Mark Thissen
West Side Stories
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.
Mark Thissen was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham in Larsen Bay, Alaska, on June 13, 2015, as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Mark was born in Minnesota in 1957 and followed his siblings for summer work in the canneries when he was around 14. He describes his work at the canneries, the Kodiak connections to Mankato, Minnesota, and how he started fishing and tendering when he was 20. He discusses the collapse of the king crab fishery and the impact it had locally, his involvement in politics, the controversies around IFQs, and the impact of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He recalls his reasons for purchasing Larsen Bay Mercantile, a former cannery store, and the logistical and practical challenges in running the store, as well as the relations he has with locals and the cannery itself as it and its operations have changed.
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