Boat ride to Taku Harbor

Taku Harbor Float with shore access. (Patricia E. Harding)

"So beautiful ... that by one sympathetic impulse we named it Eden.”

      During Memorial Day Weekend 2017, Roger and I boarded the Dawntreader at Aurora Harbor in Juneau for an overnight cruise to Taku Harbor, located on the eastern shore of Stephens Passage, 22 miles southeast of Juneau. Taku Harbor is a popular place for recreational boaters and fishermen. Southeast Alaska Sailing has annual Memorial Day and Labor Day races to Taku Harbor. After a long day of sailing, the group gathers on the dock for a potluck meal and socializing.

Southeast Alaska Sailing teams prepare
to leave the harbor and race to Juneau.
(Patricia E. Harding)

     The State of Alaska Division of Parks and Natural Resources operates the Taku Harbor State Marine Park. The Tiger Olson public use cabin sleeps six for $45 per night and is located 100 feet from the public dock. The City and Borough of Juneau Docks and Harbors Department operates the Taku Harbor Moorings / Public Transient Moorage which consists of overnight mooring on two public floats: Taku Harbor Float with 890 linear feet of side moorage with shore access and Stockade Point Float with 300 linear feet of side moorage with no shore access.

The 25-foot Dawntreader

on the left is dwarfed by

the 65-foot Alaska Quest.
(Patricia E. Harding)

     Some boaters sail to Taku Harbor every year for Memorial Day weekend. They relax on the dock, set crab pots, or fish in the harbor from their dingies or paddle around in kayaks and canoes. We were on a 25-foot Albin cruiser, perfect for two people on a short trip to Taku Harbor. Most of the other boats tied up were bigger than ours, including the Alaska Quest, a 65-foot, custom made steel expedition trawler used for a family-owned, southeast cruising business in the vicinity of Admiralty Island. This weekend was the family’s first get-together of the summer before their cruising season began.

     The best part about exploring little known places like Taku Harbor is discovering its history in things left behind. Old pilings, a rusted boiler in the woods, and a neglected shack are artifacts of the past. They make me wonder, who lived here? What did they do? Why did they leave? In the mountains, water, wind, and trees I sense the spirit of past souls, and it makes me want to learn more about the people who were here before me.

Boiler lost in time and in the weeds. (Patricia E. Harding)

The Taku Tlingit

     The Tlingit who lived in this area were called Taku, or Taku-kon, or “people of the Taku.” Between 1840 and 1880, explorers referred to the Taku as Taku-kon, Taku-kuan, Thakhu-khoan, Taku, Taco, Taco/Samdan, Tacos/Sundowns, and Tacoo. (Krause, p. 78) The land and seas around the Taku River and Taku Bay “at the foot of the mighty glaciers” (Krause, p. 6) were theirs to hunt and fish. They also had trading routes to the interior through tributaries of the Yukon. In 1880, the Taku had four villages, each named after the chief of the village: Tokeatl’s Village with 26 people, Chitklin’s Village with 113, Katlany’s Village with 106, and Fotshou’s Village with 24 inhabitants.

The Taku Tlingit were the original people of
the Taku region. (Ano-Thlosh, Chief of the Taku
Tribe of Thlinght [Tlingit] natives. Copyright 1906.
Alaska State Library, Lantern Slides of Alaska
Photo Collection)

(Krause, p. 69) Like their neighbors, the Auk, many Taku later settled in Juneau near the swift river now known as Gold Creek. They named their village Tsenta-ka-hini, the name given to one of the middle schools in Juneau now spelled, Dzantik’i Heeni.

Hudson's Bay Company

     The Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post in Taku Harbor in 1840. Often referred to as Fort Taku, Fort Durham was named after the Earl of Durham who at the time was the Governor General of Canada. The fort had a total of 35 people on its roster over its three years of existence with about 26 men at any one time. That number may have been larger during the summer of 1840 while the fort was being built. Fifteen of the men were from Oahu, Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands. One native, James Tod, is listed on the roster as are 19 French Canadians, called Metis. Five of the men were English or Scottish. (Olson, p. 11-12)

Historical ariel view of Taku Harbor
(Taku Harbor 8-4-29. Alaska State Library Photo Collection.)

     Taku Harbor was not the intended location of the fort. Commanding Officer and Chief Factor James Douglas aboard the sailing ship Vancouver and accompanied by the steamer Beaver first explored the Taku River in search of a suitable site to build a trading fort where they could trade with the Chilcat and other natives of Cross Sound. The majestic beauty of the area awed Douglas: “...many portions of good clear land profusely covered with grasses and flowering plants, in full bloom, which made it look so beautiful, in contrast with the desolate regions around, that by one sympathetic impulse we named it Eden.” (Olson, p. 13) However, the company did not find a suitable site on the river. The waters were too shallow at low tide (in some places just half a foot.) Strong currents, icebergs, and winter ice made the river difficult to navigate. Finally, the lack of flat land on which to build and lack of logging trees left the company empty handed. When they were about to give up, a friendly Taku they called “Locality” told Douglas about a small harbor just 20 miles south of Point Salisbury. “It possesses a safe harbour of easy access, abundance of good timber, together with the most important advantage of being directly in the high way of trade and at a convenient distance for the Natives of Chilcat and Cross Sound.” (Olson, p. 36)

     

Shore access from Taku Harbor
Float. (Patricia E. Harding)

The English Hudson’s Bay Company operated the post through a lease from the Russian America Company that gave the English rights to trading with the natives on the mainland coast (Auk, Taku, Chilcat) between 54 degrees 40’ north latitude to Cape Spencer in exchange for 2,000 Columbian sea otters per year. The Russians retained trading rights with natives of the islands (Klawock, Kake, Sitka.) Each company would keep a record of furs acquired from each other's territory. At the end of the year, they would reconcile accounts and transfer the balances. Douglas clearly and courteously, yet firmly, reminded the Russian American Fur Company of their agreement in a letter he wrote after receiving reports that the Chilcat sold all their furs to the Russian steam vessel Nicolai I. (Olson, p. 40)

The Hudson's Bay Blanket

     The Hudson's Bay Company’s prized woolen blankets were highly valued and used as currency. (Krause, p. 212) The company wove “points” into the borders of the blankets in an attempt to set the blankets' prices. According to the Oregon Historical Society (Binus, 2004), the natives did not go along with set prices for blankets. They believed in negotiation. The point system was later used by weavers to indicate the blanket’s size, since the points could easily be seen while the blanket was still folded. (Wikipedia.) A four-point blanket was most valuable while a one-point blanket was least valuable because it was the smallest, not because of inferior quality. A rich person owned hundreds of blankets folded and stored in large boxes. (Krause, p. 212) The Hudson's Bay Company once operated 36 hunting stations along the mainland coastline until its lease with the Russians ended in 1865.

Obstacles to Trade

     No Tlingits were known to have lived in Taku Harbor until after Fort Durham was built. The Taku Tlingits were not happy with the fort and tried to sabotage its efforts by kidnapping men and trying to set fire to the fort. One explanation for the animosity is the Hudson's Bay Company displaced the Taku Tlingit's role as intermediary trader between the natives on the coast and natives in the interior. The liquor trade proved to be another obstacle to trade. So bad in fact, that the British and Russians agreed to forbid trading alcohol with the Tlingit -- a successful move until "the country was overrun with gold miners and trading from California, who made a lucrative business of buying furs in exchange for liquor and from that time to this, this crying evil could not be stopped." (Olson, p. 46) Finally, poor weather conditions -- Finlayson reported rain nine out of 12 months -- and the unprofitability of the fort factored in the decision to close it in 1843. 

The Cannery

       I found little published about Taku Harbor from the time the fort closed until the time the cannery opened; however, it is believed that some Tlingits and whites settled there as residents after the fort closed. In 1898 there was a saltery.

Historic photo of the Pacific Cold Storage Plant and Cannery,
(Alaska State Library, Case & Draper Photo Collection)

Canning and cold storage for the fishing industry came to Taku Harbor in 1903 with the establishment of Taku Harbor Cannery by the San Juan Fish Company. In 1906-1908 John L. Carlson leased and then bought the cannery and developed it until 1918 when he sold the cannery to Libby, McNeil and Libby. The cannery burned and was rebuilt twice -- shortly after Carlson left and again in 1931 -- during Libby ownership. Historical photographs from the collection of John L. 

Current site of the old cannery. Fort Durham was likely
located in the forested area in the upper left
corner of this photo. (Patricia E. Harding)

Johnson who worked at the cannery from 1932 to 1934 show a robust cannery community and destination for fishermen selling their catch. The F.V. Neptune, F.V. President, F.V. Excursion, and F.V. Willard B. are some of the boats offloading fish to the Libby Company featured in historic photographs. Other photos depict a pile driver working in the harbor and the devastating fire of May 9-10, 1932. The cannery operated in Taku Harbor until 1951 when a man named Westly Walker was sent from the company to dismantle it. (Olson, p. 65)

     Some time after Fort Durham closed, a few people settled in Taku Harbor and then applied to the U.S. Forest Service for land claims in Taku Harbor. Some of the names include Paul G. Riffle, Dick Kanach, Tom Jackson, and Sandstron. (Olson, p. 65) In 1926, while the cannery was still in operation, G. Edward Bach received a piece of land from the U.S. Forest Service that included the land on which Fort Durham was situated. Edward Bach's father, L. George Bach, lived at the site, and Edward's son, Curtis, later recalled that his grandfather used the cleared site of the old fort for his garden. George's brother, Frank, filed a mining claim in the area. Curtis inherited the land after his father died.

The Tiger of Taku

     The most celebrated resident of Taku Harbor was a man known as Tiger of Taku. Henry "Tiger" Olson lived at Taku Harbor for 56+ years. Originally from northern Minnesota, he arrived in Alaska on the Victoria and went to work for John L. Carlson and later as a maintenance worker for the Libby Company in 1918. One story about how he got the name Tiger is people said his eyes glowed like a cat when he passed them on the boardwalk at night.

     Tiger lived in Taku Harbor long after the cannery shut down. "I've seen the population grow to 500 and fall to two people," he said. (Davis, p. 9) In 1951, when the cannery closed, he was the only permanent resident left in the harbor.

     Although Tiger never went to school and called himself "a kindergarten drop-out," he loved reading and taught himself chemistry, physics, astronomy, and geology. He grew his own garden of potatoes, carrots, and radishes. He also enjoyed growing flowers: narcissus, daffodils, and foxglove. He hunted, fished, and canned food. He cut the wood needed to cook and heat his Taku Harbor cabin.

Henry Olson, known as the "Tiger of Taku,"
lived in Taku Harbor for more than 50 years.

     Over the years, Tiger developed a reputation as a character and visitors looked forward to his friendly greetings at the docks -- even celebrity American actor John Barrymore paid a visit. The popular CBS Sunday morning news magazine On the Road with Charles Kuralt featured a story about Tiger. One year, a young Paul Anderson showed up in Taku Harbor after reading an article about Tiger in Field & Stream magazine. Tiger tried to send the young college student home, but Anderson spent the next two years with Tiger, learning about outdoor life and survival, and also about philosophy and the kind of wisdom gained only by living such a lifestyle.

     "Life is superstition, illusion, and idle dreams." Tiger once said. "It is when you climb high to 5,000 feet and sit alone that you can really think." (Davis, p. 39)

     On June 30th, about 1969, 200 guests and 34 boats traveled to Taku Harbor to surprise Tiger on his 90th birthday. 

The cabin where Tiger
Olson lived in Taku Harbor
still stands. (Patricia E. Harding)

Taku Harbor Today

     Today, Taku Harbor holds the artifacts of a time and a people gone by. It has been part of the Taku Tlingit territory for thousands of years; some say 11,000 years. The 1800s brought great changes with explorers and a trading post and then a cannery and a few residents at the turn of the century, only to come almost full circle with no current settlements, villages, or year round residents. Today, Taku Harbor is a peaceful retreat for rest, recreation and reflection.

Writer's Note: Taku Harbor inspired me to learn as much as I could about its people and history. Although I read several books and articles about the history of Taku Harbor, there is much more to learn. I encourage readers to comment and add their own remembrances, knowledge, and reflections.

Thank you to the Alaska State Library for permission to publish the historical photos.

References

• Binus, Joshus. "Hudson's Bay Company Blanket." The Oregon History Project, A project of the Oregon Historical Society, https://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/hudson39s-bay-company-blanket/#.WXewOdPyuRs
• Davis, Carol Beery. Tiger of Taku. Miner Publishing Company: Juneau, Alaska (1977)
• Krause, Aurel. The Tlingit Indians Results of a Trip to the Northwest Coast of America and the Bering Straits. Translated by Erna Gunther, University of Washington Press, 1956.
• Mitcham, Allison. Taku The Heart of North America's Last Great Wilderness. Illustrated by Naomi and Peter Mitcham, Lancelot Press, Hantsport, Nova Scotia, 1993.
• Olson, Wallace M. A History of Fort Durham Hudson's Bay Company Trading Post Located in Taku Harbor 1840-1843 Within the boundaries of present day Juneau, Alaska. Heritage Research, Juneau, Alaska, 1994.
• Richardson, Genevieve, The Tlingit People, http://thetlingitpeople.weebly.com/index.html
• " Hudson's Bay Point Blanket" Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson%27s_Bay_point_blanket

© 2017 Patricia E. Harding