Perfect location (except in an ice storm)
In 2012, L’eeneidí historian Liana Wallace sent me a high-res scan of Waggoner Photo 29, an undated glass-plate image that somewhat resembled the Áak’w village of Aanchg̱altsóow, nexus town, at what we today call ‘Auk Rec’ beach. But when we went out to line up that photo with ‘reality,’ it didn’t match. I sent the image to historian Jim Geraghty, who at first was as puzzled as Liana, archeologist Myra Gillam, archivist Jim Simard, and me.
Construction was Euro-style from milled lumber—not traditional post-&-beam. But as Jim pointed out, smoke issued from old-style roof vents, suggesting open firepits inside. In right distance were small, steep-roofed, white-painted structures (gravehouses?) high above the beach. From what we know of T’aaḵú X̱’aka.aan, it’s unlikely that all of these fine canoes belonged to local residents.
Eventually it occurred to Jim Geraghty the photo might be of the postcontact T’aaḵú village near the southeastern entry to Séet ka, canyon strait (Gastineau Channel). In my initial scoping document for Photo 29, partially mislead by ‘flipped’ dot placement in the cultural atlas, (and misreading of the whereabouts of a missionary couple), I transposed northwestward the Lingít name for Taku Harbor. It now seems (2022) that the best name for this community was (is!) T’aaḵú X̱ ‘aka.aan, town at mouth of Taku (Cherokee Beach).
Download 9MB scoping document pdf here. 
PS 20220910: Debbie Maas has just posted a history of the Corlies that has much new information about the 1880s in T’aakú Aaní, including cultural sites extending far upriver, and southeastward to S’ik’náx̱ Aan G̱eeyí, grindstone town bay (Taku Harbor). Download from homepage of takudebbie.com.
