Crescent Porter Hale - North Alaska Salmon Company

North Alaska Salmon Company

Then in 1900, Joseph Haller formed the North Alaska Salmon Company and returned to Bristol Bay with two of his brothers-in-law. Cress Hale was named general superintendent of Haller’s company and Hale’s brother William as bookkeeper.

Cress built two new canneries: one on the Kvichak River at a place named Hallerville and the other on the Egegik River across from the APA’s Diamond E. Two years later, he expanded North Alaska’s holdings again, building the Lockenok Cannery at the confluence of the Kvichak and Alagnak Rivers and the returned to the Nushagak to establish a cannery at Ekuk.

The North Alaska Salmon Co. emerged as the biggest competitor to the APA and in 1903 briefly took the lead in a technological race to mechanize the salmon canning process. Canning operations were mostly mechanized by the turn of the 20th century, except for cleaning the fish itself which was mostly done by Chinese workers. Haller and Hale formed the Canners Machine Co. and allied with the Letson Burpee Co. of Seattle and ran its fish cleaning machines at all of its canneries. Hale was awarded patent 798,334 for his improvements to the machine in 1905, but eventually the design of Edmund Augustine Smith, better known as the “Iron Chink,” became the industry standard.

In 1906, Hale married Mabel Eugenie Jackson, a dance hall girl from Rochester, New York and three years later, they had their only child, Elwyn. 1909 also saw publication of the first novel written about Bristol Bay, The Silver Horde by Rex Beach, and Cress Hale was assumed to be its inspiration. It’s doubtful that Hale and Beach ever met however and most of Beach’s novels were formulaic potboilers not drawn from real life but Cress Hale fit the bill. The Silver Horde is the story of a young cannery superintendent who takes on the cannery trust dominated by Chicago meat packers. At the time, Hale was superintendent of a company second only to the giant APA but the similarities end there.

Real life concerns kept Hale busy. After mudflats blocked access to the Lockenok cannery in 1912, Hale staked a homestead claim on the Alagnak River to provide the cannery with riverfront access, even though it required a short rail line to get to the cannery. Likewise, the Hallerville cannery was plagued by mud flats. It closed in 1913 and Hale built another cannery on Kvichak Bay just above Pederson Point and moved the Hallerville equipment there.

The salmon industry prospered early in the 20th century and the outbreak of the First World War created huge demand for salmon that soon pushed Bristol Bay’s annual harvest over 20 million reds. Joseph Haller, however, died of a heart ailment in 1915 and the North Alaska Salmon Co. was sold to Libby, McNeill and Libby, ironically a Chicago-based meat packing concern such as the antagonist in The Silver Horde. Hale’s relocated Hallerville cannery was renamed Libbyville.

Cress Hale didn’t sit idle for long. Praised in the trade journals as “one of the best all around, competent cannerymen in Western Alaska,” Hale bought the Alaska Salmon Company cannery on Wood River near Dillingham in 1916. He organized under the name Northern Fisheries and in 1918 bought the Union Fish Company, a major cod-fishing concern with roots that traced back to the acquisition of Alaska from Russia. In 1923 he bought the Bristol Bay Packing Company cannery at Pederson Point near Naknek.

Hale recognized the potential of California sardines and bought the 420-foot Peralta in 1924 which he converted into a floating sardine reduction plant. The Peralta was an experimental ship with a hull built out of concrete due to a shortage of steel during the First World War.

The 1920s were generally strong years for Bristol Bay salmon and Hale helped introduce popular culture to the region by showing movies at his Wood River cannery. The films attracted hundreds, including cannery workers and local residents. Serials and westerns were popular as well as cartoons like Krazy Kat and Mickey Mouse.

Hale produced his own promotional movie, shot and edited by his Wood River cannery superintendent Joe Hidzik. Called Ice Kist Treasures after Hale’s premier salmon brand, the film shows workers signing up, departing aboard cannery steamers, fishing boats, cannery operations and even a trip to the Wood Tikchik lakes. A copy of the film is available at the J. Porter Shaw library at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

As the roaring 20s came to a close, Cress Hale was nearing age 60 and after 40 years of canning salmon in Bristol Bay, he started thinking about retirement. Quietly, Hale began talking about selling out. He wanted $2.35 million and his timing seemed perfect. The industry was strong and markets healthy but events beyond his control soon ran against him: the stock market crash of 1929 and the forecast of a poor salmon return in 1930.

The APA took an interest in Hale’s operation primarily for access to his fishing boats, which were limited under a federal quota program. When they offered just $1.4 million, Hale turned the offer down and struck a deal with to custom pack salmon for the A&P Tea Company which also operated the Nakeen cannery on the Kvichak River.