The Cape Fox Packing Company operated a cannery from 1883 to 1886 on the north shore of Boca de Quadra, a fjord on the Portland Peninsula, about 59 miles (95 km) north-northwest of Prince Rupert and 36 miles (58 km) southeast of Ketchikan, Alaska. This area is now part of Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness. Boca de Quadra, named by Captain George Vancouver after Captain Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, features depths reaching 1,200 feet (366 m) and stretches northeast for 34 miles (55 km) from Revillagigedo Channel to the Keta River‘s mouth. Misty Fjords National Monument, part of the Tongass National Forest and managed by the U.S. Forest Service, showcases dramatic landscapes formed from granitic rocks dating back 70 to 50 million years, from the Eocene to Cretaceous periods. These landscapes were sculpted during the Pleistocene, creating deep troughs with near-vertical walls rising 2,000 to 3,000 feet (600 to 900 m) above sea level and plunging to depths of 1,000 feet (300 m). The cannery remains are at the mouth of an unnamed creek on the eastern shore of a short north-south section of Boca de Quadra. The creek descends from an elevation of about 2,100 feet (640 m) and flows generally south-southwest for 2.5 miles (4 km) to the fjord. This section of Boca de Quadra is underlain by the Tracy Arm terrane, consisting largely of amphibolite, which forms a discontinuous belt traced for at least the length of Southeast Alaska. The amphibolite is locally streaked with contrasting dikes, veins, and lenses of white pegmatite and other intrusive rocks. During several Pleistocene glaciations, the Cordilleran ice sheet formed over present-day Southeast Alaska. Its principal source area was the high mountain ranges of British Columbia. In western British Columbia, ice streamed down fjords and valleys in the coastal mountains, covering much of the continental shelf. In some places, ice lobes extended to the shelf edge, where they calved into the sea. At its maximum, about 14,000 years ago, the ice sheet covered all of southern Alaska to depths of up to 1.2 miles (2 km). Deglaciation lasted about 4,000 years, and coastal areas were largely ice-free by 10,000 years ago.

The oldest human habitation in Southeast Alaska dates back roughly 9,980 years. The earliest inhabitants were likely maritime people who traveled, hunted, and fished offshore using small wooden or skin-covered boats or canoes, navigating along the coast. Tlingit oral history contains stories describing how they arrived at the coast, often recounting journeys down rivers from the interior, passing under a glacier, and reaching tidewater. The first coastal Tlingit may have met these earlier inhabitants and either intermarried and assimilated their culture or displaced them. Over time, different Tlingit clans spread throughout Southeast Alaska, establishing it as Tlingit territory. The Tlingit homeland is divided into large territories known as “kwaans,” meaning “people of that place.” In recent times, smaller kwaans have merged into larger ones. Today, twelve kwaans are recognized: Yakutat, Chilkat, Sitka, Hoonah, Auke, Taku, Stikine, Kake, Angoon, Henya, Saanya, and Tongass. The Portland Peninsula, including Cape Fox, located 24 miles (39 km) south of Boca de Quadra, was the territory of the Saanya Kwaan, or the Cape Fox people. After the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, the American government established a military base near Cape Fox on Tongass Island. By 1880, the village of Gaash at Cape Fox had 100 Tlingit residents. In 1894, Presbyterian missionary Samuel Saxmanencouraged Gaash residents to relocate for education, Christianization, and unification with their neighbors. However, not all the residents moved. In 1899, the Harriman Expedition visited the village. Mistakenly believing it was abandoned, they took objects like totem poles, house posts, and ceremonial items, later distributing them to museums across the continent. The Peabody Museum in Boston acquired the Teikweidi totem or ‘crest’ pole , which tells the story of Kaats’, a man who fell into a bear den while hunting. The totem pole features the brown bear, an emblematic crest owned by the Teikweidi Clan from Gaash. Such crests are vital to Tlingit clans, as they are linked to clan origin stories. In 1999, 100 years after the expedition, the totem was repatriated to the Cape Fox people, and a replica was commissioned for the museum.

In 1898, when the U.S. Fish Commission vessel Albatross visited under the command of Jefferson F. Moser, Boca de Quadra had no villages or permanent settlements, only a few shacks used during the hunting season. About 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the fjord entrance was a small Tlingit village in a sheltered cove named after the Cape Fox chief, Kah-Shakes. The fjord’s shores were rugged and mountainous, with several streams, all containing salmon, discharging into the main arm and the heads of five branches: Martin Arm, Mink Bay, Vixen Bay, Badger Bay, and Weasel Cove. Only Mink Bay and Kah Shakes Cove supported sockeye salmon. In 1883, the Cape Fox Packing Company, owned by Marshall J. Kinney of Astoria, Oregon, built one of Alaska’s first canneries. In the winter of 1886, Kinney sold it to Captain A.W. Berry, who moved operations to Tongass Narrows near Fish Creek, close to present-day Ketchikan. In 1889, under new ownership, the Tongass Narrows cannery-now called Tongass Packing Company-burned shortly after packing about 13,000 cases, each with 48 one-pound cans. The cannery was not rebuilt but its foreman, George Clark teamed with Irish immigrant Michael Martin, to build a saltery north of the cannery site followed by another saltery on the western shore of Mink Bay in Boca de Quadra, operated by the Quadra Packing Company and supplied by purse seiners. Read more here and here. Explore more of Cape Fox Cannery and Boca de Quadra here: