k, giant’s name (Rainbow Glacier). This glacier figured in a battle of titans.
Hillshade from IfSAR, downloadable as geopdf for navigation in Avenza
