Weston Fields
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.
Weston Fields was interviewed by Anjuli Grantham at Bear Island, Uyak, Alaska, on July 31, 2015, as part of the Kodiak Historical Society’s West Side Stories project. Weston was born in Long Beach, California, in 1948 and moved to Kodiak with his family when he was one. Although they moved to work at a church in Kodiak, his father, and the family soon switched to seining, beach seining, and eventually setnetting. He explains how they bought their site from a local at a time that buying or leasing was only just beginning and how setnetting became increasingly popular after the fish trap ban and statehood. He discusses the history of fishing and ithe ntricacies of different methods and gears as they changed over time. He recalls many of the fishermen of the past, his father’s efforts at raising cattle, the impact of the 1964 earthquake and tsunami on different areas of Kodiak, and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. He also describes how he became part owner of Larsen Bay cannery and developed his own salmon seafood label, and his relations with other canneries.
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