Cannery Cove is an embayment on the western shore of Pybus Bay in the Kootznoowoo Wilderness, on the southern coast of Admiralty Island, about 70 miles (113 km) south of Juneau and 24 miles (39 km) north-northwest of Kake, Alaska. The cove’s name was first published in the 1943 US Coast Pilot, presumably after the historical cannery near its entrance. Pybus Bay lies on the northern shore of Frederick Sound, adjacent to an island group in Stephens Passage called The Brothers. The bay was named in 1889 by Lieutenant Commander Henry B. Mansfield of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey Ship Carlile P. Patterson, presumably after Point Pybus, which marks the northeast entrance to the bay. The point was discovered in 1794 by Lieutenant Joseph Whidbey and named by Captain George Vancouver after Charles S. Pybus, then Lord of the Admiralty. Admiralty Island is part of the Alexander terrane, which accreted to North America between 110 and 85 million years ago. The rocks at lower elevations near the entrance to Cannery Cove and along the southwest shore of Pybus Bay belong to the Cannery Formation, a marine sequence of thinly interbedded chert, argillite, and greywacke that formed during the Permian period, from 299 to 252 million years ago. The watershed extending from the head of the cove, on the eastern flank of Bear Pass Mountain, drains an area of 26,317 acres (10,650 ha). The underlying rocks are Admiralty Island Volcanics, composed of non-marine lava flows, andesite, basalt, breccia and tuff that formed during the Eocene and Oligocene, between 56 and 23 million years ago.

Pybus Bay is the traditional territory of the Kake Tlingit people, or Kéex’ Kwáan, and includes the mainland north of Farragut Bay, the Brothers Islands, western Kupreanof Island, and eastern Kuiu Island. The Stikine Tlingit territory, or Shtax’héen Kwáan, encompassed the land to the east and south, including present-day Petersburg, Mitkof Island, much of eastern Kupreanof Island, and the mainland as far north as Farragut Bay. The Kake origin story describes their ancestors, known as Yenye’dt or ‘Hemlock People’ (mainlanders), who lived on the Stikine River. They migrated downstream but were blocked by a glacier. A stream ran beneath it, so two elderly women, Aweste’ and Klu’wasex, were sent in a canoe to test the passage. When they reached the other side safely, the rest of the group followed, eventually reaching salt water, where they built a Big House for shelter. Another story tells of a great flood, during which Kake ancestors climbed Tax Mountain on Baranof Island. When the waters receded, they settled in Pybus Bay, which they called Katc, and lived there for many years. Before European contact, Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast built and maintained defensive villages, often on steep-sided islands or rocky headlands with good visibility. Raiding and internecine warfare, along with trade, were the primary forms of interaction among territorial groups. Warfare frequently resulted in the acquisition of slaves and food stores and sometimes led to genetic and cultural assimilation. One such defensive village has been identified in Pybus Bay, but little is known about it.

Before European contact in Southeast Alaska, Tlingit villages held exclusive fishing rights to salmon-spawning streams within their territories. The Russian-American Company built salteries and shipped a few thousand barrels of salted fish to Fort Ross in California, as well as to Saint Petersburg, Russia. After the United States purchased Alaska in 1867, a saltery was built at Klawock, followed by the first cannery. The fishery boomed in the largely unregulated territory, and between 1878 and 1949, 134 canneries were built in Southeast Alaska. However, 65 burned and were not rebuilt, 5 burned and were rebuilt, 10 were relocated, and many were consolidated. By 1949, only 37 remained in operation. In 1918, the Pybus Bay Fish & Packing Company built a salmon cannery in Cannery Cove. It was sold to Alaska Consolidated Canneries in 1922 and again to Alaska Pacific Salmon Corporation in 1928 before being closed. Today, the site is home to a luxury wilderness lodge. Read more here and here. Explore more of Cannery Cove and Pybus Bay here: