Alaska’s Endangered Canneries

By Anjuli Grantham

Diamond X Cannery on the Ugashik River in Bristol Bay.

This photo was taken in 1994. The cannery is now totally destroyed.

Image courtesy Bob King.

Recently, the Alaska Association for Historic Preservation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Alaskan canneries as endangered historic properties. The NTHP listed Kake Cannery as one of the organization’s 11 Most Endangered properties in the nation, and the AAHP listed both Kake Cannery and Alaska’s historic canneries in general on the list of the 10 Most Endangered Historic Properties in Alaska. Clearly there is growing recognition that canneries are historically significant and worthy of our preservation and interpretation efforts.

Kake Cannery is a National Historic Landmark and only one of two canneries listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Alaska. Constructed between 1912 and 1940, the multiethnic labor force ate meals in the mess halls, meandered along the board walks, got too few hours of sleep in the segregated bunk houses, and processed tens of thousands of cans of salmon that were brought in by independent fishermen and from cannery-owned fish traps.

Today, the Kake Cannery is teetering on rotting pilings. It is one of dozens of historic canneries across Alaska that is on the verge of collapse. The Alaska Historical Society is dedicated to advocating for the preservation and documentation of canneries like the one in Kake. Please stay posted to learn more about cannery preservation and documentation efforts, both here and at 49 History’s sister blog, Alaska’s Historic Canneries.

Links:

“Kake Cannery” http://www.nps.gov/maritime/nhl/KakeCannery.pdf

“11 Most Endangered” http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/11-most-endangered/locations/kake-cannery.html#.UfFqpNLVCSo

“10 Most Endangered” http://www.aahp-online.net/10-most-endangered.html

“Alaska’s Historic Canneries” www.alaskancanneries.blogspot.com

New SLAM photos and time-lapse video

Photo by Damon Steubner of the Alaska State

Library Historical Collections.

From the Alaska State Library comes notice of new SLAM construction photos:

                                 

http://lam.alaska.gov/slam

The library has also created a time-lapse video of construction photos from March 16 to June 19 of this year. The minute-and-a-half video is a great look at the walls going up! Look for the "SLAM Construction Progress" link at the above site.

The State Library Archives Museum project is in Phase 1 of its construction with funding at $101.45 million. Another $30 million is needed to complete the project, so as always, please keep talking with your legislators about the importance of SLAM to preserving our history.

Preserving the Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

By Anjuli Grantham

“The oil spill’s impact on the psychosocial environment was as significant as its impact on the physical environment.”

—Lawrence Palinkas et al. “Community Patters of Psychiatric Disorders after the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill”

I was just in 2^nd grade when the crude oil from the hull of the Exxon Valdez coated the water and coastline from Prince William Sound down to Kodiak. I remember booms used to contain the spread of oil floating in the sea, shouting matches amongst friends and family about clean up contracts, and the years of anxiously, then increasingly despondently, waiting for settlement money.

 

Toby Sullivan and his daughter, Jordan,

join other Kodiak community members

in a 1989 protest against Exxon's clean

up response in Kodiak. Image courtesy

Kodiak Historical Society.

Nearly 25 years have passed since coastal Alaskan communities were decimated by the oil spill and the environmental and social repercussions left in its wake, yet it is a recent pain for many Alaskans. “It’s still too raw,” a journalist/ fisherman recently told me as we reflected on the event in our community.

Around the state of Alaska, historical societies, government agencies, and individuals have initiated projects to preserve the history of the spill and reflect on its impacts. For example, as previously mentioned in this blog, the Alaska State Archives is completing the monumental task of processing the Exxon Valdez litigation materials. Moreover, in 2011 the Valdez Museum expanded its permanent exhibit about the spill. The exhibit features a piece of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker’s hull and the diverse perspectives of Valdez community members impacted by the event.

“Children of the Spills” is an oral history project conceived of and completed by Katie Aspen of Homer. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, she envisioned that the experiences and reflections of those who were children during the Exxon Valdez disaster could bring healing to the children affected in the Gulf. She also hoped that the oral histories could provide guidance to the parents and support networks of children impacted by oil spills. In “Children of the Spills,” Aspen preserves voices of Alaskans and children from the Gulf of Mexico, recording a perspective often neglected by historians- that of kids.

Recently, the Baranov Museum in Kodiak acquired materials that will help us to preserve the legacy of the spill in our region. The Kodiak Daily Mirror donated their collection of photographs taken during 1989, depicting protests, clean up efforts, and public meetings. Moreover, we received a protest banner that is so large that it could only have been hung from the ceiling or outside of a building.

 

A large Exxon Valdez protest banner,

recently donated to the Baranov Museum. 

What other materials related to the Exxon Valdez oil spill are hiding in closets around the state and Outside? Although for many, the oil spill is “still too raw,” it is now time to boost our efforts to collect and preserve this critical event in Alaska’s recent past.

For more information:

http://www.valdezmuseum.org/index.cfm?section=exhibits&page=Valdez-Museum-Exhibits&viewpost=2&ContentId=460

http://archives.alaska.gov/valdezProject.html

http://www.childrenofthespills.org/