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Petersburg, Alaska

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Early-riser hooks late Ship Creek derby winner

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Anchorage is on pace for record bear kills

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Anchorage: Don't miss the museum, market, music and parks

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A quick driving lesson can help visitors

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Festivals: Summer festivals focus on fish, music and fun

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SHOPPING: Savvy souvenirs

HIKING: Hiking heaven

DOWNTOWN ANCHORAGE: Parks, museums, flowers and history fascinate

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DINING OUT: A taste of place

FESTIVALS: Music, food and airplanes are summer festival highlights

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Scandinavian-thinking town earns its way with fish

By Leon Unruh / Alaska.com

Petersburg, Alaska, owes just about everything to the fishing industry.

From its Tlingit origins as a fish camp, this Inside Passage town has grown into one of the busiest Alaska seafood centers.

It got its modern start when Peter Buschmann, a Norwegian immigrant, arrived in the 1890s and founded the Icy Strait Packing Co. cannery, a sawmill and a dock by 1900. He shipped halibut and salmon and ice from the handy LeConte Glacier -- the continent's southernmost tidewater glacier.

Shrimping is also important to the Mitkof Island town of 3,200. The state's first shrimp processor was founded in 1916 as Alaska Glacier Seafoods and now is part of Norquest Seafoods. More than a thousand people are employed by the processing industry. To keep the salmon engine running, the state runs the Crystal Lake Hatchery.

Many other Norwegians followed Buschmann to the area, and the townsite was populated mostly by Scandinavians, whose heritage is celebrated each May during the Little Norway Festival.

Petersburg -- a town so picturesque it was used as the prototypical fishing town in the movie "Ice Palace" -- is about midway between Juneau and Ketchikan, about 120 miles from each. It is a short hop from Wrangell.

Sport anglers have a selection of charter boats and lodges. The king salmon derby occurs over the Memorial Day weekend, and there is also good fishing for salmon and other species at Falls Creek, Blind Slough, Scow Bay and Petersburg Creek.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game prepares a weekly summary of fishing in Southeast Alaska. Information is also available about licenses.

Transportation

The Alaska Marine Highway System stops in Petersburg several times a week. The city is also served by Alaska Airlines and air taxis.

Attractions

Petersburg's landmark is the Sons of Norway Hall, a barn-looking structure built in 1912 on stilts. It sits on Nordic Drive southwest of downtown.

LeConte Glacier, the continent's southernmost tidewater glacier, is a short boat ride or air taxi trip away. The wealth of ice and fish made helped Petersburg get its start in the fish-processing industry.
Kayakers explore the mouth of the Stikine River, which empties into ocean at the south end of Mitkof Island. The area is reachable via the Mitkof Highway from Petersburg. There are several Forest Service public-use cabins across Dry Strait in the Stikine LeConte Wilderness of the Tongass National Forest.
The Stikine Flats intertidal wetland attracts wildlife to its habitat, which changes from mud flats and grass to forests of cottonwood and spruce. Ducks, geese and sandhill cranes migrate through in the spring and fall. In the spring, hooligan (or eulachon, a kind of smelt) move into the river to spawn, attracting hundreds of bald eagles. Charter boats and floatplanes are available in Wrangell and Petersburg. There are Forest Service public-use cabins for rent on the flats.
Humpback whales pass through Frederick Sound. Spawning salmon may be found at the Falls Creek fish ladder along the highway, as well as at Petersburg Creek and Blind Slough, an important feeding stop in autumn for trumpeter swans. All have road access.
Clausen Memorial Museum, 203 Fram St., recollects Petersburg history. Other highlights are a 126.5-pound world record king, plus the Cape Decision lighthouse lens and a Tlingit canoe. 907-772-3598.
The Crystal Lake Fish Hatchery -- silvers, kings and steelhead -- on Mitkof Highway is open for tours.
Devil's Thumb, standing nearly 10,000 feet tall on the coast mountain range about 100 miles to the northeast, is a prominent landmark viewed from Petersburg, the closest town.

Hiking and camping

Petersburg has a campground downtown, but it's usually filled with cannery workers. There's also RV camping downtown, plus campgrounds south on the Mitkof Highway. There are also Forest Service cabins in the area.

Hiking is generally done across the Wrangell Narrows, where the Petersburg Lake Trail and the Petersburg Mountain Trail head off into the Tongass National Forest.

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Petersburg, Alaska

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Transportation

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Hiking and camping