Every year several old wooden boats abandoned in the Kodiak boat harbor end up as ashes on the beach, burned for unpaid moorage fees. Thanks to efforts by Kodiak Maritime Museum however, the 36 foot salmon seine vessel Thelma C was rescued from the burn pile. Now, with recent funding from the Alaska State Legislature, the boat will be restored it to its original condition and installed as a permanent outdoor interpretive exhibit on land near St. Paul Harbor in downtown Kodiak.
The boat and exhibit will tell the story of Kodiak’s salmon fishery and the boat itself, which was built following the 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake and tsunami. Interpretive panels and a cell phone tour will describe how fishermen catch salmon, what it’s like to live and work on an Alaskan salmon fishing boat, and how the tsunami changed the fleet and downtown Kodiak forever.
Thelma C, Fall 2010
Current plans call for the boat to be moved from its present storage site at the Salvation Army on Mission Road to Kodiak College in early 2012. In the spring of 2012 project advisor and shipwright Brian Johnson of Ocean Bay Marine (himself a former owner of the Thelma C) will lead a team of volunteers and students as they learn how to replace degraded planking and ribs, repair the ship’s rigging, and restore the diesel engine.
Once the vessel is restored it will be moved to a site on the spit in Kodiak’s Small Boat Harbor. A roof will be constructed over the vessel to protect it from the weather, and interpretive signage and a cell phone multi-media display will be installed. Barring unforeseen complications, KMM hopes to complete the project by early 2013.
Thema C being moved to Salvation Army, November, 2010
The museum is currently recruiting volunteers interested in learning wooden boat repair skills while assisting with this important project. The end result will be a beautifully restored wooden vessel, and with the interpretive elements, a major cultural addition to Kodiak’s downtown waterfront.
Keep an eye on our website and our Facebook page for project updates. For more information or if you’d like to participate in the project, call 907-486-0384 or email info@kodiakmaritimemuseum.org .
KMM Museum Building Plans
As most people in Kodiak know, Kodiak Maritime Museum is still a "museum without walls." In response to that, in late 2009, Kodiak Maritime Museum applied for and was accepted into the Foraker Group's Pre-Development Program. The Pre-D Program helps Alaskan non-profits plan for capital building projects and is funded by the Rasmuson Foundation, the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, the Denali Commision, and the Mat-Su Health Foundation. Last year the museum identified a museum building of its own as the top priority in the KMM Strategic Plan. A maritime museum in Kodiak would house artifacts, educate the public, and preserve the maritime history of Kodiak though interpretive programs and permanent exhibits.
Over the past several years, KMM has considered several possible building sites, but a lack of funds to purchase a site has kept the project on hold. Last winter KMM approached the City of Kodiak about the possibility of using one of several possible City-owned sites for a maritime museum building. In response, the City Council directed KMM to gather input from the community regarding the building a maritime museum on one of the sites. The museum plans to meet this winter with fishermen, the Ports and Harbors Advisory Board, Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, and other harbor stakeholders.
In the fall of 2011, as part of the effort to evaluate the suitability of the sites for a museum building, the Pre-Development Program sponsored an engineering report by CRW Engineering of Anchorage, which assessed the three possible sites for zoning, traffic, utilities, environmental,and geotechnical issues. The report can be viewed here:
Images of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill on Kodiak Island
An exhibition of photographs and video of the spill taken by the people of Kodiak Island in the summer of 1989.
“We Remember: Images of The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill on Kodiak Island,” is an exhibition of still images and video to mark the 20th anniversary of the March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill as it happened to the people of Kodiak. The project, begun in the fall of 2008, included collecting, digitizing and presenting images taken by ordinary people who lived through the spill on Kodiak Island.
The project also involved digitizing several hundred hours of VHS video tapes made at various public meetings in Kodiak in 1989. These video tapes, a unique record of an epochal event in Alaskan history, have been stored since the spill in a climate controlled room at Kodiak College Library, and are now also preserved in digital form on hard drives and DVD discs. We hope to present some of this video along with the still images at Kodiak Comfish in April.
The exhibit is not intended to be a complete visual record of the spill on Kodiak. Like all large historical events, the spill was too large for any one person to see or understand in its entirety and is perhaps even now too large an event for a small institution such as the Kodiak Maritime Museum to comprehensively address. However, aside from the newspaper images, which have their own documentary value, these pictures were taken by Kodiak residents as they dealt with the effects of an unequaled environmental and social disaster. As such, they provide a unique and infinitely valuable view of the spill.
Still images for the exhibit were contributed by Betsey Myrick, Robbie Hoedel, Roger Benney, Marion Owen, Suzanne Abraham, Sue Jeffery, Vern Booben, and Bobby Ivanof. Newspaper clippings are courtesy of the Kodiak Historical Society. Video images are courtesy of Kodiak College. Special thanks to Alf Pryor of Dead Humpy Productions for designing and produc ing the exhibit.
This project is supported in part by a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum and the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Harbor Gateway Design Project
Once funding is in place, the Harbor Gateway Project will transform Kodiak's St. Paul Harbor into a maritime museum without walls. There are three components to the project:
Archways and all-weather illustrated display maps orienting the visitor to downtown Kodiak and the harbor, and describing places nearby places of interest.
Transformation of an existing building near the harbor into the “Peggy Dyson ‘Voice of the North Pacific’ Interpretive Center.” An interactive display within the building will tell the story of Peggy Dyson, who broadcast marine weather forecasts and relayed messages to Alaskan mariners for 25 years. The Interpretive Center will also house displays describing the effect of weather on Alaskan mariners and the role of the U.S. Coast Guard in keeping them safe.
An open-air interpretive display of the historic salmon fishing vessel "Thelma C," mounted on dry land near the harbor. The boat was built in 1964 following the March 1964 earthquake and tsunami which destroyed much of Kodiak’s fishing fleet. The restored vessel and display will allow visitors a close-up examination of the vessel and the opportunity to learn how the crew lived and worked while catching caught salmon around Kodiak Island.
Voice of the North Pacific
“Hello all mariners, hello all mariners,
this is WBH-2-9 Kodiak”
— Peggy Dyson
Prior to the advent of satellite phones, fax machines and cell phones, Peggy Dyson broadcast the marine weather and personal messages to Alaska’s fishing fleet and other mariners in the North Pacific twice a day, every day for more than 20 years.
The Voice of the North Pacific exhibit about Peggy, the fishing fleet, the weather forecasters and the brave crews aboard Coast Guard rescue missions will give visitors a better understanding of what it is like to work and live at sea.
Hear Peggy “Calling all mariners” and telling stories of her radio days
Hear fishermen talk about life at sea
Watch a Coast Guard rescue mission
Listen to the latest marine weather forecast and watch a satellite image of weather fronts moving across the Gulf of Alaska
The Voice of the North Pacific exhibit in the harbor building at Shelikof Avenue and Marine Way will serve as a gateway to St. Paul Harbor and downtown Kodiak, a fitting legacy to Peggy Dyson, Alaska’s mariners, and the men and women who work to keep them safe.
Kodiak Maritime Museum Site Analysis Report