Table Of Content

Lake Clark National ParkService U.S.DepartmentoftheInterior LakeClarkNational Parkand Preserve cp fr!\ u Iff K) In v^/ A Beacon on the Forgotten Shore 19191980 Katherine Johnson Ringsmuth Lake Clark National Park and Preserve &a Snug Harbor Cannery,poststatehood, courtesyofDorothyFribrock,privatecollection. Asthe nation's principalconservation agency, the Departmentofthe Interior has responsibility for mostofour nationallyowned public landsand natural and cultural resources. This includes fosteringthewisest useofourlandandwaterresources, protectingour fish andwildlife, preservingthe environmental andculturalvaluesof Research/Resources Management Report our national parksand historical places, and providingforenjoymentoflifethrough AR/CRR-2005-53 outdoor recreation. Thedepartment assessesourenergyand mineral resources and workstoassurethat theirdevelopment is in thebest interestsofall. Thedepartment Publishedby also has a major responsibility forAmerican Indian reservation communitiesand United States Departmentofthe Interior National ParkService forpeoplewho live in island territoriesunderU.S. administration. LakeClarkNational Parkand Preserve Cover: "Sunsetover Tuxedni Channel"BarbaraKistler,privatecollection. BackCover: Elephant Rock.Accession number, B98.17.569, AnchorageMuseumofHistoryandArt. Design and layoutby Denise Martin Katherine Johnson Ringsmuth "SnugHarbor1927," WaugamanSalmonIndustryAlbum,Accessionnumber, 97-27-19, ArchivesandManuscripts,AlaskaandPolarRegionsDepartment, UniversityofAlaskaFairbanks. Foreword Stephan Haycox -4- Introduction Snug HarborCannery: A Beaconon the Forgotten Shore -7- Part The Upper Tier I: One: Brave Beginnings -19- Two: A FamilyofFish Packers -41- Three: Drivingthe Pile Traps -55- Four: Snug Harbor's SecondGeneration -65- Part The Bottom Tier II: Five: The Mountain People on Saltwater -81- Six: The Charismatic CanneryWorker -99- Seven: Farms, Fish, andthe Frontier -109- Eight: Transforminga Canneryinto a Community -121- Afterword SnugHarborCannery: Gone but not Forgotten -134- End Notes -138- Selected Bibliography -149- foreword Katherine Johnson's SnugHarbor Cannery: Beacon on the Forgotten Shore, is an important, new excursion into Alaska's social and economic history. Rather than treating the cannerythere as an economic statistic, an instance of the larger phenomenon ofeconomic and resource development in Alaska, Johnson credits the people and product ofSnug Harbor with an integrity oftheir own. She assumes that the work, aspirations, achievements, and evolution ofthe people ofSnugHarborhave intrinsicvalue, avalue notlimitedjust to theirfamilystory. Usingthe most recent and pertinent theoretical tools and ideas, Johnson analyzes the experiences ofElmer Hemrich, George Palmer, and the Fribrock family in such roles as dreamers, producers, employers, marketers, community builders and regional boosters. In doingso she provides herreaderwith aviewofunusual significance, lookingout from the perspectiveof individuals, theiractivityand theircommunityto thebroader locale, the region, and thetime. "MainlandatSunset"BarbaraKistler,privatecollection. 4 Readers ofhistory, particularly the history ofAlaska, are used to peeking in, glancing fleetingly at individuals, families and communities as examples of regional, national and international patterns and trends. Johnson turns historicalanalysisaround,centeringherinvestigationfirmlyinoneAlaskaplace, reconstructingitsparticularhistory, focusingonthecollectedachievementsofthe peopleofthat place. Thus, sheviewsthesocial, economic, and political changes oftheir community, their region, and by extension, all ofAlaska from their unique perspective. In doing so she lends new meaning to such well-known episodes as the fight against fish traps, the campaign for statehood, the role ofethnic minorities, status and contribution ofwomen, and the nature ofcommunity. This is fresh history. It gives life to a remote Alaska settlement and invites comparison with other individuals, families, and communities in Alaska and in other remote locations in the continuing search ofthe meaning ofparticular and collective pasts. Johnson does notrestrictherselftoa narrowpathway. She rangesacrossanthropology, ethnohistory, oralhistory and other methodologies to reconstruct the lives and community of Snug Harbor. The result is a comprehensive understanding ofthe many threads manifest in the evolution of Snug Harbor's families and workers. One theme thosethreadsweaveisadaptability. Colonyfarmboysbecamefishcanners;womenlearnedhowtocreatecommunity bygenerating shared experiences, and recovering familiar traditions. Cannery owners built docks and reconfigured machineryinordertoproducea marketable food, andlearnedhowtotaptransportation,distributionand marketing networkstogettheirproducton Americanstoreshelves. Ingenuityanddeterminationwerebornofaconviction that individual and collective effort in pursuit of agreed goals constituted a valuable life. In that pursuit individuals matured, endured, and occasionally prospered. More important, such efforts became the buildingblocks ofhuman value. Thatvaluegives the storyofSnug Harbor its mostprofound meaning. Johnson's reconstruction and analysis of the Snug Harbor cannery enriches Alaska historical studies. It is reasonabletohopethatitwillserveasamodelandaidforotherhistoriansinterested inAlaska, in remotesettlement, intheconstructionofcommunity,andthemethodologyofconnectingpersonalandfamilyhistorytothestoryofthe territory's development. Ifthey take advantage ofit, SnugHarborCannery:Beacon on theForgottenShorewill prove an invaluableguide. Stephen Haycox Anchorage, Alaska October, 2004 "SnugHarbor1927" WaugamanSalmonIndustryAlbumAccessionnumber, 97-27-15,ArchivesandManuscripts, AlaskaPolarRegionsDepartment, UniversityofAlaskaFairbanks. Introduction Snug Harbor fanner^: Beacon on the forgotten Shore A I 19191980 In 1880,censustakerIvan PetroffwroteareportthatdescribedalonelylandscapealongthewestsideofCookInlet. Petroffs sharp pen noted recently abandoned native dwellings on Kalgin Island, the bold and mountainous mainland terrain, and a coastline beset with dangerous outlying reefs. He described the shoreline as "deserted and desolate, a wilderness ofbarren rock and drifting snow, the battlefield offurious gales." "The mainland," he observed, "trembles beforean increasingonslaughtofa ragingsea, kept in a stateofturmoil bythejoint actionofwind and tide."To Petroff this place was not only unforgiving, but it had been forgotten by time. Fittingly, he called Cook Inlet's west side "the ForgottenShore."1 "But one safe harbor exists on all this western coast ofthe inlet," wrote Petroff, "in the deep indentation between Redoubtand Iliamnamountains." Itisknownas [Chisik] harbor,andisprotectedfromeasterlywindsbyasmall,highisland. Thecannery establishmentsofKenaiandKassilofmakeuseofthissheltertomoortheirlargesailingvesselsinsafety duringtheseason. Communicationwiththecanneriesiskeptupbymeansofsteamtenders. Asalmon streamoflimitedcapacityenterstheheadofthisbay,andindicationsofthepresenceofmineralsinthe mountainsarenotwanting.2 Thisbeaconofthe"ForgottenShore"isaptlyknowntodayasSnugHarbor. Inthe 1880swhen Petroffdescribedthe coast, Snug Harbor was merely a safe port for cannery ships operating from the east side ofCook Inlet. Nearly thirty years later, two men—Elmer Hemrich, a progressive businessman from Washington state, and George Palmer, an old- timetraderfromKnik,Alaska—builtacannerythereandincorporatedtheirbusinessunderthename,theSurfPacking Company. Not long after the cannery was up and running, Palmer quit the canning business. With his partner gone and in financial trouble, Hemrich shut down Snug Harbor cannery in search ofother clammingopportunities on the Alaska Peninsula. Aftersittingidleforafewyearsinthemid-1920s,thefacilityatSnugHarbor (whichwasalsothelocal nameforthe cannery) was restored in 1927 by its cannery foreman, Eric Fribrock, who ran the plant under the name Snug Harbor Packing Company. Thus began a family enterprise that continued until the cannery closed in 1980. Alec and Harold Brindle, owners ofColumbia Ward Fisheries, purchased the cannery from the Fribrocks in 1981. In 2000 thecompany soldthecanneryand all its assetsto the Porter Family, long-timegillnet fishermen at Snug Harbor and good friends of the Fribrocks. The Snug Harborcannery operated as a familybusiness in the truest sense ofthe word. First Eric brought his wife c/3 Emma and his infant son Joe to Snug Harbor in 192E Then, when Joe took over cannery operations in the following decades, hebroughtwithhim hiswife Dorothy,whoassistedwiththemanyadministrativeduties. Duringtheiryearsat H Snug, Dorothy and Joe had twogirls, Jan and Barbara. Tothe girls, life at the cannerywas magical. As Dorothyrecalls, H whenthegirlswereyoungtheylovedtostandinfrontofthefishladderandwatchthefish,appearingalmostalive,climb rn tothetopoftheladderanddisappearintothecannery."Howtheysquealedwhenahugekingsalmon,toobigforthefish buckets, tumbled back down the ladder, landingwith a plop and sending a wave offishy, saltwater over them."3 When w old enough, Jan and Barbaraworkedsummersatthe canneryto make moneyforcollege. The Fribrocks maintained an X H extendedfamilyofgillnetters, setnetters, andcanneryworkerswhoboughtgroceriesatthecannerystoreandswapped z stories around tables in the Blue Room, Snug Harbor's dining area. In many ways, the Snug Harbor cannery was the centeroflifeforthosewho (evenforafewmonths) calledthewestsideofCookInlethome. z o u < w Snug Harbor is located on the southwestern shore of Chisik Island, approximately six miles long and two and one-half miles wide. The island's highest point rises 2,674 feet above Cook Inlet. Its lower reaches are covered with an almost impenetrable thicket of alders and salmonberry A spruce forest covers Chisik's north end, while the summit plateau has a mat ofalpine herbs and grasses. Nearly vertical cliffs called the "Ramparts" reach 400 feet high.4 Chisik's high elevation separates it from other islands in the vicinity such as Kalgin Island, twenty miles to the northeast, and Duck Island, less than one mile to the east. These very flat and rocky islands are nothing more than navigational hazards surrounded by reefs and mudflats that break the surface ofCook Inlet at low tide. Tides in Cook Inlet are some ofthe most extreme in the world. High tide may rise as much as twenty-two feet, while low tide drains the inlet like an unplugged bathtub, lowering the waters six feet below low mean. Cook Inlet setnetter Nancy Lord described howthewestside's fisherfolk measuretime notwith theirwatches orclocks, but rather, bywatchingthetide: Under a broken sky, the inlet looks leaden, cold. The rip cuts close toward the point, the water there pitching into frothy peaks. I feelthe pull ofthewater; from nowonwewill livelargelybyits schedule, therhythmitsets. Tide. TheverywordderivesfromtheOld Englishfortime.5 Chisik Island is located at the entrance ofTuxedni Bay. When Dr. Frederica de Laguna conducted archaeological fieldwork there in 1934, she described the region as "forbidding."6 Along the island's shoreline, sandstones and shales foldupwardagainstancientlavaandgranitebeds,whichplungedeepbeneaththecontinentinanever-endinggeological collisionthatcontrolstheformationoftheAlaskaPeninsulavolcanicrange. Lagunaobservedthatmostbaysonthewest side were silted up and the extreme tides made navigation difficult and dangerous. "It is not surprising," noted Laguna, "thatwedid notfindmanyevidencesofprehistoricoccupation."7 8