The Early Years
Montana in 1950
North to Alaska
Unalaska-Part I
Unalaska-Part II
Aleutian Children
In Mexico
A Child Shall Lead
Calamity
Power of Prayer
Army of Light
In Nigeria
Far East
Japan
New Zealand
Other Travels
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Copyright© 2008
Jenabe Caldwell
Unalaska,
Alaska - Part II
We knew that in order to stay... we must build a permanent job, not only for ourselves but to provide income for the natives. So we homesteaded an old abandoned WWII military site complete with buildings and a deep water dock and started a fish cannery with nothing more than thirty-five fathoms of net and a twelve-foot skiff .
Our days
would start at 4 a.m. as follows: I would be out to sea in the skiff, find a school
of salmon, surround them with the net and haul them into shore where I loaded them into
the boat and returned to the cannery. In the meantime, Elaine dressed the children,
cleaned the cabin and washed diapers and laundry in water that she hauled from the river.
While I
carried the salmon into the cannery on my back, she started breakfast. After we ate,
I began cleaning the fish and Elaine would join me and begin cutting and inserting the
fish into cans. Then using an exhaust box to secure a vacuum, a hand seamer and a
pressure cooker, we would finish the job. The first year we canned 2,016 one-pound
cans of salmon (42 cases) and so an industry was born.
We also
needed better housing for the family, and since we had sailed forth only for the Baha'i Faith, why not build a Baha'i Center to live in,
which in the future could serve the Faith? We bought a piece of land in the center
of town for $150 and three old army buildings for $2.50 each and went to work.
excerpts From Night to Knight
