Tag Archives: Ralph Mackie

Then and Now: Craig cannery

Just about every town in Southeast Alaska has a cannery. Some have several. I don’t know if its true or not but I heard that at one time Ketchikan had 17. For generations, the Craig cannery was like a vital organ, the heartbeat of town and the primary source of livelihood and activity. Craig woke up each spring with the cannery, and went into hibernation each fall when the purse-seining season was over. I’m a commercial fisherman(Ralph Mackie). My deckhand, who graduated from high school last May, wouldn’t describe the cannery that way at all. >click to read< 17:21