Alaska Life

A marine state park in Southeast Alaska features historic cannery ruins

Twenty-two miles southeast of downtown Juneau is little Taku Harbor, on the eastern shore of Stephens Passage. The harbor lies in the City and Borough of Juneau.

The harbor has a dock built by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Sport Fish and maintained by the City and Borough of Juneau Docks and Harbors Department. Commercial fishing boats, tour ships and recreational boaters use the harbor and dock.

Taku Harbor State Marine Park, which encompasses most of the harbor, is the site of the remains of a cannery built in 1901.

The San Juan Fishing & Packing Co. built a cannery and cold-storage facility that was the first of its kind in Alaska. It changed hands several times and in 1918 was sold to Libby, McNeill & Libby, which operated it until 1947.

All that remains of the main cannery building are piles, rusting metal pieces and a huge cement base with a large electric generator on top. The piles are topped with a variety of vegetation. Some of the lower piles have rusting metal parts from the cannery placed there by visitors.

Some of the small outbuildings, including the sauna, still remain. The sauna has been used as storage shed and emergency shelter by fishers.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources maintains the Tiger Olson public-use cabin at Taku Harbor.

Bob Hallinen

Bob Hallinen has been a photojournalist in Alaska since the 1980s and has traveled extensively all over the state. He retired from the ADN in November 2018 after 33 years at the newspaper.

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