alaska | The Filson Journal

Bellingham to Alaska with Drifters Fish

In April 2020 the crew from Drifters Fish set off from Bellingham, Washington to Alaska – over a 3,500-mile journey – for the start of the annual salmon season. Read the full story below, and tune in next week for a first-hand tutorial on fish filleting techniques, filmed at sea.

5 Min

Profiles

Inspiring Women of the Pacific Northwest & Alaska

We’ve all heard the stories of historic women like Amelia Earhart and Nellie Bly. Here we’re focusing our scope to our backyard in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, shining a light on a few groundbreaking women that never (potentially) made it into your history books.

5 Min

Profiles

The Salty Dawg Saloon

In the Middle East and Europe you can visit places built over 2,000 years ago. In Alaska you are unlikely to see anything older than 50. That’s what makes the Salty Dawg Saloon in Homer such a rarity. It possesses a history that goes back to 1897, when the first building was built, and it holds onto it.

2 Min

Profiles

Bay Weld Boats

The shop is loud. Metal screams on metal. Chop saws, band saws, air saws, table saws, skilsaws, drills, grinders, and welders all sculpt, slice, and meld aluminum plate and extrusion into boats for Alaska’s most discerning captains.

4 Min

Profiles

Zech Bennett: The Undersea Tradesman

When you meet Zech Bennett, he seems like a pretty ordinary guy. Not too tall or too short, he seems somewhat in shape but is not a chiseled gym rat. The brown hair sticking out from underneath his baseball cap is slightly askew, and his face breaks into an easy smile. He is the type of person you could share a few beers with at the bar while swapping stories about ferrying kids to events or catching up on the latest scores. It’s only when you hear what the 32-year-old Homer, Alaska, resident does for a living that you realize there is more to him than you see at first glance.

4 Min

Profiles

Kate Mitchell – NOMAR

An old homesteader once told Kate Mitchell, “That was about the year you figured you weren’t going to starve to death.” By then, much of the community enjoyed wanton luxuries like electricity and indoor plumbing. That was also the year Kate moved to Homer.

4 Min

Field Notes

You Take What You Can Get: Or Suffer the Consequences

The stampede for gold into the Klondike of the Yukon territory reached a peak in 1898. In that same year, 1,200 other miners set out for other regions of the far north, including to the Koyukuk and Chandalar river drainages in the remote Alaska Territory interior, in a desperate search for similar riches. This region is situated in the northwestern part of Alaska, with the Koyukuk River flowing through it from the borders of the Arctic Ocean to where it enters the Yukon at Nulato.

3 Min

How-To

How to Preserve Your Catch

Winter brings slower days and time to cook – and a freezer full of fish after a summer of harvest. Nourishing and delicious protein, wild salmon brings brightness to the table through the cold weather months. This recipe is a personal favorite provided by Nelly Hand at Drifters Fish, a local Pacific Northwest business.

2 Min

Profiles

Marian Beck: The Saltry Restaurant

The first thing you notice about Marian Beck is her hands. Graying Alaskan fishermen all have the same hands, swollen and powerful from decades of picking fighting salmon from gillnets, stacking seining gear, or baiting hooks. Her hands look like they’ve been taken from someone else’s body, twice as big and twice as old, and transplanted onto her wrists.

4 Min

Field Notes

Coldfoot: More than just another gold camp – a place that defined those who lived in it

The history of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 promised fortune to many who made the journey north to the gold fields of the Yukon Territory, with many of those headed to Dawson City and Circle City in Alaska as jumping off points. By 1898, the search for riches had expanded to other regions of Alaska, including the remote Northwest interior and its network of rivers and tributaries. History has recorded the efforts of those brave souls, and how their search for gold helped to create new settlements and trade routes.

5 Min

two Air Force men wearing green snowsuits, one sitting up, while the other lays down resting on a bag as a helicopter takes off in the snowy mountains in Alaska

Field Notes

The 210th Air Rescue Squadron

The 210th Air Rescue Squadron, nicknamed “The Second 10th,” is an elite peacetime and combat search and rescue (CSAR) unit based in Alaska that’s on call for its citizens 24/7/365. Regarded as “the Guardians of the North,” the unit has saved thousands of natives stranded in remote terrain, brutal snowstorms, and icy waters along the coast.

11 Min

Field Notes

Filson Adventure Comic

Filson Adventures, an original comic series based in Alaska circa 1933.

28 Min

Field Notes

History of the de Havilland Beaver

This work-horse of an aircraft has earned a reputation as one of the most capable bush planes ever built, and it was easy to see why as we flew out over the ocean and through island valleys in the remote stretches of the Kodiak archipelago. Willy’s grin crept out from behind his distinctively Alaskan mustache

4 Min

woman in black filson jacket sits in pilot seat of small aircraft touching switches

Profiles

In Print: Alaska Aviation with Sarah Russell

For Sarah Russell, Alaska has been the answer at the end of a long search for freedom. We spent time with Sarah last summer as part of our Above Alaska trip where she let us into her world and shared a bit of her story with us. Where did you grow up? I’m a military

3 Min

man with white mustachio stands with arm on propeller blade of orange sea plane

Profiles

In Print: Piloting Kodiak, AK with Willy Fulton

Last summer we spent a few weeks in Alaska making a short film about pilots in various parts of the state. While in Kodiak, we took to the sky with Willy Fulton for a few hours as he showed us his “office.” Later that night, we swapped stories over a whiskey or three. How did

3 Min

Profiles

Above Alaska: Bush Pilots of the Last Frontier

Covering 663,268 square miles, Alaska is larger than Texas, California, and Montana, combined. With only 20% of that land mass accessible by road, aviation is not a luxury in Alaska. It is a necessity. Watch Now

Profiles

In Print: Branson Wallace

Last summer while in Kodiak, AK we went crabbing with Branson Wallace and his buddy Aaron Thompson. We recently reconnected with Branson to ask him about life on Kodiak, his duties in the USCG, and how both of those things have shaped his life and effected his journey to becoming an outdoorsman. Tell me about

8 Min

Profiles

In Print: Brett Watts

Brett Watts is a flight mechanic with the USCG and currently stationed in Kodiak, AK. We hung out with Brett last summer when we were on the island and he took us on a scouting trip into the hills to make a plan for the opening day of deer season. We caught up with Brett recently and asked a few questions about his upbringing and time on Kodiak.

3 Min

barge with trucking containers seen through porthole of another ship

Profiles

Trade Stories: Three Generations In the Wheelhouse of a Tugboat

The blue-and-yellow tugs of Western Towboat are fixtures in the Seattle area. But harbor work on the West Coast is only a fraction of the company’s business. Its biggest job is freighting more than a billion pounds of goods each year to Alaska. By Will Grant The lifeline for Southeast Alaska begins in the Lower

10 Min

Kim with dog, Floki, a 2 year old Belgian Malinois

Profiles

Svalinn: Bred to Love, Trained to Protect

Kim Greene’s email signature reads, “Alpha Female” and in her line of work, that is exactly who she needs to be. Kim and her husband Jeff are the owners of Svalinn, a Montana-based breeder and trainer for working dogs. We sat down with Kim recently to ask her a few questions about her business and

5 Min

man in a canoe on the Yukon river, a large mountain in the distance

Profiles

Wilderness, a River, and My Old Man

Peter Hall and his father set out on a Yukon Moose hunt, by way of canoe, into the remote reaches of the Alaskan wilderness. The time they shared on the river reminded them both that the glory of adventure is found far beyond the kill. At one in the morning the aurora fills the sky.

fishing guide russ rowing boat as woman behind him casts

Profiles

A Normal Life

Living the life that you love does not shield you from loss. Fishing the remote waters of Alaska’s Alagnak River is a dream job for Russell Owen, but that dream has come at a cost. The life of a guide is not a normal life, but what he has learned from fishing has shaped him into the man he has become. Watch Now.

3 Min

Profiles

Life of a Guide

Alaska’s Alagnak River is a place where there are no roads. A place where the weather does what it wants. A place where humans are no longer the apex predator. The life of a guide on this river is one of resourcefulness, persistence, and dedication. Watch Now.

3 Min

two men are loading elk antlers into a truck

Profiles

A Fool’s Errand

At times, shed hunting can seem a fool’s errand. It can make you wonder why in the hell you’d ever thought it was a reasonable idea. Other times it is quite the opposite; miles hiked and time spent behind glass equate handsomely to fresh brown elk antlers. This trip would lean harshly to the fool’s-errand

Profiles

Sheds, Snow, and Steeps: A First-Timer’s Notes on Shed Hunting

I grew up in the hardwood forests of the southeastern U.S. hunting whitetail deer with my grandfather. Much of what I consider valuable I learned from him, about life and about hunting. As a boy he told me stories of traveling left on the map to chase mule deer and elk in the American West.

susie jenkins brito salmon parts and two filets held by blue gloved hands on top of butchering station

Field Notes

Salmon Centric: at the Core of a Life Purposefully Cast

Early in the long days of summer here in Bristol Bay, I constantly feel as if I am holding my breath. Our family’s 32-foot drift boat has sat on blocks all winter, and the anxiety for the moment when my husband will turn the engine over for the first time each spring is incomparable. Commercial

Profiles

Red Gold: The Livelihood of Bristol Bay

The Bristol Bay salmon run attracts people from all over the globe, who work around the clock from late May until the end of July. They harvest sockeye salmon, known as “Red Gold” for the fish’s deep unique color, it’s sought-after flavor, and it’s lucrative value to the men and women who work feverishly in the fishery. Watch Now

3 Min

will kutscher boots standing next to a fish on the ground

How-To

How to Get on a Fishing Boat

Some are born into it, some stumble upon it, and some, like me, seek it out. The lure of Alaska’s “Red Gold,” the Sockeye salmon run of Bristol Bay, hit me when I was twenty. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I often heard how rewarding a summer spent fishing in Alaska can be, so

3 Min

man holding fish in river with snow covered rocks and snowy pine tree forest

Profiles

Alaska Chronicles Part 2: No Roads, AK

With no road in or out of town, the residents of Alaska’s remote city of Cordova live in a land where people and nature thrive together. From a Native fishing village, it grew to become a town created to be the “premier copper port of the world.” For generations, the people of Cordova have relied on unfailing goods and their Alaskan pioneer spirit to preserve their livelihoods and the rich ecosystem that surrounds them.

Two hunters with rifles point and look into the distance in a snowy field

Field Notes

Alaska Chronicles Part 1: North of Wild

Brothers John and James were born and raised in Alaska. Both now in their 30s, John and James are now teachers of the great Alaskan pioneer tradition to their young children. Today is a perfect day to take John’s daughter out for practice and a lesson on how to survive off the wild in the northern tundra.

Bellingham to Alaska with Drifters Fish

Inspiring Women of the Pacific Northwest & Alaska

The Salty Dawg Saloon

Bay Weld Boats

Zech Bennett: The Undersea Tradesman

Kate Mitchell – NOMAR

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You Take What You Can Get: Or Suffer the Consequences

How to Preserve Your Catch

Marian Beck: The Saltry Restaurant

Coldfoot: More than just another gold camp – a place that defined those who lived in it

The 210th Air Rescue Squadron

Filson Adventure Comic

History of the de Havilland Beaver

In Print: Alaska Aviation with Sarah Russell

In Print: Piloting Kodiak, AK with Willy Fulton

Above Alaska: Bush Pilots of the Last Frontier

In Print: Branson Wallace

In Print: Brett Watts

Trade Stories: Three Generations In the Wheelhouse of a Tugboat

Svalinn: Bred to Love, Trained to Protect

Wilderness, a River, and My Old Man

A Normal Life

Life of a Guide

A Fool’s Errand

Sheds, Snow, and Steeps: A First-Timer’s Notes on Shed Hunting

Salmon Centric: at the Core of a Life Purposefully Cast

Red Gold: The Livelihood of Bristol Bay

How to Get on a Fishing Boat

Alaska Chronicles Part 2: No Roads, AK

Alaska Chronicles Part 1: North of Wild