Grant advances historic preservation project

By Stefanie Donahue

A group that is aiming to preserve stories of people who worked at the Diamond NN, a historic salmon cannery in South Naknek, Alaska has received a $50,000 grant from the National Park Service.

“I’m excited to be able to link the story of the NN Cannery and the many people who created Alaska’s working waterfronts to the nation’s broader maritime history,” said project director Katherine Ringsmuth. “We couldn’t do it without our partners, who use their historic, cultural and professional ties to connect Bristol Bay to the Pacific Coast, and across the ocean itself.”

Called the “Diamond NN” by locals in the Bristol Bay borough, the cannery was owned by the Alaska Packers Association, which also owned a cannery on Semiahmoo Spit. The NN Cannery operated for over 100 years, drawing workers from around the world and as well as Blaine.

An Alaska historian, Ringsmuth is leading a project that aims to get the NN Cannery on the National Register of Historic Places. She’s also helping develop educational materials about cannery life and is creating an exhibition called “Mug Up” for the Alaska State Museum.

She will also partner with the University of Alaska Fairbank’s (UAF) Project Jukebox to interview people who lived and worked at the cannery.

In a press release, UAF archivist Karen Brewster said, “Oral histories from the NN Cannery project will give a voice to cannery workers who are practically invisible to the historical record – those who butchered the fish, worked the slime line, maintained its machinery, and those who fed and housed them. Project Jukebox makes these stories available to anyone wanting to know more about Alaska’s rich cannery history and the diverse group of people who worked there.” In April, Ringsmuth collected stories from former NN Cannery workers at Semiahmoo Park. Nearly 80 people attended.

To learn more about the NN Cannery project, visit nncanneryproject.com.