Table Of ContentLake 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
