Koggiung, Alaska

Last updated
Indigenous village in Koggiung showing bidarkas (animal skin covered kayaks) stored atop racks for drying fish, 1917 Eskimo village of Koggiung, Alaska, 1917 (COBB 148).jpeg
Indigenous village in Koggiung showing bidarkas (animal skin covered kayaks) stored atop racks for drying fish, 1917

Koggiung is a coastal settlement by Kvichak Bay, an arm of Bristol Bay, in Alaska, United States. [1] It has a history of summer gillnet fishing and cannery operations. Graveyard Point is in the area, as is the Koggiung Airport.

The Point Roberts Packing Company (Alaska Packers Association) canning plant in Koggiung from Kvichak Bay FMIB 40736 Canning Plant of Point Roberts Packing Company (APA), Koggiung, Kvichak Bay View from stream to northeast Schooner Prosper.jpeg
The Point Roberts Packing Company (Alaska Packers Association) canning plant in Koggiung from Kvichak Bay
View of Point Roberts Packing Company canning plant FMIB 40732 Canning Plant of Point Roberts Packing Company (APA), Koggiung, Kvichak Bay View from sand dune to southwest.jpeg
View of Point Roberts Packing Company canning plant

The schooner C.A. Thayer , carrying 28-foot (8.5 m) gillnet boats, bundles of staves for barrels, salt, and a crew of fishermen and cannery workers sailed from San Francisco to Alaska each April from 1912 through 1924. It was anchored at a fishery camp like Squaw Creek or Koggiung, where the fishermen worked their nets and the cannery workers (on the shore) packed the catch.

Each September it returned to San Francisco with supplies of barrels of salted salmon.

In 1909 a reindeer station was formed with a 500-strong herd driven down the Kvichak River to Koggiung. The station was vacated in 1918 after the ash from the 1912 Mount Katmai volcanic eruption caused the deer to starve. [2]

The Katie G at Koggiung, July 1918 Fishing boat KATIE G at Koggiung, Alaska, July 1918 (COBB 236).jpeg
The Katie G at Koggiung, July 1918
Alaska Packers Association salmon trap near Graveyard Point on Kvichak Bay FMIB 40721 Northern and Inshore Pot of Salmon Trap, Belonging to Alaska Packers Association, Near Graveyard Point, Kvichak Bay View from.jpeg
Alaska Packers Association salmon trap near Graveyard Point on Kvichak Bay

The area became a ghost town after the Libby's Graveyard Point, Koggiung cannery closed in 1959. [3] Archival photos of Koggiung remain. [4] It has seen a resurgence of fishing activity and summer fish camping in the 21st century. [3]

Related Research Articles

Dillingham, Alaska City in Alaska, United States

Dillingham, also known as Curyung, is a city in Dillingham Census Area, Alaska, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 2,329, down from 2,466 in 2000.

Hoonah, Alaska City in Alaska, United States

Hoonah is a largely Tlingit community on Chichagof Island, located in Alaska's panhandle in the southeast region of the state. It is 30 miles (48 km) west of Juneau, across the Alaskan Inside Passage. Hoonah is the only first-class city on Chichagof Island, the 109th-largest island in the world and the 5th-largest island in the U.S.. At the 2010 census the population was 760, down from 860 at the 2000 census. In the summer the population can swell to over 1,300 depending on fishing, boating, hiking and hunting conditions.

Petersburg, Alaska CDP in Alaska, United States

Petersburg is a census-designated place (CDP) in and essentially the borough seat of Petersburg Borough, Alaska, United States. The population was 2,948 at the 2010 census, down from 3,224 in 2000.

District of Alaska Governmental designation for Alaska from 1884-1912

The District of Alaska was the governmental designation for Alaska from May 17, 1884 to August 24, 1912, when it became Alaska Territory. Previously it had been known as the Department of Alaska. At the time, legislators in Washington, D.C., were occupied with post–Civil War reconstruction issues, and had little time to dedicate to Alaska. General Jefferson C. Davis, a U.S. Army officer, was put in charge as the first commander of the Department of Alaska, which between 1884 and 1912 was renamed the District of Alaska and was appointed a civil government by President Chester A. Arthur with the passage of the First Organic Act. During the Department era, Alaska was variously under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army, the United States Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Navy, but now the area had its own government.

Bristol Bay

Bristol Bay is the easternmost arm of the Bering Sea, at 57° to 59° North 157° to 162° West in Southwest Alaska. Bristol Bay is 400 km (250 mi) long and 290 km, (180 mi) wide at its mouth. A number of rivers flow into the bay, including the Cinder, Egegik, Igushik, Kvichak, Meshik, Nushagak, Naknek, Togiak, and Ugashik.

Kvichak Bay is an arm on the northeast side of Bristol Bay in southern Alaska, at 58°26′N157°54′W. It is 80 km (50 mi) long and 48 km (30 mi) wide. The Kvichak River flows into the bay at its furthest northeast point, while the Naknek River comes in from the east about 16 km (9.9 mi) to the south of the Kvichak.

<i>C.A. Thayer</i> (1895)

C.A. Thayer is a schooner built in 1895 near Eureka, California. The schooner is now preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. She is one of the last survivors of the sailing schooners in the West coast lumber trade to San Francisco from Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. She was designated a National Historic Landmark on 13 November 1966.

Alagnak River

The Alagnak River is a 64-mile (103 km) tributary of the Kvichak River in the U.S. state of Alaska. It has a catchment area of approximately 1400 square mi (3600 km2). It is located in central Lake and Peninsula Borough.

Egegik River

The Egegik River is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska. A biological survey was conducted at the base of the Alaska Peninsula in 1902 by Wilfred Hudson Osgood, which included the Egegik River.

Monterey clipper

The Monterey Clipper is a fishing boat common to the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay Area and east to the Sacramento delta.

Nushagak, Alaska

Nushagak was a trade center and settlement near the present-day site of Dillingham, Alaska, United States, at the northern end of Nushagak Bay in northern Bristol Bay. It was located near the confluence of the Wood River and Nushagak Rivers.

Porcher Island

Porcher Island is an island in Hecate Strait, British Columbia, Canada, near the mouth of the Skeena River and southwest of the port city of Prince Rupert. The locality of Porcher Island is located near the island's northern tip at Humpback Bay, 54°05′11″N130°23′23″W. Stephens and Prescott Islands are located off its northwestern tip.

Alaska Packers Association

The Alaska Packers' Association (APA) was a San Francisco based manufacturer of Alaska canned salmon founded in 1891 and sold in 1982. As the largest salmon packer in Alaska, the member canneries of APA were active in local affairs, and had considerable political influence. The Alaska Packers' Association is best known for operating the "Star Fleet," the last fleet of commercial sailing vessels on the West Coast of North America, as late as 1927.

Taku Harbor is a small, remote bay located on the eastern shore of Stephens Passage about 22 miles southeast of central Juneau, Alaska, United States.

Crescent Porter Hale (1872–1937) was an American industrialist who was involved in the canned salmon industry in Bristol Bay, Alaska throughout his adult life.

Salmon cannery

A salmon cannery is a factory that commercially cans salmon. It is a fish-processing industry that became established on the Pacific coast of North America during the 19th century, and subsequently expanded to other parts of the world that had easy access to salmon.

Egegik Bay

Egegik Bay is a bay located just 69.1 miles from Dillingham in Alaska and the northeastern arm of the Bristol Bay. The Egegik village is located on a high bluff along the southern shore of the Egegik River at the upper extent of Egegik Bay. The nearest places to Egegik Bay are Coffee Point, Coffee Point, Goose Point, Egegik Airport, and Bartletts Airport.

Brookfield, Washington Ghost Town in Washington, United States

Brookfield was a salmon-canning and fishing town located on the Columbia River in Wahkiakum County, Washington, United States, from 1873 to 1957. It was the home of the J.G. Megler Company.

Puget Sound fishermen's strike of 1949 was a labor strike by fishermen in the Pacific Northwest.

<i>General Frisbie</i> (steamship) steamship, built 1900

The steamship General Frisbie was a wooden two-deck passenger ship built in 1900, named after John B. Frisbie. She was designed for use as a ferry between Vallejo and San Francisco. The steamer was successful in that role and was the fastest ship on the route when she began service. Improved roads, bridges, and automobiles reduced demand for ferry service in the Bay Area, and newer ships were optimized for transporting cars, so General Frisbie was retired in the late 1920s.

References

  1. "Koggiung". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved 2019-01-15.
  2. "Koggiung". uaf.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
  3. 1 2 "Summer at Graveyard: In a seemingly abandoned place, a new economic model emerges and a family adapts". Anchorage Daily News.
  4. "Alaska's Digital Archives".

Coordinates: 58°52′01″N157°00′27″W / 58.86694°N 157.00750°W / 58.86694; -157.00750