EP 165 The NN Cannery History Project with Katie Ringsmuth

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In this one, I talk to Katie Ringsmuth. She’s the Alaska State Historian, the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer and the creator of the NN Cannery History Project, a seven-year effort to preserve and interpret the stories of the people who powered one of Alaska’s most historic salmon canneries. For Katie, this story is personal. She grew up around the NN Cannery in South Naknek, where her dad worked for decades, eventually becoming the last superintendent of the Alaska Packers’ Association. He started in 1964 as a young college graduate in Kodiak, doing whatever odd jobs needed doing — from sorting crab to running the entire operation at the NN Cannery. Under his leadership, the cannery shifted away from the rigid, old-school model of command-and-control superintendents — “Tony Soprano–style,” as Katie puts it — and toward something more humane. He created housing for families, hired women and built a workplace that people returned to year after year.

The NN Cannery History Project is more than just about the processing plant, it’s about preserving its historical importance and honoring its workers. The cannery itself was a cultural crossroads with a workforce that included Alaska Native peoples, Scandinavians, Italians, Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino laborers. Canned food revolutionized how people ate. It made it possible to preserve and transport perishable foods across vast distances, reshaping global diets and economies — and the NN Cannery was a key player in that transformation. Originally built as a saltery in 1897, the NN Cannery went on to produce more canned salmon than any other cannery in the state. Katie’s work on the NN Cannery History Project ultimately led to the site being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a recognition that underscores its national significance. Throughout the project, Katie explores how Alaska fits into the global history of canned food and how preservation — both of fish and of stories — can change the way we understand place, labor and legacy.