The Cannery After Hale's Death
The rebuilding of the Pederson Point cannery took place as scheduled. Mabel visited both the Pederson Point and Wood River canneries in 1937 and erected bronze plaques as memorials to its fallen superintendent.
Northern Fisheries reorganized with longtime VP Charlie Cocks as president and Elwyn Hale as secretary and manager. Mabel also took an active role in the company. Hale’s canneries ran for the next three years but financial problems forced both to close after the 1939 season. Mabel continued to court a buyer and finally in 1943, the two Bristol Bay canneries were sold to Alaska Pacific Salmon Company for $1.1 million. The newly rebuilt Pederson Point cannery soon reopened under new leadership but the Wood River cannery was shuttered and dismantled. The site sat vacant for 40 years until another processor took interest in the location for a freezer plant.
Mabel Eugenie Hale invested the earnings from her husband’s fishing business in oil and potash leases and did quite well, amassing a small fortune that afforded her a comfortable home and a Rolls Royce. She became a patron of the arts and education and in 1962 endowed a foundation which she named after her late husband. The Crescent Porter Hale Foundation continues to this day and awards grants to Catholic schools and arts and education programs in the San Francisco area.
Mabel outlived Elwyn, who never married and died in 1974 at age 65. Mabel Eugenie Hale lived to be 100. She died in 1982. Both the Peterson Point and Ekuk canneries remain operational today but Hale’s other canneries have long since been dismantled or destroyed. A freezer plant occupies the site of the Wood River cannery and was recently purchased by Snopac Products. The Peralta and other WWI vintage concrete hulled ships remain afloat as part of a floating breakwater around a timber plant in Powell River, British Columbia.
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