West Side Stories

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  • Collection DOI:
    Principal Investigator:
    Anjuli Grantham
  • These oral histories chart the personal stories of individuals with a longtime connection to the west side of Kodiak Island, defined for the scope of this project as the area buffeted by the Shelikof Strait that stretches from Kupreanof Strait south to the village of Karluk. The project endeavored to create historical primary source material for a region that lacks substantive documentation and engage west side individuals in the creation of that material.

Interviewee Sort descending Collection Description Interviewer Date of Interview Location of Interview Affiliation
Alberta Laktonen West Side Stories

Alberta Laktonen was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham on October 29, 2015, in Kodiak, Alaska, as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Born in 1930 in Karluk, Alaska, Alberta grew up in a large family in Larsen Bay, where her Norwegian father was a set net fisherman, cannery worker, mail carrier, and carpenter. Alberta recounts childhood memories of subsistence gardening, household chores, educational opportunities, community life, and the local cannery’s role in the village.

Anjuli Grantham Kodiak, AK Kodiak Historical Society
Christy Fox-Allen West Side Stories

Christy Fox-Allen was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham on July 8, 2015, at Gull Light, Uganik Bay, Alaska, as part of the West Side Stories project by the Kodiak Historical Society. Christy was born July 7, 1952, in Seattle, Washington, where she went to high school and college, but spent every summer living in Uganik Bay.

Anjuli Grantham Uganik Bay, AK Kodiak Historical Society
Dan Earle West Side Stories

Dan Earle was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham on August 1, 2015, at Bird Rock, Uyak Bay, Kodiak, Alaska, as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Dan Earle was born in 1946 in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Alaska in 1969. ​He reflects on the allure of living in an unspoiled nature in the wake of the back-to-land movement of the time, and details his early work experiences, including being a winter watchman, and working in the local canneries, New England Fish Company, and Wakefields.

Anjuli Grantham Kodiak, AK Kodiak Historical Society
David Little West Side Stories

David Little was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham on June 19, 2015, at Surf City in Uganik Bay, Alaska, as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. David Little was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1952 but was brought up in Southern California, moving to Alaska at the age of 29. He quit a career as a research psychologist at the Department of Defense and, through various personal encounters, worked in a cannery in Anchorage and then Kodiak and fell into the area’s setting community, buying his first permit with his wife Lisa in 1985.

Anjuli Grantham Uganik Bay, AK Kodiak Historical Society
Dexter Lorance West Side Stories

Anjuli Grantham interviewed Dexter Lorance on June 14, 2015, in Larsen Bay, Alaska, as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Dexter was born in 1951 in Oklahoma, went to school in California, and moved to Alaska in 1971 with his girlfriend, seeking adventure. He is the cannery foreman at Larsen Bay cannery, but his first job in Alaska was at the Whitney-Fidalgo cannery plant in Anchorage, where he worked long hours processing fish that arrived by rail and tender.

Anjuli Grantham Larsen Bay, AK Kodiak Historical Society
Dianne Herman West Side Stories

Dianne Herman was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham on June 22, 2015, in Village Islands, Uganik Bay, Alaska, as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Dianne was born in Michigan in 1945, and after studying and traveling for a number of years, moved to Alaska in 1976 seeking adventure and wilderness. She wound up in Kodiak and began beach seining with locals at Packers Spit.

Anjuli Grantham Uganik Bay, AK Kodiak Historical Society
Geneneiva "Deedie" Pearson West Side Stories

Geneneiva (Deedie) Pearson was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham on June 12, 18, and 26, 2015, in Kodiak, Alaska as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Deedie Pearson came to Kodiak in 1941 at the age of seven, when her father’s job with the Territory of Alaska brought the family to the area. (Her father was Alfred Owen, who represented Uganik Bay in the 1st Alaska State Legislature, 1959-60, as well as other political offices before and after statehood).

Anjuli Grantham Kodiak, AK Kodiak Historical Society
Jane Petrich West Side Stories

Jane Petrich was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham on August 1, 2015, in Farside, Larsen Bay, Alaska, as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Jane was born in Seattle and grew up around boat building and fishing, spending her college summers working in canneries in Bristol Bay. She moved to Kodiak to work at Larsen Bay Cannery in 1971 and recalls the party atmosphere of the time. After teaching for a number of years, she and her husband bought their first setnet fishing permit in 1978.

Anjuli Grantham Larsen Bay, AK Kodiak Historical Society
Jeanne Shepherd West Side Stories

Jeanne Shepherd was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham on June 20, 2015, at Uganik Bay, Alaska, as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Jeanne was born in 1955 in Seattle but moved to Kodiak in 1978. She describes the heady times at the tail end of big-money fisheries in the area and beginning a career of fishing after one summer in a cannery. She describes many memorable village characters and her love of a lifestyle of subsistence and self-sufficiency.

Anjuli Grantham Uganik Bay, AK Kodiak Historical Society
Jim Toteff, Jr. West Side Stories

This oral history is part of the West Side Stories project of the Kodiak Historical Society. West Side Stories is a public humanities and art project that intended to document the history of the west side of Kodiak Island through oral history, photography, and art. The oral histories chart the personal stories of individuals with a longtime connection to the west side of Kodiak Island, defined for the scope of this project as the area buffeted by the Shelikof Strait that stretches from Kupreanof Strait south to the village of Karluk.

Anjuli Grantham Larsen Bay, AK Kodiak Historical Society