Kake Cannery National Historic Landmark

View of the cannery office, stores, and cooling building from the dock at Kake Salmon Cannery.

Jet Lowe, Historic American Engineering Record Survey at Library of Congress

• Period of Significance: 1912 to 1940
• Current Status: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark
• Current Use: Not operating, preservation efforts underway for tourism

The Kake Cannery is located on Kupreanof Island in the Alexander Archipelago. The cannery was constructed on piers over the tidewaters of the Keku Strait. The site sits on a traditional Tlingit summer fishing ground. The native village of Kake is located a mile and a half from the cannery site, and residents participated in the construction of the cannery. The cannery was in operation during the summer months (salmon fishing season), and it functioned like a small industrial town housing its employees.

Boardwalk between the warehouses and the main cannery building.

NPS / Linda Cook, 1992

The Kake Cannery historically consisted of 22 buildings and structures that were constructed between 1912 and 1940. The industrial-style infrastructure and layout of the site directly responded to its utilitarian purpose as a cannery.

Typical of a cannery site, the campus housed employees in segregated bunkhouses (Alaska Native, Euro-American, Oriental, Filipino, and African American), and single-family homes were assigned to individuals in certain positions. Because of the location of the cannery, the primary circulation pattern was by a boardwalk that connected the mess hall, bunkhouses, and cannery buildings.

The Kake Cannery was constructed in 1912 by the Sanborn Cutting Company at an existing cure station and dock owned by the Kake Trading and Packing Company. In 1917, the cannery produced 89,369 cases of salmon. The Sanborn Cutting Company operated the cannery until 1925, when it was sold to the Sunny Point Packing Company. In 1926, the canneries pack was 93,480 cases. The Kake Cannery changed ownership for the last time in 1929 to Alaska Pacific Salmon Corporation, and produced 82,040 cases that year. The highest pack made by the Kake Cannery was 112,445 cases in 1940. The cannery was in operation until 1977, when it was closed permanently due to economic reasons.

Year	Event	Owner	Production (cases)
1912	Construction of cannery	Sanborn Cutting Company	-
1917	-	Sanborn Cutting Company	89,369
1926	-	Sunny Point Packing Company (1925)	93,480
1929	-	Alaska Pacific Salmon Corporation	82,040
1940	Highest pack by the Kake Cannery	Alaska Pacific Salmon Corporation	112,445
1977	Closed permanently	Alaska Pacific Salmon Corporation	-

Japanese and Filipino bunkhouse at Kake Cannery

NPS / Linda Cook, 1992

Initially, the Kake Cannery employed native workers, and entire families would work at the cannery. Native fishermen were the primary salmon suppliers to the cannery, and women and children worked on the canning lines. However, by the 1930s, the native workforce had decreased considerably to two to four fisherman and a handful of women in the cannery. Like the other canneries, the workforce eventually switched to contracted labor, first employing workers from China, then Japan, and finally the Philippines.

Kake Salmon Cannery site plan, documented for the Historic American Engineering Record.

Survey HAER AK-26, Library of Congress

More about Kake Cannery

• Kake Salmon Cannery: Photographs and drawings from Survey HAER AK-26, Library of Congress
• National Register of Historic Places, Kake Cannery, Kake, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, National Register #97001677.