Join us! Be part of rehabilitating the Japonski Island Boathouse as a maritime heritage center.
A panel of fishermen will tell about the people, culture and history of salmon trolling in southeastern Alaska, from the 1950s through 2008. Audience participation is welcome. The evening will be moderated and introduced by Eric Jordan.
Trolling has brought independent and adventurous people to settle in Alaska for many years, especially in the 1970s. The people, and the fishery, have shaped our community. Share the stories of the characters, places, boats, tragedy and humor.
The event will also feature an exhibit of photographs by Matt Donohoe. Another time, another life captured in glorious Kodachrome: floats and boats, fishermen, kids and old timers of Port Alexander, Tenakee, Sitka and the fishing grounds, thirty years ago.
Supported by a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum.
Thursday, February 21st 7-9 p.m.
Harrigan Centennial Hall Maksoutoff Room
Treats and Coffee
All are welcome.
As part of ArtiGras and Spring Art Festival, the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society will hold a maritime art show and silent auction in a special section of the community art show at Harrigan Hall the weekend of March 14-16.
Many of our wonderful Sitka artists will be featured. Art includes maritime themed pieces as well as authentic boat portholes (round boat windows) and ship's wheels (big wooden steering wheels) embellished by artists, including Laura Kaltenstein, Tommy Joseph, Deb Sellers, Keith Gibson, Rachel Fate, Norm Campbell, Rebecca Poulson, Galen Needham, Jan Steinbright, and Nick Galanin, and more.
The opening reception will take place during the spring Gallery Walk on Friday March 14th at Harrigan Centennial Hall Exhibit Room. The community spring art show will be in the same room, so there will be lots to look at.
Closing reception, and final bids, will take place at 3:30 Sunday afternoon.
The SMHS is accepting donations of maritime artifacts for artists to work on, and maritime themed artwork. Call 747-3448 for more information or to contribute.
In December of 2007 the National Scenic Byways program announced a grant to the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society for architectural design of the Japonski Island Boathouse rehabilitation. This is an exciting award, a big boost toward completion. The grant is awarded to projects that enhance the experience of National Scenic Byways travelers. The Alaska Marine Highway, the Alaska state ferries, is designated an All-American Road, the highest category of Scenic Byway. A request for proposals to architectural firms will go out this spring.
The Sitka Maritime Heritage Society's annual meeting theme was Seining Stories, featuring a panel of fishermen and buyers who shared stories of seining then and now, the thrill and hard work, great skippers and hilarious mishaps, and most of all the huge changes this fishery has seen since the 1940s. Eric Jordan hosted the panel.
Left, Eric Jordan tells a story involving closing of the seine, and right, Herb Didrickson recalls the way it used to be done, while panelists, fisherman Karen Johnson and longtime fish buyer Harold Thompson, listen. Photos by James Poulson.
Beta Sigma Phi, together with the Fishermen's Eye Art Gallery, held a benefit art auction on Saturday March 17th at the Westmark Sitka. Sitka City Administrator John Stein was host and auctioneer. Turn out was great, with wonderful generosity, some good deals, and many beautiful and unique pieces, including several by the late Dale DeArmond going to good homes. And, it was fun. All around a great showing, resulting in $7,500 for the boathouse project!
The Sitka Film Society showed the classic film Captains Courageous as a matinee on Saturday, September 29th 2007 at the Coliseum Theater downtown.
The SMHS brought Ketchikan sailmaker Louis Bartos to town the weekend of November 16th for a historical talk on his research on the sails of the Vasa.
On Saturday November 17th Louis presented a hands-on workshop on knots every mariner should know. These presentations were generously supported by a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum.
Participants tie knots in Louis Bartos’ (standing in left photo) workshop in November. Photos by James Poulson.
The SMHS can always use your help with events, setting up, making cookies, and any special skills you might have with numbers, paperwork, websites, or newsletters. Also, work on the boathouse building will continue, to replace siding removed for the foundation project, repair doors and windows, and put remaining items into storage. To volunteer, call 747-3448.
The inaugural Sitka Sound Ocean Adventure Race, a long distance competition for human-powered craft, was held in Sitka on June 16th of 2007. It was a success in every way, thanks to the enthusiasm and competence of the organizing committee and competitors.
The Sitka Maritime Heritage Society hosted the post-race picnic, preparing salmon and halibut donated by the Northern Southeast Region Aquaculture Association.
A highlight of the reception was the opportunity to view the Willits Brothers Canoe paddled to Sitka by Jack and Sasha Calvin, immortalized in the July 1932 National Geographic Magazine.
In October 2005, the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society was awarded a Save America's Treasures matching grant for $325,000. The project was one of only 32 historic properties and 29 collections selected nationwide for the awards by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the National Park Service, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The SMHS is now seeking the rest of the funds needed. The total for complete rehabilitation is estimated at 1.4 million dollars, which is being raised through application to charitable foundations, government, and a plan for local and regional fund raising.
Volunteers and a contractor completely replaced and repaired the foundation under both wings of the building, and cleaned and archived the remaining contents of the building and put them into a storage trailer. This was an incredible amount of work, thank you thank you to the more than 30 volunteers who made it enjoyable and a success. A federal Historic Preservation Fund grant and Alaska Association for Historic Preservation grants were matched with volunteer labor.
Left, volunteers scraping the building in April 2005, part of the repair and cleaning project. Photo by James Poulson. Right, the building in October 2006, after repairs and painting, and replacement of the foundation under the wings, bringing them level for the first time in at least 40 years. Both the 2005 and 2006 projects were funded with grants from the federal Historic Preservation Fund, matched with donations of materials, volunteer hours, and grants from the Alaska Association for Historic Preservation.
Left photo: Replacing section of inadequate joists in workshop side. Center: installing new joists, summer 2006. Right: New foundation under the west wing of the building, October 2006.
Alaska Day, October 18th, commemorates the date Alaska was transferred from Russian to United States possession in a ceremony in Sitka in 1867. The theme for 2006 was the Frontier Fishing Fleet. The Sitka Maritime Heritage Society held a grilled marinated black cod tips and rice sale at the Crescent Harbor shelter on October 18th, held an open house at the boathouse, and presented a talk and slide show on the history of commercial fishing in Sitka, including early fisheries, the various plants and types of boats. Thank you to all who attended, bought fish, and became members!
The Sitka Maritime Heritage Society had a booth in the Market at WhaleFest in early November, with t-shirts, a display on maritime history, some artifacts from the building, and information on the building and fund raising project.
On the Fourth of July the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society hosted our first open house at the boathouse, after our fourth annual rowing/kayaking race in the channel. (Yes, that is a cat on the deck of the kayak in the foreground, and there is a dog in the red kayak on the right.)
Left: volunteer cataloging and sorting workshop contents, from what seems to have been the catchall bench, in 2006. Right: a memo posted in the building, 27 December, 1944: �Subj: Government Property; unauthorized possession of� with respectful embellishment.
The annual meeting topic in 2006 was Remembering the Shore Boats. During World War II and until a bridge was built in 1972, transportation between Sitka and Japonski Island was by shore boat. After the war the Navy and Army installations were transferred to the Alaska Native Service, part of the federal Department of the Interior, and reused as a tuberculosis sanitarium and a boarding school for Alaska Natives. The sanitarium became a large hospital. Other federal agencies operated on the island, including the Federal Aviation Administration. The complex of federal government facilities, housing and services was named Mt. Edgecumbe, and even had its own post office for a time. It was nearly self-contained, though some children came to Sitka for school, and people had to shop for groceries in Sitka. The Japonski Island Marine Ways building was used for maintenance and repairs to the shore boats.
The annual meeting of the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society featured a small panel of former residents of �the Island,� another common name for Mt. Edgecumbe, sharing their memories of the shore boats and life in Mt. Edgecumbe. We had wonderful participation from the audience as well, since a panel can't but be a few representatives of an entire community over many decades. That community is now vanished - nearly all the housing and other service buildings have been demolished over the years, and the federal presence is nearly gone. The hospital is now run by the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, and the boarding school is now run by the State of Alaska. The meeting highlighted the need to write down the history of Mt. Edgecumbe. Only three of the dozens of shore boat pilots survive. The 60th anniversary of Mt. Edgecumbe High School, founded as a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school, will be in February 2007. The Sitka Maritime Heritage Society is working with other groups in Sitka toward conducting interviews to record the history of Mt. Edgecumbe, as well as boat building, fishing and canneries.
To become a member of the SMHS, and receive our (mostly) quarterly newsletter which is also available online from the home page of this site - send a check for $30 for a basic membership ($10 seniors and students, $40 whole crew, or join at the $50 or $100 level, or any amount you are comfortable with) with your name and address and email address, and whether you would like to receive the newsletter by email! to
Sitka Maritime Heritage Society (or SMHS)
P. O.
Box 2153
Sitka, Alaska, 99835
