Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion Using a crane from Peak Oilfield Services, volunteers for the Kenai Historical Society help place a wooden fishing boat, built in 1929, on struts in front of the Kenai Visitors Center on Wed. June 19, 2016 in Kenai, Alaska.  The boat, donated by Dave and Linda Hutchings, will be kept there as a historical exhibit.

Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion Using a crane from Peak Oilfield Services, volunteers for the Kenai Historical Society help place a wooden fishing boat, built in 1929, on struts in front of the Kenai Visitors Center on Wed. June 19, 2016 in Kenai, Alaska. The boat, donated by Dave and Linda Hutchings, will be kept there as a historical exhibit.

Old boat finds new berth in Kenai

KENAI — After almost 90 years in the current, an old fishing boat has come to rest in front of the Kenai Visitor Center.

The wooden boat, built in 1929, was donated to the Kenai Historical Society by its owners, Dave and Linda Hutchings, and was brought to the visitor’s center from their home on Sport Lake Saturday.

Retired fisherman and sailor Brian Johanson spent time in many boats during his career, but the boat now mounted on wooden struts near the Visitors Center parking lot was his first. It had been owned by his father, fisherman Alex “Ike” Johanson, who bought it in 1955 and used it to fish Cook Inlet salmon from the Kenai docks. Brian Johanson started working aboard it when he was nine.

Johanson said the boat began its career as a sail-propelled fishing boat in Bristol Bay. A gasoline engine was later installed when it came to Kenai to fish Cook Inlet, where it came into his family’s possession.

“He (Alex Johanson) rebuilt the boat up a bit from its original state,” Brian Johanson said. “It’s technically called a Bristol Bay double-ender, because the stern is pointed. You don’t see these around much anymore. Most boats these days are square-stern. … In the old days it was my job to paint it, and also to cork it. We had big bags of cotton, long strings of cotton. I had to cork each plank with a corking iron and mallet to tap that cotton in there. … When the wood swelled all those seams would tighten up, and the boat would become water-tight.”

Johanson said he remembered some “kind of hairy” moments sailing the boat through fog with no instruments except a map and compass. The nets he fished with were made of linen and wooden cork, “so heavy to work with,” he said. The boat’s cabin was heated with an oil stove, but had no electric lights.

“And no head, either,” Johanson said. “You had to use a bucket.”

When he did research on the boat’s history, Hutchings — who had also spent summers working on fishing boats in his youth — discovered his own connection to it.

“I just stumbled across the Alaska number, and I pulled it up, and it said ‘Ike Johanson.’ I thought, ‘Oh my god. I know Ike.’ I sold cars to him through the years. He’s gone, but Brian and I went to school together. I called Brian and said ‘I’ve got your dad’s old boat.’”

Hutchings said he and Johanson had planned to donate the boat to the Historical Society for about a year.

“It looks pretty cute in my pond by my lake cabin, but I think it would get a lot more of its purpose being over there with the Historic Society and Old Town Kenai,” Hutchings said.

Last Saturday, the boat was lifted from Hutchings’ pond with a crane volunteered by Peak Outfield Services and carried to the Kenai Visitors Center on a Snug Harbor Seafoods truck, where it was mounted for display on wooden legs. Hutchings and Johanson said they intend to do some restoration work on the boat, and Johanson plans to write about his fishing memories for a plaque to be placed nearby.

In its new location, Johanson said the boat shares the visitor’s center yard with another artifact from the old Kenai docks: a coal-powered steam winch called a “donkey,” also installed as a historical exhibit across the parking lot. Johanson said it was the same steam donkey that used to pull his father’s boat out of the river in the fall.

Kenai Historical Society member June Harris said the boat had found a suitable final berth.

“The first thing people do when they come to Kenai is come to the Kenai Visitor Center,” Harris said. “They tour around the parking lot and see the donkey winch, then they take a walk around Old Town Kenai because they’re really interested in the Russian church, and they end up at the historic cabin park where they get a very good tour and more history of our area. (Johanson’s boat) is in a great location.”

• Ben Boettger is a reporter for the Peninsula Clarion. He can be reached at ben.boettger@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

The Norwegian Bliss arrives in Juneau on Monday, April 14, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)
Ships in port for the week of May 12

This information comes from the Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska’s 2024 schedule.… Continue reading

The Alaska House of Representatives is seen in action on Monday, May 5, 2025. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Republican opposition kills bill intended to fix Alaska’s absentee voting problems

Senate Bill 64 passed the Senate this week, but the House doesn’t have enough time to address it, legislators said.

Fu Bao Hartle (center), a Juneau Special Olympics athlete, crosses a bridge with family and supporters during the annual Alaska Law Enforcement Torch Run on Saturday, May 17, 2025. (Ellie Ruel / Juneau Empire)
Community spirit shines at Juneau’s Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics

Energy was high at race to fundraise to send Juneau’s athletes to Anchorage Summer Games.

The Alaska State Capitol is seen behind a curtain of blooming branches on Saturday, May 17, 2025. (James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
Most state services will see no new funding in final Alaska state budget draft

Flat funding, combined with inflation, will mean service cuts in many places across the state.

Steve Whitney (left) is sworn in as a Juneau Board of Education member by Superior Court Judge Amy Mead in the library at Thunder Mountain Middle School on Saturday, May 17, 2025, after five candidates were interviewed by the other board members to fill the seat vacated when Will Muldoon resigned last month. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Steve Whitney returns to Juneau school board six years after departure to temporarily fill vacant seat

Fisheries manager and parent selected from among five candidates to serve until October’s election.

A used gondola purchased from an Austrian ski resort is seen as the key to Eaglecrest Ski Area’s year-round operations and a secure financial future. (Eaglecrest Ski Area photo)
Board chair: Eaglecrest’s gondola pushing limits of 2028 completion deadline under Goldbelt agreement

Company can nix $10M deal if work not finished on project ski area calls vital to its financial future.

Two spawning pink salmon head upstream in shallow water in Cove Creek in Whittier on Aug. 5, 2024. While last year’s pink salmon runs and harvests were weak, big increases are expected this year. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska officials forecast improvements for the state’s commercial salmon harvest

Total catch is projected to be twice the size of last year’s weak harvest.

Juneau law enforcement officers stand in formation while Alaska Wildlife Trooper Sgt. Branden Forst reads the names of Southeast Alaska’s fallen officers on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Fallen officers remembered in annual ceremony during National Police Week

Memorial recognizes their sacrifice and the highest officer assault rate in the past decade.

Adam Telle, nominee for assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, answers questions during a confirmation hearing this week. (Senate Armed Services Committee photo)
Trump’s nominee to head Army Corps of Engineers vows ‘expedited’ fix for Juneau’s glacial outburst floods

Adam Telle says “it’s going to require creativity,” without offering a specific timeline, at confirmation hearing.

Most Read