Uyak Bay and Karluk

Alberta Laktonen was inspired one day in 1955: instead of working in the Larsen Bay cannery mess hall, she would start setnetting. Never mind that she had never fished in her life.

  Virginia Abston speaks about growing up at Park’s Cannery in Uyak Bay and her experiences at Chief Cove, her family’s Uyak setnet site.

      Weston Fields remembers setnetting in Uyak Bay in the old days, when hardy fishermen had solo operations using linen nets and cedar floats.  

  Mark Thissen of Larsen’s Mercantile in Larsen Bay remembers cleaning up oil in Uyak following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

      Jane Petrich recalls the day her skiff swamped and she nearly drowned in Uyak Bay. 

Dexter Lorance, longtime foreman at the Larsen Bay cannery, gives a tour of the canning line.

  West Side Genesis Here, Patrick Saltonstall describes the archaeology of the Karluk River system, uncovering thousands of years of human use.

  John Thwaites of the mail steamer Dora wrote this account of escaping the ash fall emitted from the Katmai volcano in June of 1912. 

Mont Hawthorne worked at a Karluk cannery in 1890. Hear his memories of the early days of the Karluk salmon fishery in this segment.

  The Bertha was a venerable steamer engaged in Alaskan coastal trade in the 19th and early 20th century, until she went aground in Uyak Bay in July of 1915.