Tag Archives: The Salmon Canneries
HUMBOLDT HISTORY: The Salmon Canneries of the Lower Eel River and the Death of a Fishery
Eel River salmon have been the Humboldt Bay Region’s premier fish from time immemorial. Salmon was a major staple of the aboriginal Wiyot Indians’ diet, and when the earliest white settlements were established along the river commercial salmon fishing began almost immediately. The first extensive commercial salmon fishery on the Eel River was established in 1853 by Jesse Dungan, a successful former gold miner who had bought a 300-acre ranch in the lower Eel River valley. Other commercial salmon fishermen soon followed, often forming partnerships. Pioneer firms fishing the estuary in 1859 included Dungan & Denman, John Mosely, Martin & Plummer, Gilman & Skinner, William Ellery & Bro., Thomas Worth, Parcells & Nicholson, and Dickerman & Miller. They operated from the mouth of the river upstream to the head of tidewater — near the present Fernbridge. Photos, much more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 12:12
