I was a little girl when my uncle motored us with the aluminum work skiff into a long and weaving, wide bay. We were camped at Little Port Walter for a week or so and had a bit of time off to go and explore new territory. He was the maintenance man at the hatchery, and my cousin and I were the little girls who'd come in from Port Alexander stirring up trouble. Between stealing cookies, helping the cook set the table, and trying to capture bats, we made ourselves at home in the Humpy Lounge using the state of the art VHS super rewinder.
It seemed to take quite a bit of time to reach the end of Big Port, wondering why the Hatchery wasn't built back here with all this space. We turned one final corner through the fjord and this wild scene unfolded before my eyes. Big steel, rusty vats scattered the shoreline. Towering high, various shapes and sizes as big as busses and buildings. It was a simple cruise by that stuck with me for decades. I needed to go back.
In the sweet summer of 2024, my same cousin, now married with the perfect boat to handle Chatham's swells, cruised us up from Port Alexander for a day of exploring. She wanted to show her family Little Port Walter, visiting old friends we stayed for a picnic lunch and watched a mama bear and her three cubs play and eat in the stream down by the fish weir. When I suggested we slide over to Big Port Walter to scope the old herring/whaling station I didn't think it would go anywhere, until we departed and we navigated north instead of back to our summer cabins in the south. Holy shit here we go!
The name Port Walter first appears in 1901. With many using these two bays as summer fishing grounds. A post office appears from 1917 - 1921, and rumors of homesteaders fill the nearby village of Port Alexander. It was always old knowledge that Big Port Walter was a whaling station, old fisherman tales talk about the whale oil being a hot commodity to those in San Francisco, and the largest blue whale to ever be spotted just outside Port Walter's entrance. However, when I read about Big Port Walter on the internet, no such information regarding whales is written. Articles talk about it being a Herring Reduction Plant opening for operation in 1917, bought and sold a few times, abandoned only to inhabit again, and later collapse on itself and essentially close up shop again by the 40's.
The buildings and machinery stood against Baranof's encroaching forest for another few decades before mysteriously being burned in the 70's by a Port Alexandrian.
Setting the anchor on soft bottom, me along with my two sons, and three cousins elbowed into the inflatable dingy and putted into the high tide summer grassland. Weaving around such monster sized tanks, bolts the size of quarters, tooth-picked piling cradling holed-out steel vats, it was otherworldly. Following creek noise we brushed into the woods, completely taken aback at the sight of yet another MASSIVE waterfall. Telling the story of young Alaskans using ingenuity to harness hydropower before their time.
With fresh signs of brown bear in the area, we scooted out, satisfied with what we had seen. Motoring around in the skiff we scanned the water for more debris and collapsed infrastructure. The waters were teaming with large jellyfish!
Upon departure, the most ghastly smell of rank herring, or dead whale rose with the anchor. Even your vision was clouded with the stank of such putrid settled, century old, oils and spoils.
10/10 Would definitely go back again.
Cheers,
