458 u. s. BUREAU or fisheries 



Durino: the past 12 years various shore and floating canneries have 

 been built and operated for varvins; periods at other places around 

 Kodiak Island, especially along Karluk Straits. 



Kodiak. — Salting operations have been carried on at this old 

 Russian settlement for a number of years. 



In order to furnish work for the natives, the Alaska Commercial 

 Co. and Blodgett & Blinn salted the catches made by them in 1906 

 and subsequent years until 1912, when the Kodiak Fisheries built a 

 cannery and has operated it each year since. 



The Woman's American Baptist Home Missionary Society had 

 carried on a home and school for native children on Wood Island, 

 close to Kodiak, for some years. In 1902 the society established a 

 salmon salter}^ here in order to furnish employment for the natives. 

 No data are recorded in the official reports of further activities on 

 the part of this plant. 



CHIGNIK BAY 



Chignik Bay is on the southern side of the Alaska IVninsula and 

 is the first important indentation after leaving Cook Inlet on the way 

 to the westward. The bay is about 150 miles southwest of Karluk. 

 On the westward side of the bay is a small deep bay known as Anchor- 

 age Bay. Several of the canneries are located here, and the trans- 

 porting vessels of all the canneries make their anchorage at this 

 point. In the extreme southwest corner of Chignik Bay is the 

 entrance to Chignik Lagoon. At the head of this lagoon, from 

 which all the canneries draw their supplies of red salmon, is the 

 mouth of the stream up which go the schools. 



Chignik River is about 6 miles long, with an average wddth of 100 

 yards, and its depth is such that a boat can ascend only at high 

 water. It has its rise in two lakes, each about 10 miles long. 



Red salmon predominate in the runs, although all five species are 

 to be found. A run of very small red salmon, weighing about 2 

 pounds, and known as Arctic salmon, appears here every year. 



Practically all of the fishing here is with traps, although gill nets 

 and seines have also been used at times. 



This bay, next to Karluk Spit, has been the scene of more bitter 

 fights for supremacy in canning than any other place in Alaska. 



In 1888 the Fishermen's Packing Co., of Astoria, Oreg., sent a party 

 to Chignik Bay to prospect for fish, and they returned in the fall with 

 2,160 barrels of salt salmon. 



The next year, this company, operating under the name of the 

 Chignik Bay Co., built a cannery on the eastern shore of the Lagoon, 

 2)2 miles from the entrance. 



The same year the Shumagin Packing Co., composed of capitalists 

 from Portland, Oreg., and the Chignik Bay Packing Co., of San 

 Francisco, built and operated canneries close to that of the Chignik 

 Bay Co. All three of these companies soon airived at a working 

 agreement and finally combined into one organization. All were 

 operated in 1889, 1890, and 1891. In 1892 they all joined the pool 

 of the Alaska Packing Association, and the cannery of the Chignik 

 Bay Co. alone operated. In 1893 they all became members of the 

 Alaska Packers Association. 



Since 1891 only the cannery of the Chignik Bay Co. has been oper- 

 ated. The Shumagin building has been moved alongside the former 



