Spring 2015 KMM to Show Rare Stories From the Thelma C: Color Salmon Fishing Exhibit Focus on Boat, Tsunami, and Salmon Film at Comfi sh 2015 As part of the design process for the Kodiak Maritime Museum will again be Thelma C Exhibit, the KMM Board has part of Kodiak Comfi sh, noon Thursday been working steadily since last fall to April 2nd to 5 p.m. Saturday April 4th at complete an interpretive plan for the the Harbor Convention Center. exhibit. The interpretive plan will describe KMM board members, staff and the details of the stories the exhibit will supporters will man the booth on the tell. ground fl oor of the Convention Center. Plans call for the exhibit to feature the Information about the museum will be 38 foot wooden seine boat in a small open available for visitors. sided and roofed pavilion near St. Paul This year, the museum plans to show a Harbor, with outdoor interpretive panels rare color movie fi lmed in the early 1960s and a cell phone tour. by former long time Kodiak fi sherman To help design the panels and cell Bill Torsen. phone tour, the museum is working with The silent 8 mm fi lm depicts salmon AK Exhibits, a Juneau design fi rm. The Dennis Knagin, former crewman on the Thelma C, fi shing on the north end of Kodiak museum hopes to receive a more detailed beside the boat in 2005, soon after the museum Island, including setting the net and description of the exhibit design from acquired the vessel. Photo: KMM Archives delivering fi sh for processing to the Exhibit AK in the next few weeks, and fi tted onto a limited number of exhibit Grimes Packing Plant in Ouzinkie. a complete interpretive design in hand by panels, some information will be available The Grimes plant was destroyed in the December 2015. on the museum’s website and though the 1964 tsunami and no longer exists. A main theme of the exhibit will be the cell phone tour. Torsen donated the fi lm to the museum 1964 Good Friday earthquake and tsunami While the interpretive design of the in 2010 and passed away soon after. and the impact of the event on Kodiak’s exhibit is moving forward, the museum has waterfront and fi shing fl eet. The exhibit The fi lm will be showed continuously also been working to plan and construct the will also explore Kodiak’s salmon fi shing on a video screen at the KMM booth. exhibit site and pavilion on a City owned and processing industry, wooden boat site on the spit near St. Paul Harbor. construction in the 1960s, and the day to day lives of commercial fi shermen at sea. The museum received an architectural plan for the exhibit in 2013, and major Getting to the heart of those stories was funding from the Alaska Legislature in the focus of discussion at a public meeting 2010. With several other grants in process, in November, and at numerous KMM the museum hopes to have full funding in board and committee meetings since. How hand by the end of 2015. to tell them, and how much information can be accommodated by a limited number The Thelma C was constructed in 1965, of exhibit panels has been an ongoing part one of hundreds of boats built to replace of the design discussion. vessels lost in the 1964 tsunami. KMM believes the Thelma C is the one of the last Because not every story the museum Screen shot from 1960s salmon fi lm to be shown at of these “earthquake,” boats in existence. would like to tell about the boat can be the KMM Comfi sh booth April 2-4. PAGE 2 From the Wheelhouse — Welcome Aboard! Lon White With Comfi sh coming up as I write this, its worth Born and raised in Seattle Washington, Lon White came remembering that Kodiak Maritime Museum has its roots in to Kodiak in 1979 to pursue a career as a commercial commercial fi shing and continues to be the only museum in diver. In 1982 he took a job as a Alaska dedicated to preserving the culture and history of the Harbor Offi cer with the Kodiak industry. Harbormaster Department. Lon was The organization was promoted through the ranks to his started when four fi shing current position as Harbormaster, women, Sue Jeffrey, Virginia serving in the Harbor Department Adams, Lacey Berns, and for nearly 33 years. Wanda Fields, realized in During his tenure, Lon has been the early 1990s that the intimately involved in the planning commercial fi shing industry and development of Kodiak’s port and the culture around it Lon White, KMM’s newest board member and harbors and more recently the were changing rapidly, but establishment of Kodiak’s Shipyard. there was no one keeping He is the current President of the Pacifi c Coast Congress of track of those changes, or Harbormasters & Port Managers, and a 20-year member of the the history which preceded Alaska Association of Harbormaster & Port Administrators. them. Lacey Berns gillnetting for salmon in His expertise and experience is well recognized in the industry. At the time, IFQs- Uganik Bay, 1979 Lon fi rst took an interest in Kodiak Maritime Museum Individual Fishing Quotas- through his job working in the harbor and from sitting on the were just being instituted for halibut and black cod. The new Ports and Harbors Citizens Advisory Board. In early 2009, system had ramifi cations for fi shermen in how they fi shed, how as the museum was looking for a place to site the Thelma C crews were paid, and how managers tracked the catch. It was Exhibit Executive Director Toby Sullivan brought the plan obvious to everyone that things would not be the same going to the PHAB for advice. With Lon’s counsel, the PHAB forward. subsequently passed a resolution recommending a site adjacent These prescient women realized that unless someone stopped to Oscar’s Dock as the best place for such an exhibit. to look back and document it, the long and storied history of “I’ve had an active interest in the Thelma C exhibit for a long commercial fi sheries in Alaska would be lost. As far as anyone time and I think as Harbormaster I bring a good perspective on knew, no one was saving artifacts or documents or artwork or the project. There’s a lot going on the harbor, and it all has to fi t photographs specifi cally related to commercial fi shing or the together and run smoothly. But simply as a resident of Kodiak, processing industry in any organized way. I think the exhibit will tell an really important story about our There were rumors of people squirreling things away in their history, especially the tsunami in 1964.” attics, but whatever effort there was to preserve this vital history Interested in Kodiak’s Maritime History? of Kodiak was on an amateur level. The women got organized, gathered other people to the cause and the rest is well, history. KMM is looking for new faces to help steer us through the Thelma C Project and beyond. If you have a few hours a month So here we are, twenty three years later. As we have for the to help us in our work we’d love to hear from you! past several years, KMM will have a Comfi sh booth on the ground fl oor of the Convention Center. Please stop by to say Contact the museum at 486-0384, hello, chat with old friends and check out the color fi lm we’ll be or President Wallace Fields at wfi [email protected], or 486-8370 showing of salmon seining around Kodiak in the early 60s. See you in a few days! Inside this issue: KODIAK MARITIME MUSEUM Thelma C Interpretive Design Moves Ahead 1 P.O. Box 1876, Kodiak, AK 99615 (907) 486-0384 [email protected] /www.kodiakmaritimemuseum.org From the Wheelhouse 2 President Wallace Fields, Vice-President Marnie Leist, Harbor Lights Festival Recap 3 Secretary Trent Dodson, Tresurer Marty Owen, Cannery Workers and the Supreme Court 4 Boardmembers: Heather Abena, Debra Davis, Rob Hoedel, Eva Holm, From the Archives: Roxanne Fisheries, 1978 5 Sue Jeffrey, Deb Nielsen, Marty Owen, Natalie Wadle, Lon White Board Member Emeritus Peggy Dyson Kodiak’s West Side Oral History Program 6 Executive Director Toby Sullivan New King Crab Era Portraits 7 PAGE 3 Harbor Lights Fest Illuminates the Harbor in December For the second year, Kodiak’s Harbor Lights Festival, sponsored by Kodiak Maritime Museum, lit up the harbor in late December. With help from a $1,000 Kodiak Community Foundation grant, the festival drew an esti- mated 800 people to the harbor to view more than 30 decorated vessels on December 20. As part of the festival, the museum also hosted a holiday gathering in the Harbor Con- vention Center. Hundreds of people thronged the Convention Center to visit with neigh- bors, enjoy holiday cookies and beverages, and look our over the harbor from the upstairs windows. KMM volunteers provided home made Christmas cookies and Isle Bells, St. Innocent’s Academy choir, and the local Girl Scouts provided live music. Local businesses and residents donated gift certifi cates, refreshments and various items for a silent auction to support the event and the museum. Business donors included Sutliff ’s True Value Hardware, Subway of Kodiak, Harborside Coffee, Kodiak Brewing Company, Cost-Savers, Alaska Pacifi c Seafoods, Kodiak Marine, and the Alutiiq Museum Individual donations came from Leslie Fields, Jay Barret, and Marion Owen.