Fish Traps were a major part of Southeast Alaska industry in the first half of the 20th century. I’ve mentioned the traps around Funter Bay in many previous entries, including some photos of trap operations here and some of the designs and technology here.
As noted on many of the Thlinket Packing Co’s labels, they claimed to be “The only cannery in Alaska fishing with traps exclusively”. This was said to make for “fresh, wholesome, and delicious” canned salmon. Collector George Freddora was kind enough to share a label for “Tepee Brand” Coho salmon that I had not seen before:
Tepee Brand Salmon Label, courtesy of George Freddora.
Below are a few photos of trap operations, including “pulling” or “brailing” the fish out of the trap. This was a popular scene to photograph, as the wriggling, splashing fish made for an exciting display. As such, there are a lot of duplicates and variants of these photos for Funter Bay! My apologies if I have posted some of these particular images before.
“Brailing Salmon into Scow”, Courtesy of Alaska State Archives, Case & Draper Photograph Collection, PCA 39
Courtesy of Alaska State Archives, Case & Draper Photograph Collection, PCA 39
Courtesy of Alaska State Archives, Case & Draper Photograph Collection, PCA 39
“T.P. Co Salmon Trap”, Courtesy of Alaska State Archives, Case & Draper Photograph Collection, PCA 39
The next image and variants of it became a popular Alaska postcard, both in original and colorized versions:
Courtesy of Alaska State Archives, Case & Draper Photograph Collection, PCA 39
Photographer William Case took a number of back-to-back exposures of the brailing process seen above. So far I’ve found 5 of these, and stacked them together into a quick animation:
(Various sources including Alaska State Library and University of Washington Digital Archives).
And finally, a look back at the trap (center-right) and the Kitten Islands, on the way back to the cannery.
Courtesy of Alaska State Archives, Case & Draper Photograph Collection, PCA 39
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