PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 137 



The freezing of salmon and steelhead trout began on the Sacra- 

 mento and Cohimbia Rivers in the late eighties. It was taken up 

 in a small way on Puget Sound in 1892. That year Wallace Bros, 

 and Ainsworth & Dunn froze a small lot, the work laeing done for them 

 by the Seattle Ice Co. (now the Ice Delivery Co.), and the venture was 

 so successful that the next year nearly all of the wholesale dealers on 

 the Sound took up the business. The Crescent Creamery, of Tacoma, 

 also engaged in the business for the fish dealers for a year or two 

 shortly thereafter. In 1902 the British Columbia Packers' Asso- 

 ciation bought a large cold-storage plant at New Westminster, 

 British Columbia, at that time the only large and modern plant 

 in the Province, and began the active freezing of fish. Since then 

 a number of excellent plants have been built and operated. In 

 Alaska the preparing of frozen salmon began in 1902. The San Juan 

 Fishing & racking Co., soon to be succeeded by the Pacific Cold 

 Storage Co., put up a cannery and cold-storage plant at Taku Harbor, 

 in southeast Alaska, in 1901, though it did not operate the cold- 

 storage portion until 1902. The Taku Harbor Canning & Cold 

 Storage Co. later on succeeded to the ownership and operation of 

 this plant. This is the only plant which was operated in Alaska 

 until the New England Fish Co. erected in 1909 a large plant at 

 Ketchikan for the freezing of halibut primarily, but considerable 

 quantities of salmon have been frozen also. 



In 1911 the schooner Metha Nelson was fitted up as a floating 

 freezer by the Alaska Packers Association and sent to Kodiak Island. 

 As the vessel arrived in San Francisco shortly before the State's 

 closed season on salmon began, and it was a difficult matter to dispose 

 of the catch before then, the business was abandoned. 



In 1912 J. Lindenbergcr (Inc.) opened a freezing plant at Craig, 

 on Fish Egg Island, Alaska, while the ship ^\illiam H. Smith was 

 outfitted as a floating cannery and freezer by the Weidiiig & Inde- 

 pendent Fisheries Co., at Saginaw Bay, Alaska. The latter operated 

 only one season. 



The year 1913 saw quite a development in the industry. The 

 Columbia & Northern Fishing & Packing Co., at Wrangell, the Juneau 

 Cold Storage Co., at Juneau, the Booth Fisheries Co., at Sitka, and 

 the floating cold-storage ship Glonj of the Seas, by the Glacier Fish 

 Co., at Idano Inlet, were all started this year. 



In 1914 the Ketchikan Cold Storage Co. opened a freezer for the 

 general commercial freezing of fish. 



In 1917 the San Juan Fishing & Packing Co. built and operated a 

 cold-storage plant at Seward. 



In 1918 Henry Goemaere operated for the first time a plant at 

 Washington Bay; while the National Independent Fisheries Co. and 

 the Trout Fisheries Co. froze salmon at Ketchikan. All the other 

 freezers operated as usual, the only change being the purchase by 

 Libby, McNeill & Libby of the cold-storage plant and cannery of the 

 Taku Harbor Canning & Cold Storage Co. at Taku Harbor. 



The freezing of salmon is almost invariably carried on in connection 

 with other methods of handling and preserving, and the purpose is 

 usually to secure the fish when numerous and cheap, freeze them, and 

 then hold them until the runs are over and the fish are once more 

 in good demand at high prices. The business proved so profitable, 



