Fish Trapped: Salmon Streams of Wrangell’s APA Cannery
To understand how the Alaska Packers Association cannery in Wrangell produced tons of canned salmon each year, here are the freshwater streams that provided the salmon.
Salmon running up stream. Photo by US Fish & Wildlife Service.
Field of Streams
The Alaska Packers Association built its empire on a vast network of freshwater streams packed with wild salmon. Wrangell’s first cannery began inside the mouth of the Stikine River in the late 1880s, but by 1893, it moved to the north end of Wrangell Island, where it remained in operation until 1927. To fill the demand for canned salmon, Wrangell’s cannery tapped into streams miles away but close enough to ensure steamships could deliver fresh-caught salmon to the cannery dock every day. (To learn more about the site of the Wrangell cannery, read our blog post, The Cannery at Labouchere Bay).
Few topics in Wrangell history have been as controversial as salmon traps. These devices allowed canneries to produce record-volume canned salmon, but they deprived Tlingit, Haida, and other Indigenous people of the coast access to traditional salmon streams. The fight over salmon streams helped to begin the movement towards Alaska Native lands claims.
This map above is an attempt to identify the streams that provided salmon for Wrangell’s APA cannery. It is based off the APA’s own fish trap maps held at the Alaska Packers Association Records, Series VI, Sub-Series 7, Box 19: Alaska Territory Fish Trap Locations Map at Archives & Special Collections at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
This map also features streams supplying the Wrangell cannery in government reports by Jefferson F. Moser in 1899 and 1902. The streams on this map were used at varying times, and it’s not clear when their use began or ended. There are likely more sites than are documented here. Where a salmon trap’s location is not identified by name, it is referred to only by trap number.
Fish Trap Maps
Salmon Trap No. 1 (Anan Creek)
Location: 131°48’N, 56°16’W
Of all the salmon traps in this collection, this one is identified by its Tlingit name: Anan. In Haa Aaní, Thomas Ukas and William Ukas reported “On Anan Creek there was formerly a large village which was owned jointly by the Ḵaach.ádi and the Kisk.ádi. It is apparently no longer used by the Natives.” In 1899, J.F. Moser wrote:
To learn more about the history of Anan, read Anan, Stream of Living Water by Bonnie Demerjian.
Salmon Trap No. 2
Location: 132°14’N, 55°42’W
Note: This fish trap is the same longitude and latitude as Salmon Trap No. 5.
Salmon Trap No. 3 (Ratz Harbor)
Location: 132°36’N, 55°53’W
In 1899, J.F. Moser identified Ratz Harbor as one of the principal sources of salmon for the Wrangell cannery. He wrote:
Salmon Trap No. 4 (Eagle Creek)
Location: 132°41’N, 55°57’W
Salmon Trap No. 6 (Totem Bay)
Location: 133°20’N, 56°28’W
In Haa Aaní, two Tlingit sources reported on the ancestral use of Totem Bay:
Salmon Trap No. 7 (Little Totem Bay)
Location: 133°25’N, 56°27’W
Salmon Trap No. 8 (Gull Point)
Location: 55°53’36”N, 132°23’30”W
Salmon Trap No. 10
Location: 132°13’W, 55°40’30”N
Salmon Trap No. 11
Location: 56°39’40”N, 132°12’30”W
Salmon Trap No. 12 (Kelp Point)
Location: 132°26’35”W, 55°57’10”N
Salmon Trap No. 16 (Union Bay)
Location: 55°45’30” N, 132°15’ W
Salmon Trap No. 19
Location: 55°47’45”N, 132°28’50” W
Salmon Trap No. 22
Location: 56°15’00”N, 133°04’22”W
Salmon Trap No. 25
Location: 55°38’30”N, 132°12’30”W
Additional APA Fishing Areas
Aerial photograph of the Stikine River delta from the Wikipedia Commons.
Stikine River Delta
Location: 56.622809°N, 132.369818°W
According to J.F. Moser in 1899, “The cannery at Wrangell uses gill nets in the fisheries at the mouth of the Stikine, but all fish obtained for this cannery in other localities are taken in drag seines.” He continued:
The report continued that Hoagland “indicates that Totem Bay was the property of the Taalḵweidí who had a smokehouse in this area. He further states that he has hunted and seined in these areas when he was a young man.”
A photo of two men sitting on a rock overlooking Kah-Sheets Stream from J.F. Moser’s 1899 report.
J.F. Moser’s report identifies Kah-Sheets as one of the key sources of salmon for the Wrangell cannery in 1899. He wrote:
Thoms Place (Old Village)
Location: 56.177296°N, 132.146156°W
In Haa Aaní, Thomas Ukas reportedly said:
In 1899, J.F. Moser wrote:
In his 1902 report, Moser identified the Tlingit name as Aw-Aw, but “better known as Thoms Stream, fished by the Wrangell and Gerard Point canneries.”
(image source: University of Washington Archives)
Point Barrie (Kushneahin)
Location: 56.437783°N, 133.656237°W
A chart in J.F. Moser’s book identifies this as Kushneahin, one of the incidental suppliers of fish for the Wrangell cannery. In 1899, Moser wrote:
Whale Pass
Location: 56.100673°N, 133.123887°W
According to William Paul’s The Alaska Tlingit, Whale Pass is Tee-hit-ton land known as Oota-heen. In Haa Aaní, Willis Hoagland said “there was a camp on the south side of the island on Whale Pass.”
According to J.F. Moser in 1899:
Wrangell Narrows (Finger Point & Turn Point)
Location: 56.806949°N, 132.985330°W
The map above shows the Wrangell Narrows between Mitkof Island and Kupreanof Island. According to the labels on this map, the stream opposite Finger Point produces around 2,000 redfish, while the stream opposite Turn Point produces 8,000-10,000 humpback salmon and 5,000 coho salmon. Today, the area of Turn Point is the city of Petersburg, Alaska.
According to Willis Hoagland in Haa Aaní:
In 1899, J.F. Moser reported:
If you’d like to learn more about the APA in Wrangell history, check out our series, Rise & Fall of the Star of Bengal.
More to Explore
Institute of Social and Economic Research: Salmon Fish Traps in Alaska, by Steve Colt
Alaska Historical Society: The Funter Bay Cannery, by Gabe Emerson
The Fisherman’s Frontier, by David F. Arnold
The Salmon and Salmon Fisheries of Alaska (1899), by Jefferson F. Moser
Alaska Salmon Investigations in 1900 and 1901 (1902), by Jefferson F. Moser