HOW IT ALL STARTED
The name Ekuk means “the last village down”
which reflects that the village is the community
farthest south on the Nushagak Bay.
Russian accounts first document the village in 1824 and 1828 as Village Ekouk and Seleniye Ikuk. Ekuk is believed to have been a major Eskimo village at one time in history. After 1818 the Russians employed the Natives of the area as guides as they navigated their boats up Nushagak Bay to the Aleksandrovsk trading post. Many residents of the community moved to the Moravian Mission at Carmel prior to the opening of the North Alaska Salmon Company cannery in Ekuk in 1903. Many residents were also drawn away from the village by the opening of additional canneries on both sides of the bay between 1888 and 1889.
STORY ABOUT
CRESCENT
PORTER HALE
The North Alaska Salmon Co.
emerged as one of the biggest salmon
processors and took the lead in a technological
race to mechanize the salmon canning process.
Canning operations were mostly mechanized by the turn of the 20th century, except for cleaning the fish itself which was done by hand. Haller and Hale, founders of Ekuk plant, formed the Canners Machine Co. and allied with the Letson Burpee Co. of Seattle and ran its fish cleaning machines at all of its canneries. Hale was awarded patent 798,334 for his improvements to the machine in 1905, but eventually the design of Edmund Augustine Smith, better known as the “Iron Chink,” became the industry standard.
The salmon industry prospered early in the 20th century and the outbreak of the First World War created huge demand for salmon that soon pushed Bristol Bay’s annual harvest over 20 million reds. Joseph Haller, however, died of a heart ailment in 1915 and the North Alaska Salmon Co. was sold to Libby, McNeill and Libby, ironically a Chicago-based meat packing concern such as the antagonist in The Silver Horde. Hale’s relocated Hallerville cannery was renamed Libbyville.
Cress Hale didn’t sit idle for long. Praised in the trade journals as “one of the best all around, competent cannerymen in Western Alaska,” Hale bought the Alaska Salmon Company cannery on Wood River near Dillingham in 1916. He organized under the name Northern Fisheries and in 1918 bought the Union Fish Company, a major cod-fishing concern with roots that traced back to the acquisition of Alaska from Russia. In 1923 he bought the Bristol Bay Packing Company cannery at Pederson Point near Naknek.
The 1920s were generally strong years for Bristol Bay salmon and Hale helped introduce popular culture to the region by showing movies at his Wood River cannery. The films attracted hundreds, including cannery workers and local residents. Serials and westerns were popular as well as cartoons like Krazy Kat and Mickey Mouse.
Hale produced his own promotional movie, shot and edited by his Wood River cannery superintendent Joe Hidzik. Called Ice Kist Treasures after Hale’s premier salmon brand, the film shows workers signing up, departing aboard cannery steamers, fishing boats, cannery operations and even a trip to the Wood Tikchik lakes. A copy of the film is available at the J. Porter Shaw library at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
HOW IT ALL LOOKED 100 YEARS AGO
The Joseph F. Hidzick motion picture films consists of 8 reels of 35mm cellulose nitrate film of San Francisco fishing companies operations in Alaska and San Francisco Bay from circa 1930-1935. “Iced Kist Treasures” shows salmon fishery and canning at the Wood River Cannery near Dillingham, Alaska. Joseph Hidzick was superintendent of the Wood River Cannery for the San Francisco-based Alaska Salmon Company. “Codfish film” shows the San Francisco-based Union Fish Company codfish plant on Belvedere Island in San Francisco Bay, Joseph F. Hidzick photographer, ca. 1930-1935.