What Is Libby’s No. 23 Bristol Bay Double-ender?
This is one of the last surviving double-ender sailboats from the height of Alaska’s commercial salmon fishing industry!
What Makes It Historical?
Salmon fishing on Bristol Bay broke off as its own industry from fur seal hunting in the late 1870s, as Native Alaskans, Europeans, and folks from as far as the Philippines used traps and boats to take advantage of the world’s richest salmon fishery! Among the many canneries that sprang up along Alaskan shores at the turn of the 20th Century was Libby’s Graveyard Koggiung, run by Chicago-based cannng company, Libby, McNeill & Libby, which painted its double-ender boats a special butterscotch color called “Libby’s Orange!” The twenty-third of these boats, hauled up here from the Pacific Northwest in 1914, fished the waters of Bristol Bay all the way until 1951 when regulations changed to allow more than just sailboats to harvest the salmon here!
With the fall of the double-enders, No. 23 began a journey of other functions, getting motorized in 1953 to work as a freight hauler, painted green in 1959, and then donated to the National Park Service in 1997! Stripping off the motor and the green paint, restorers, Monroe Robinson and Carl Kalb, repaired the rotten planks and used old paint chips and the recollection of an elder fisherman to recreate “Libby’s Orange,” giving the double-ender a fresh coat of paint and a boat shed to keep it safe from the elements!
How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?
- Volunteer with the Friends of Dick Proenneke and Lake Clark National Park!
- Donate to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve!
- Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!
How Do I Get There?
SE of the intersection of Alder Road and Spuce Road
Port Alsworth, AK 99653
(Take Me There!)
When Should I Visit?
Whenever the mood strikes you!