Anjuli Grantham shows off historic salmon canneries tin from a collection from the Karen Hofstad at the Alaska State Library’s Research Center for First Friday on Friday, June 7, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

Anjuli Grantham shows off historic salmon canneries tin from a collection from the Karen Hofstad at the Alaska State Library’s Research Center for First Friday on Friday, June 7, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

Book spotlights fishy stories at the heart of the state’s history

Colorful labels and characters from bygone era.

Canneries are some of the most historically important buildings in Alaska, even if not everyone realizes it, said Anjuli Grantham.

That’s one of the reasons Grantham edited the new book “Tin Can Country: Historic Canneries of Southeast Alaska,” which documents the 135 canneries established in the state from 1878 to the present day.

“It’s the story of Alaska, especially coastal Alaska,” Grantham told the Capital City Weekly ahead of her First Friday presentation at the Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum.

She said while many canneries were placed at the site of existing Alaska Native fishing villages, those settlements didn’t become year-round population centers until canneries.

“Nothing has shaped coastal Alaska such as the cannery industry,” Grantham said.

Canneries are also part of Grantham’s personal history.

[Juneau gets roasted]

She said during her presentation that she grew up exploring the remnants of a cannery at Packers Spit at Uganik Bay on the west side of Kodiak Island, where her family had a fish camp, a place where they harvested fish during the summer.

“I am here because the smell of salmon makes me giddy,” Grantham said.

“Tin Can Country” isn’t just an offshoot of a lifelong love of salmon and interest in canneries. Grantham said it’s the culmination of decades of work by the late Pat Roppel of Wrangell, who was Grantham’s friend and mentor. The book also gets a lot of its look from salmon labels meticulously collected over 50 years by Karen Hofstad of Petersburg.

The Alaska State Library features historic salmon canneries with a collection from the Karen Hofstad at the Research Center for First Friday on Friday, June 7, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

The Alaska State Library features historic salmon canneries with a collection from the Karen Hofstad at the Research Center for First Friday on Friday, June 7, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

Grantham said not much is known about the actual artists who created the detailed drawings that adorn many of the crimson cans from the early 20th century.

“Some of them are very clearly related to the place they’re from,” Grantham said. “Some of them are totally fantastic representations of place.”

The labels also found their way into the lives of the people who lived near the fisheries.

Some labels from Hofstad’s collection displayed at the archives Friday had at one point served as makeshift stationery.

“The man who was writing describes the devastation of Spanish influenza in Bristol Bay,” Grantham said.

Colorful characters and Costco

Bob King, who also contributed to “Tin Can Country,” also spoke during the presentation. He covered one of the canneries’ most colorful characters — Roland Onffroy.

“He was one of those big idea guys who never followed through,” King said in an interview before his presentation. “His canneries went bankrupt constantly.”

In about three years, from 1901-1903 Onffroy spent millions of dollars on four separate attempts at making it big in the canned salmon business, King said.

[There’s a drought happening, but what does it mean?]

Onffroy was French nobility by birth, but moved to Canada and later New York. During the Klondike gold rush Onffroy became interested in Alaska, but only made it as far as Bellingham where he started his first failed cannery.

“The first cannery went broke because he didn’t have access to fish because he didn’t know what he was doing,” Onffroy said.

So the entrepreneur went back to the drawing board, raised funds and started a second slightly more successful cannery.

However, King said Onffroy had a reputation as a free spender who was more interested in sailing on his yacht than overseeing his business. Onffroy was about to be fired from the cannery he started, but ultimately quit instead.

The Alaska State Library features historic salmon canneries with a collection from the Karen Hofstad at the Research Center for First Friday on Friday, June 7, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

The Alaska State Library features historic salmon canneries with a collection from the Karen Hofstad at the Research Center for First Friday on Friday, June 7, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

Still hellbent on making money in canneries, Onffroy went to New York to raise more money, King said. Onffroy ultimately raised $13 million and began buying up fish trapping sites and canneries in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska.

The Frenchman’s goal was to start a consortium of all canneries, and King said at one point he owned one-third of Alaska’s canneries.

However, Onffroy overpaid for the sites and canneries he acquired, King said, so he did not have the funds necessary to buy Alaska Packers Association. That would ultimately be Onffroy’s undoing in the canned salmon business.

In 1903, the “Canned Salmon Wars” — a price-slashing competition between Alaska Packers Association and Onffroy’s outfit — began They didn’t last long, King said. Alaska Packers Association made a lot of money off selling canned sockeye, while Onffroy’s outfit relied on chum and pink salmon.

Alaska Packers Association undercut their competitors, and Onffroy soon had another bankrupt business on his hands.

King said at that point Onffroy was unable to attract new investors to a cannery, so he went back to New York, where he pitched the concept of a grocery and retail cooperative that would be so affordable and expansive that customers would pay to shop there.

More than 500 stores joined the cooperative, King said, but it went bankrupt anyway.

“To give him credit, while his company collapsed, his business model was pretty much the same used by Costco today,” King said.


• Contact reporter Ben Hohenstatt at (907)523-2243 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.


More in News

KTOO, Juneau's public radio station, is photographed in Juneau, Alaska, on Friday, July 11, 2025. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)
Public radio facing cuts as Congress moves to pull back funding

KTOO could lose one-third of its budget if the House passes a bill cutting funding for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting

Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo
The Norwegian Bliss arrives in Juneau on Monday, April 14.
Ships in port for the week of July 19

This information comes from the Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska’s 2025 schedule.… Continue reading

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Thursday, July 17, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Eaglecrest Ski Area. (Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire File)
Hiker rescued from gully at Eaglecrest

The woman got stuck in a gully after taking a wrong turn

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Wednesday, July 16, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

The Dimond Courthouse in Juneau, Alaska, is seen in this undated photo. (Michael S. Lockett / Juneau Empire file)
Juneau man pleads guilty to murder of infant

James White pleaded guilty yesterday to the murder of 5-and-half-week-old Kathy White

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Megan Dean shakes hands with the new Arctic District commander Rear Admiral Bob Little on Friday. Vice Admiral Andrew J. Tiongson, commander of the Pacific Area, smiles. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
US Coast Guard receives new commander, new name for Alaska

The Arctic District’s new icebreaker will visit Juneau next month

City and Borough of Juneau City Hall is photographed on July 12, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Juneau Empire file)
Municipal election candidate filing period opens July 18

The filing period runs from July 18 at 8 a.m. to July 28 at 4:30 p.m.

The Mendenhall River roars more than 13 feet above normal levels in August 2023. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Suicide Basin predicted to fill by Aug. 8

The change in the prediction of when the basin will fill was based on heavy rain last week

Most Read