Updates on the Canneries Initiative

 What a busy month for fisheries history.

 The Pacific Marine Expo was very successful. AHS shared a booth with the Kodiak Maritime Museum, and not only did this save money on booth fees, it was necessary to have at least two people at the booth at all times due to the traffic. Hundreds of people stopped by each day to share stories, ask questions, and over a dozen individuals became members. Special thanks to Katie Ringsmuth for designing the fabulous booth materials, Toby Sullivan for collaborating on the booth, and Alaska Sea Grant for sponsoring much of our Expo presence.

 At Expo, Bob King, Toby Sullivan and I presented “Fishing for Alaska’s History” to a good-sized crowd, generating lots of interest. Moreover, my presentation to the Northwest Salmon Canners went very well. Due to contacts made at that presentation, Ross Coen will be meeting with the Seafood Products Association in Seattle to review the company records and hopefully come up a plan for their disposition to the UW Special Collections. The SPA is a descendant of the National Canners Association.

 The Alaska Fisheries Report has started broadcasting the monthly cannery history segments to public radio stations around the state. November’s story was about a visit to the False Pass cannery- you can see photos of the cannery and see the link to the program at the blog. There you will also find Bob’s fantastic Expo presentation “Iron Men of Bristol Bay.”

 Ross took up residence at the museum in Ketchikan and researched the fisheries collection there, giving a lecture, inspiring a nice radio piece, and soon (or already?) is writing something for We Alaskans about salmon can labels. Perfect!  Moreover, Bob and Katie will be presenting at the Bristol Bay Leadership Forum in Anchorage December 10 and 11th and the cannery framework will be distributed there. Oh yes, and did you see Bob’s story about the two billionth salmon to be caught in Bristol Bay?

 Please help to spread the word about the grant program. The deadline to apply is January 1– note that you can apply for a grant, unless you are on the grant committee or your organization is funded by the state or federal government. So far we’ve received two applications.

 And last but not least, Alec Brindle contacted me to discuss Wards Cove Packing Co history. The question has been- what happened to the Wards Cove archive once the company shut down in 2002? Well, it’s in his basement. I expressed the importance of the archive to Alaska history, and he said he will discuss donating it to a library/ archive with his family. He said he doubts there will be any objections. Hopefully he is right, since securing the collection for public access would be a huge coup for fisheries history.

 And with that, I wish you all a happy holiday season!

 Sincerely,

Anjuli Grantham