Sandra Earle
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.
Sandra Earle was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham in Bird Rock, Uyak Bay, Alaska, on 1 August, 2015 as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Sandra was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1945. She and her now-husband Dan moved from Baltimore to Alaska in 1969, where her older sister had already relocated. She recalls her experiences on her first job teaching at the Munsey Bear camp on Kodiak Island and her positive impressions of the self-sufficiency and helpfulness of local residents. She describes how she and Dan remained at Munsey during the winter to caretake the camp, her experiences working at a cannery and beach seining, and how they began setnetting. She recalls the different locals they got to know, the state of housing on their site, and her transition from fishing to land-based work. She also touches on innovations in the fishery, and changes in the area from its wilder days to a greater family orientation.
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