Digital Bob Archive

Juneau's first cold storage plant was built in 1913 by the Juneau Fish & Ice Company with the assistance of the City of Juneau. City participation was opposed by some property owners, but both newspapers, the older Alaska Daily Dispatch and the very new Alaska Daily Empire, supported it and an agreement was reached at the end of January, 1913.

Under the agreement the city would buy a waterfront lot 68 feet wide and 200 feet deep immediately north of the existing City Dock, on the site of the present ferry terminal. The city would then drive piling and deck them with two-inch fir planks to provide a platform for the plant.

The company agreed to lease the site for 25 years at a rental of $10 a year for the first five years, then renegotiate for subsequent five year periods. It would put up a building 54 by 196 feet, install refrigeration machinery, and maintain a general fish, cold storage and ice business.

The company had the privilege of terminating the lease at the end of five years.
In that event, the city would buy the plant at its appraised value less 10 percent. If, however, the company continued the lease, the building would become the property of the city, but not including the boiler, engine and refrigeration machinery or the insulated storage boxes.

The city owned a hoist and ice chipping machine which had been placed on the city dock for the convenience of fishermen. These were to be placed at the cold storage when completed. Fishermen who wished to ship their own fish would have free use of the cold storage fish house but would pay for ice and hoisting.
The company would make no wharfage charge; shipments would go over the city dock at normal wharfage rates.

In addition to other provisions of the lease, the cold storage company was to provide space in its building for one of the Fire Department's chemical engines and hose carts, with egress to South Franklin Street.

The contract for the cold storage, complete, was awarded to A.W. Quist who put up many Juneau buildings. It was finished in August, 1913, and Quist ran a test by freezing 500 salmon on August 17. The freezing capacity was reported at 2,000 fish each 24 hours. Icebergs were becoming scarce in Gastineau Channel and it was now often necessary to go all the way to Taku Glacier for ice. The new plant was able to produce ice more cheaply than it could be brought from the glacier.

Oliver Drange was manager of the plant for many years and was a factor in the building of the larger one in 1927. At that time the old building reverted to the city which used it as wharf offices and warehouse until it burned in August, 1959.

Fish buyers have never been folk heroes of fishermen, but when Oliver Drange, \"the father of the Juneau cold storage,\" died on December 3, 1940, the Empire said he was \"As popular with fishermen as any man in the business has ever been.\"