Pacific American Fisheries, Inc.

Pacific American Fisheries, Inc., conducted salmon fishing and canning operations on the Puget Sound and in Alaska between 1899 and 1965, with headquarters in Bellingham, Washington.

Frank and E.B. Deming of Chicago formed Pacific American Fisheries (PAF) in 1899 following their purchase of Bellingham-based North Pacific Packing Company and its holdings of the Wright Brothers Fishing Company. The Demings established a shipyard on Eliza Island in Bellingham Bay, and in 1905, acquired the holdings of the Pacific Packing and Navigation Company (1905) in Alaska and the Puget Sound. Over the next several decades, PAF increased its Alaskan interests rapidly, establishing fishing and cannery operations in areas including King Cove and Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula, and Excursion Inlet and Hoonah in Southeast Alaska. The company constructed the Ikaten cannery, and purchased canneries at Herendeen Bay, Metlakatla, Ketchikan, and Port Walter. Stock floatations in 1935 enabled further acquisition of canneries in Bristol Bay and Southeast Alaska, including Alaska holdings of the bankrupt Northwestern Fisheries company. PAF's Puget Sound interests included its headquarters, canneries and warehouses in Bellingham and also a cannery site and three fish traps at Point Roberts, Washington. Despite these holdings and continued attempts at product diversification, the company's fortunes declined from the 1930s onwards. Prohibition of fish traps in Alaskan waters in 1956 signfied an end to PAF dominance in the regional fishing industry. By 1965, the PAF board began to divest company interests and holdings, selling its Bellingham properties to the Port of Bellingham in 1966.

From the description of Pacific American Fisheries Records, 1875-1994 1899-1967. (Western Washington University). WorldCat record id: 56391322

Pacific American Fisheries, Inc., one of the world's major salmon canning operations, operated on Puget Sound and in Alaska between 1899 and 1965, with headquarters in Bellingham, Washington. As one of the world's largest processors of Pacific salmon, PAF claimed a global market and had operations of regional, national, and even international significance. PAF contributed many significant innovations to the development of the industry, including floating canneries, mechanized salmon processing and ship building. As PAF flourished in the early twentieth century, the center of Pacific salmon canning moved north from the Columbia River and Puget Sound to Alaska as the company opened new canneries to exploit the untapped and less regulated resources of British Columbia and remote districts of Alaska. The company's fortunes declined from the 1930s onwards, affected by the abolition of fish traps, uncertain salmon supplies, and corporate changes that transfered directorial power to individuals with no ties to the fishing industry.

In 1898, Count Roland Onffroy, a French immigrant, organized the Franco-American North Pacific Packing Company, a large salmon cannery on Fairhaven Harbor, South Bellingham Bay. The company ran into technical and financial difficulties during its first season but still managed to purchase the Wright Brothers Fishing Company in 1898. The following year, 1899, two brothers, Frank and E.B. Deming of Chicago, purchased the Franco-American plant and also the Northern Fisheries plant at Anacortes, Washington. The Deming brothers organized these companies into the Pacific American Fisheries Company. In this same year, they purchased Eliza Island in Bellingham Bay, and built a new cannery on the site. Cannery operations on Eliza Island, however, were deterred by the absence of a water supply. By 1900, Eliza Island became a shipyard to build and repair smaller vessels and fishing equipment.

The Demings retained Count Onffroy as resident manager until 1900, when E.B. Deming came to Bellingham to take over as general manager and vice-president. Onffroy, always the promoter, obtained eastern financing to organize Pacific Packing and Navigation Company (PPN) in 1901. This company consisted of more than thirty canneries on Puget Sound and in Alaska, including PAF properties. In 1903, PPN collapsed and went into receivership and Offray left the operation. In 1904, the Deming and Gould Company purchased the PAF and Northern Fisheries properties from the receiver and re-organized it into Pacific Fisheries of Maine. In 1905, PPN was dissolved, and PAF took over the remaining properties. At this point, PAF's corporate structure and management stabilized, with E.B. Deming as its president, assisted by his brother Frank, who ran the Chicago office until his death in 1916.

For the next several decades, PAF increased their holdings and expanded their territory in both Alaska and Washington. In 1906, PAF embarked on its first Alaska venture with the purchase of Alaska Fisheries Union Cannery at Chilkat Inlet, an operation that was moved to Excursion Inlet in 1908. The company attempted some early product diversification through the Drayton Harbor Oyster Company, a subsidiary which operated from about 1908 through 1911, and also established the Commercial Point Shipyard on Bellingham Bay in 1916. During this decade, the company rapidly expanded its Alaska operations, acquiring a salmon saltery at Thin Point near King Cove, canneries at Port Moller and Nelson Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula, and a small cannery at Makushin Bay near Unalaska, built at the request of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Encouraged by the dramatic increase in demand for salmon during World War I, PAF made further purchases in 1917. The company obtained holdings in Gambier Bay, acquiring the Hoonah canneries in Southeast Alaska, the Katalla Cannery at Bering River, and a salmon saltery at Squaw Harbor on Unga Island. The company also constructed the Ikaten cannery, which processed both cod and salmon, and acquired canneries at Herendeen Bay, Metlakatla, Ketchikan, and Port Walter. In 1925, PAF made a brief foray into British Columbia, responding to the British government’s plans to limit its imports to countries within the British empire (thus eliminating PAF's most lucrative foreign market). Seeking to negate this threat, the American firm purchased a cannery from the Skeena River Packing Company in B.C. When the British government reversed its import restrictions, PAF exchanged the Skeena River Cannery for a cannery site and three fish traps at Point Roberts, Washington.

In 1928, seeking to finance another major Alaska expansion, PAF went public and listed its stock on the New York Stock Exchange, reorganizing the company under Delaware law as Pacific American Fisheries Inc. In 1935, the company floated another major stock issue, enabling acquisition of canneries at Nushagak, Naknek, Alitak, Zachar Bay, and Petersburg. These properties supplemented a lease agreement with the bankrupt Northwestern Fisheries company which provided an option to buy thirteen additional Alaska properties (acquisition of these properties was completed in 1935). In 1932, company president and sometime treasurer E.B. Deming became PAF’s chairman of the board, and Archie Shiels was appointed as the new president and treasurer. Shiels had been a vice-president since 1924 and treasurer since 1928. In 1934, the aging Deming sold his controlling interest in PAF to the Chicago Corporation, a syndicate of Eastern financiers. The Demings sold their controlling interest in Deming and Gould to PAF in the following year, rendering the original company a wholly-owned subsidiary and ending the Deming’s involvement in PAF operations. By 1935, the Bellingham cannery, warehouses, docks, office building and other facilities were incorporated into a subsidiary known as Bellingham Warehouse Company.

The end of the 1930s saw the closure of the Eliza Island Shipyard, and transfer of the small boat unit to the newly expanded Commercial Point Shipyard. During World War I and World War II, the shipyard was used to produce military vessels for the U.S. war effort. In 1939, company restructuring gave managerial control of operations to an executive committee of the board of directors, diminishing the control of operating officers. By 1946, when John A. Green assumed PAF’s presidency, the board of directors was dominated by financiers and businessmen from San Francisco, Seattle, Alaska, and the East, none of whom had direct connections with the salmon canning business.

PAF’s need for support services and product diversification led to the creation of several subsidiaries, most notably its research division. In 1950, PAF’s existing research department was incorporated into the subsidiary, Pacific Laboratories, Inc, responsible for the company's patents and trademarks. Seeking further diversification, PAF acquired a controlling interest in Cedargreen Frozen Pack Corporation, which had farms and plants in the Seattle area and eastern Washington to produce and pack berries and vegetables. This operation, never very profitable, was phased out in 1961-1962. The prohibition of fish traps in Alaskan waters in 1956 signified an end to PAFs dominance in the regional fishing industry. Unable to absorb the increased cost associated with a seine and gill net fishery, the company sought to diversify by going into the king crab business. These efforts failed to generate sufficient profit to maintain operations. Stanley G. Tarrant, company president from 1956 to 1965, oversaw the final decade of PAF operations. By 1965, the PAF board was dominated by non-cannery people, unaccustomed to the cyclical and unpredictable nature of the salmon canning business. These interests took advantage of the opportunity to sell off assets and realize $30 per share of stock, most of which had been purchased at $10 per share. A few company personnel remained for a time to sell off canneries and other assets, including the Bellingham property which was sold to the Port of Bellingham in 1966, and later became the site of the Alaska Ferry Terminal. The sale of the Pacific American marked the passing of an era and the end of an industry which witnessed an immense amount of history and served to helped to define the character of the region.

From the guide to the Pacific American Fisheries Records, 1875-1994, 1899-1967, (Western Washington University Heritage Resources)