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A Photographic History of Kasaan
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1800s • 1900-1920s • 1930s • 1980s

1800s
Old Kasaan 1883	Old Kasaan 1885	Christian Endeavor group visiting Howkan, Alaska	Christian Endeavor group at New Kasaan, Alaska	Totem Poles at Old Kasaan	Wedding Photo late 1800s
Mother and child late 1800s	Old Kasaan 1890s	Drying meat at Kasaan Bay Mining Company late 1800s
1900-1920s
New Kasaan 1908	Chief Son-I-Hat and his family	Chief Son-I-Hat's funeral	Lydia and Felix Young 1913	Angels	Kasaan village residents, ca 1900s
Nellie Baronovich and Martha Irene Ting Abbott, ca 1915	Nellie Baronovich and Martha Irene Ting Abbott, ca 1915	Baronovich family, ca 1916	Dedication of headstone for Johnny Baronovich	Lillian J. Leask and Edna Wallace Jason (?)	Kasaan cornet band, 1920s
Students at Sheldon Jackson School

New Kasaan through the 1920s The following photographs represent Kasaan during the height of the cannery days in the early 1900s
Cannery at Kasaan, 1929	Kasaan 1929	Booth Fisheries	Ship loading canned salmon	Fishing vessels	Cannery craft
4th of July	Felix and Walter Young
1930s
Old Kasaan 1930-1939
In May 1939, the ruins of about 15 Haida houses could be counted at Old Kasaan. Most of these ruins were far gone and overgrown with timber; one was so old that slight evidence of its existence was discernable. A study of these ruins gives doubt to the statement that Old Kasaan was a village for over 200 years, as only one site gave indication of a building that ante-dated the latest collection of house. The existing ruins also showed that the houses at Old Kasaan were all smaller than the Whale House and were built with frames of lighter timbers. One exception to this, as noted by James Peele, was the house of Chief Skowal (Skowl). Peele says that the Skowal house was larger than the Whale House by 15 feet each way, which would make it about 60 x 60 feet. (Excerpted from the C.R. Snow Journals, 1938-1939)
Old Kasaan totem	Old Kasaan village	Old Kasaan water view	Old Kasaan mortuary poles & waterfront	Mortuary poles	Chief Skowal pole, Old Kasaan
Watchman & Spencer poles, Old Kasaan	Old Kasaan ruins	Totem detail, Old Kasaan	House post, Old Kasaan	Bear grave marker, Old Kasaan
New Kasaan1930s
Man rowing in Polk Inlet, 1930	Blue Fox Farm, Grindall Island, 1930	Hertle homestead, Kasaan Bay, 1930	Chief Son-I-Hat's grave, 1938	L to R: Julia (Jones) Coburn and Caroline (Young) Hendrixson, ca 1938	L to R: Julia (Jones) Coburn, Catherine (Jones) Kerstetter, Betty (Young) Williams, ca 1938
Melinda Jones, ca 1930s	Elephant seal carcass, 1939
CCC Restoration 1938-1940
Man and boys inside Chief Son-I-Hat's house	Chief Son-I-Hat's Whale House 1938	James Peele	Reconstruction of the Son-I-Hat Whale House	CCC carvers	James Peele carving
Watch for more photos from Kasaan's past.
1980s
These photos were taken during the early 1980s after Kavilco determined that renovating the old cannery would cost more than any potential profit they could hope to make from leasing the space. Due to an inablility to obtain insurance coverage, the decision was made to dismantle the cannery.
		Upper Kasaan 1980	Kasaan 1982
Get more information about the Smithsonian Institution NationalAnthropological Archives by clicking on National Anthropological Archives. Chief Skowal • Chief Son-I-Hat