Petersburg: The Town that Fish Built [VHS]

Since Norwegian immigrant Peter Buschmann founded the Southeast Alaskan town that bears his name a century ago, Petersburg has had one primary industry: fishing. Buschmann’s cannery ventures collapsed during the robber baron era of frontier capitalism, but his town continues to thrive with an economy built almost entirely on fish. Petersburg’s original residents were attracted by its harbor, sheltered from the north wind, by its proximity to the inside passage and the steamers that would carry their product to Seattle, by the ice that calved off of the LeConte Glacier and preserved their catches, by the nourishing rain, by the rich ecosystem and by the forests and fjords that reminded them of Norway. From the beginning, Petersburg residents displayed a unique brand of self-sufficiency. In the era when the canneries ruled Petersburg, local residents pooled their resources and formed the Trading Union to compete with the company store. Later they bought the company store. When the Seattle-based Pacific American Fisheries Company threatened to shut down Petersburg’s largest cannery in 1965, local fishermen bought the plant and went into business for themselves. As they toiled on the fishing grounds, their wives managed the shops on Main Street. Today, the community is not only remarkably prosperous but uncharacteristically independent, and while the profits from many Alaska fishing operations quickly migrate to Seattle, Wall Street or Tokyo, Petersburg dollars stay at home. Now, hear the story of the town that fish built from the lips of Petersburg pioneers.