Kenai Peninsula summers and fishing go hand-in-hand. That’s why the Kenai Chamber of Commerce has brought in two new museum exhibits related to fishing and Alaska summers.
A cinder block-sized whale vertebrae and a gillnet once used by Alaska fishermen are a few of the roughly 200 fishing-related artifacts on view this month at the chamber's cultural center. The exhibit was planned specifically for June because that’s when tourists begin rolling in and fishing typically starts.
“I think it helps bring in tourists that maybe aren't necessarily looking for just fishing or hiking or camping, that want to explore history or art or just the way that people lived in this area during that time,” said Kenai Chamber of Commerce Cultural Center Coordinator Danielle Lopez-Stamm.
Among the artifacts is a model of a salmon trap — a wooded and netted structure once used on the Kenai Peninsula to catch fish. There’s also a display documenting the area’s once booming cannery industry.
And just like the chamber’s other history exhibits, this one highlights Alaska Native history, too. In it are Yupik-related fishing artifacts, like ulus. Insights into Dena’ina fishing techniques are also highlighted. That’s because the Dena’ina people have lived on the Kenai Peninsula for thousands of years.
Lopez-Stamm says one of the exhibit’s goals is to educate tourists about the region’s indigenous history.
“We will always have their stuff on display to the best of our abilities, and with appreciation for their existence here and that we're on their land,” Lopez-Stamm said.
Next door, in the chamber’s conference room, Anchorage’s Christina Reed has over 20 Alaska-centric watercolor works on view. She says six of them were made specifically for the Kenai show, and feature familiar sights, like fjords near Seward and mountains across Cook Inlet. But one is a painting of a king salmon.
“When I think of Kenai, I think of fishing," Reed said. "My husband and I, before we were married, used to come down to Kenai and fish. Sometimes even on a weeknight, we'd just drive out late.”
While most of Reed’s work encapsulates Alaska summers, a few capture the winter. One of them is a painting of a Kenai Peninsula mountain, with hundreds of small, individually drawn trees. The painting is in black and white, which Reed says gives it a “snowy” feel.
And although she says it's one of the few pieces that reflect Alaska winter, to her, some of her summer art feels reminiscent of colder days.
“Being in Alaska, and living in Alaska, I have the most time to paint in the winter, and so I'm thinking of all the beautiful things that I saw over the summer,” Reed said.
Both fishing-related installments will be on view through the end of this month.
The Kenai Chamber of Commerce is also helping run the city’s historic cabin park this month and throughout the summer. The five historic homestead cabins in Old Town are maintained by the Kenai Historical Society. The park has acquired a few new artifacts in time for summer, like a historic dog sled.
