LARECE EGLI: Ok, well, thank you for joining me. We have Shirley Zimin, Carvel Zimin, and Sam -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Stewert. LARECE EGLI: Sam Stewert. Here with us today. And Carvel, would you mind telling -- telling us where we're at today. CARVEL ZIMIN: We are in my daughter's house in Anchorage, Alaska. LARECE EGLI: Perfect.

And, can you state your name? CARVEL ZIMIN: My name is Carvel Zimin, Jr. LARECE EGLI: Can you spell that for us -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yes -- LARECE EGLI: -- so we make sure we get it correct? CARVEL ZIMIN: C-A-R-V-E-L Z-I-M-I-N J-R, of course. LARECE EGLI: Perfect.

And Shirley, would you mind introducing yourself? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I'm Shirley Grindle, married to Carvel Zimin, Jr. LARECE EGLI: And correct spelling of your name? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: S-H-I-R-L-E-Y Z-I-M-I-N.

LARECE EGLI: Perfect. And Grindle? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Grindle's my maiden name. LARECE EGLI: How do we spell (inaudible). SHIRLEY ZIMIN: G-R-I-N-D-L-E. LARECE EGLI: Perfect.

And Sam? SAM STEWERT: Samuel Carvel Stewert. LARECE EGLI: Can you spell that for us? SAM STEWERT: Oh, S-A-M-U-E-L S-T-E-W-E-R-T. LARECE EGLI: Perfect.

Ok, well, thank you again for inviting me into your home today to do this interview. This is very important. You guys are very important part of this story, and for particularly telling the local story.

And, you guys have been the caretakers of this history, so it's very important that we capture the -- I think are we -- if -- we're gonna be talking probably about four generations today of stewardship of the cannery.

So, Carvel, if you wouldn't mind, if you can tell us who you are and how long -- and your relation -- talk a little bit about your relationship to South Naknek.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, I'm Carvel Zimin, Jr., and my father Carvel Zimin was a winter watchman, my older brother Clyde Zimin was a winter watchman, and my -- of course, my grandfather, Nick Zimin, was the first winter watchman of the Zimin clan.

LARECE EGLI: And how did Nick Zimin's connection with the South Naknek cannery begin? CARVEL ZIMIN: Nick Zimin was traveling from Hawaii over to the West Coast, and was looking for employment. And found his way up to Seattle, where he was able to get a job with Alaska Packers Association. Jumped on a ship and went to Bristol Bay, and South Naknek, particularly, at this cannery, in 1927.

LARECE EGLI: How did he become the winter watchman? CARVEL ZIMIN: He was working -- Right after he got off the ship, I guess, they figured that he was such a dependable good worker, they needed somebody to fill in after somebody was retiring, and they picked my grandfather Nick to do that.

So, he got that job that way. He was a dependable worker -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: He started at Diamond M. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- so -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Diamond O? CARVEL ZIMIN: No. NN. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Ok. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: And Shirley, can you talk to us about how your relationship is, how it began in South Naknek?

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I grew up in South Naknek. My father worked for Alaska Packers as a machinist, and I got outta high school and I got my first job right out of -- Day after graduation, I was a waitress in the mess hall. Then I later moved to laundry.

LARECE EGLI: So, what are the beginning roots of your family there in South Naknek? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: My mother is a descendent of the old Katmai. And they later moved to New Savonoski, and then later moved to South Naknek, and then I just grew up. And later on, just, Junior and I got together. So, its --

You know, my dad and Carvel Sr. were best friends and they worked together, and they helped each other all the time, and -- Dad needed somethin' Carvel would help him, and they just took turns.

And, we've been there since -- Well, I was born in Egegik, and then we moved to South Naknek in '62, and then that's when my dad's -- started working for the cannery.

LARECE EGLI: Ok. Carvel, can you talk about your mother and her family? I know you talked about your father. CARVEL ZIMIN: My mother is Annie Zimin. She'd been living in South Naknek most all of her life.

I think she was born at Reindeer Station, when she was younger, and ended up moving to South Naknek when she was pretty young, and pretty much lived there all her life.

Met my father Carvel Zimin and got married, and all of us kids came along.

LARECE EGLI: Can you talk about any stories about the eruption and the beginning of South Naknek? CARVEL ZIMIN: I heard stories that, after the 1919 eruption, they had to move away from Old Savonoski.

And that amount of ash that was in the area was, you know, anywhere from four to -- four inches to 10 inches or more. It covered everything up near where the mountain was, and even all the way down into -- toward South Naknek, but --

That's why they had to move away from the eruption, because of the amount of ash. And, they formed New Savonoski.

I know that Shirley's family also was there. My family -- my mom's side, ran -- were --was growing up in a reindeer herd situation, and she was traveling around in different places.

One of -- Like I said, one of the places she was born was at Reindeer Station. And so, they -- they were kind of nomadic, somewhat. But, their main base was around South Naknek.

So, most of the residents of -- of New Savonoski, Old Savonoski, and other places, migrated to South Naknek because of the Alaska Packers Association cannery there. That started in I think 1892, and eventually about 1900 it was startin' to flourish.

And a lot of employment from the -- for the area was coming from Alaska Packers, and it c -- created a lotta opportunity for residents, like the Native village of New Savonoski and other places to get employment. So --

With the cannery being located in South Naknek, that's what started the village of South Naknek.

LARECE EGLI: Can you talk about that transition to becoming employees of the cannery? CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, the transition, really, for -- for my Zimin side of the family began with my grandfather Nick, of course, in 1927. So, it woulda been, you know, a good eight or nine years after the eruption.

You know, and at some point he met my grandmother, Mary, and married and had a couple'a kids, which is my dad and my aunt and my uncle who passed away. But they're -- That was their connection for the Zimin side of the family.

My mom was always -- My mom, Annie Zimin, was always living in South Naknek, and -- and when she married my dad, they, of course, had a house and started working for Alaska Packers Association in different places, so --

At -- For the -- At the beginning, my father worked for Bumble Bee Seafoods, and -- and when an opening showed up, they wanted him to become winter watchman at Alaska Packers Association at the South Naknek plant.

So, there was a -- you know, wherever you -- you end up is wherever employment is, I think, and that's really how -- how he got started there.

So, what -- when my grandpa Nick had his job in 1927 - I'm not sure how many years he went . A good a -- good amount of years before he retired. He --

He had a house right on the edge of South Naknek that he -- he -- he -- he owned himself. He built himself. And that was the house that they also used as a winter watchman's house because he was so close.

I mean, that was another reason why he was a winter watchman there is that -- or -- or after he got the job, he built a house real close to the cannery, so.

LARECE EGLI: Rolling back to 1919, do you have any stories that you can share about the Spanish Influenza epidemic? CARVEL ZIMIN: We heard a lotta stories of the people who got sick and was just passing away. It -- It was quite devastating.

As I grew up, I remember seeing a -- a huge cross in New Savonoski. And so, it was twice or three times as big as all the other ones.

And, you know, and then we had the stories that go along with it. They said there was 99 people who died from the influenza, and that they were dropping so fast that they dug one hole and then buried 99 people in one grave. And that was the significance of the big cross that was there.

Other significant parts of my family with the -- the flu was that my grandmother, Mary, who ended up marrying Nick Zimin, was actually an orphan.

Her parents had passed away from the flu and left the three girls, which is Nina, Mary, and then Anna. And they were in the orphanage over in Dillingham. And after the -- after the influenza hit, that's where they were taken to.

And the tie into that was that N -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: N -- Nina. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- Nina Harris, the oldest sister -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Got picked. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- got picked to be a wife of Fred Kraun.

And she -- One of her stipulations was, she would marry him if she was able to bring along her sisters and a few other people. And so, he agreed to that, and after he brought his new wife over to, I think, Libbyville, he brought Mary Zimin and Anna.

And in that group, I know, was a guy named Carl Yaluck (sp?), who, interestingly, ended up becomin' my grandfather on my mom's side. So, there was like a little entourage of people that came from the orphanage, that came along with the marriage to Fred Kraun. So.

LARECE EGLI: Do you have any stories about how the influenza began? The sick -- the big sickness began? CARVEL ZIMIN: I'm not sure if I remember any stories of this -- them telling us how it began. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I thought it was the ship. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, the -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: The ship.

CARVEL ZIMIN: There was people that came in for the cannery in -- in probably in the spring of 1919, that spread the -- the flu.

Because I don't think there was much going on before that. Everybody was healthy, there was as many as, I think, 800 people who lived in New Savonoski at one point. There was a lotta people there.

And devastated the place. I mean, there was hardly anybody after the flu was there. So, killed just about most all the village.

And I know there was quarantines and people said, "Well, you can't come here." And stuff like that, that mom and dad had talked about. So, there was stories about that.

LARECE EGLI: So after the devastation of the influenza, you s -- you talked about children being sent to the orphanage. Can you talk a little bit more about that? CARVEL ZIMIN: Just the -- the story that I already told you. LARECE EGLI: Ok.

CARVEL ZIMIN: That's all they -- I remember them talking to us -- to us about, was that that's where grandma Mary and her aunt Nina and our Aunt Anna came from.

And Carl Yaluck (sp?). Of course, that was interesting. I think there was others that -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: My grandma, Fiona, too. CARVEL ZIMIN: Your grandma, Fiona, and Linda's Wa -- Wassilie's parents. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh, Linda Kraun? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Elina. Her mom. Elina. CARVEL ZIMIN: Right, so there was -- there was a -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: She died in 1919.

CARVEL ZIMIN: There was a lotta people who lived in South Naknek that came along with that group, and so that was fairly interesting.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Nina was sick, but she recovered. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, she was the oldest. I imagine she was 10 or 12 years old. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah, she recovered. CARVEL ZIMIN: Maybe a little longer. Maybe older than that, even. 14 or 16. So. (pause)

LARECE EGLI: Do you have any stories about the crash of the salmon fishing after the influenza? CARVEL ZIMIN: Not much -- I'm sorry. They --

I know that as I grew up, there was a crash back in the '60s, but I don't remember too many stories about the crash after 1919.

I -- I know that the salmon was cyclic, and I've seen a few of the records of production from Alaska Packers Association. They have it in their archives.

But I've never heard stories related to why that might've been. So.

LARECE EGLI: Umm. (pause) And we -- Did we talked about Annie living in New Savonoski, correct? CARVEL ZIMIN: She -- LARECE EGLI: Or did we not? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-mm. No. CARVEL ZIMIN: No, she never really lived there. LARECE EGLI: No? CARVEL ZIMIN: She -- She was, like I said, in Reindeer Station and -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Her grandpa raised her. LARECE EGLI: That's right. Ok, so this isn't --

CARVEL ZIMIN: And then, Reindeer Station, where she was born, was actually near King Salmon. LARECE EGLI: Gotcha. CARVEL ZIMIN: And -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: My grandma's from Katmai. CARVEL ZIMIN: It was a lo -- also a -- LARECE EGLI: Your grandma. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- a f -- fish camp, too. So. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: She never lived in Savonoski.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. And after she -- After Ebdekea (sp?), her mom moved to South Naknek, after he had -- she had married Carl Yaluck (sp?). Had my fa -- mother, Annie Zimin -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Then she moved. Her second marriage to -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, yeah, but -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- Levelock. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- before that, of course, Carl passed away from drowning up at PAF.

And so, Mom was not even born yet? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-mm. CARVEL ZIMIN: She was like, eight or nine months pregnant when they lost Carl Yaluck (sp?). SHIRLEY ZIMIN: She was two weeks. CARVEL ZIMIN: How many? Two weeks? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: She'd -- He drowned two weeks before she was born. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. So, almost full term, and then the -- the guy passed away. Carl Yaluck (sp?) did.

And then she married Andrew Ansaknok (sp?), and that's where my relatives are from the Holstrom's and Signok's (sp?) side of the family.

LARECE EGLI: So, can you tell me your job at the NN -- or at the -- at the cannery? CARVEL ZIMIN: I'm the winter watchman and caretaker during the winter, but during the summertime I also do a lot of supervisory role.

So, I'm -- I guess I'm the main person there, makin' sure that everybody continues to work during the summertime, under my employment, and then during the wintertime we are able to maintain all the buildings so that they're there, and everything is gonna to be ready for the next season.

LARECE EGLI: How did you get this job? CARVEL ZIMIN: My older brother had -- had the job for 17 years. Maybe 20 years? And -- I think 17 years. And he decided to move out to Wasilla, so we were picked to be the next watchmen.

We -- I'd already been a supervisor at Diamond O for pulling barges in and out, and working in spring/fall crew and the beach gang and stuff, so it -- it was -- it was a transition -- or, easy transition to pick me.

And we just moved into the house that Clyde and Shelly -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause we knew the history, and -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- moved out of, so -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- what to be done. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, it was -- it was -- We were all kinda --

One of the things about South Naknek, which is kind of fun is -- is -- and good to work with, is most everybody in the -- the group worked together as a team. So, that -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We help each other.

CARVEL ZIMIN: -- it probably made it a lot easier for transition. I know, even back when my father was winter watchman there for many years, her dad was in the port shop. And so, everybody worked together to do whatever task at hand was to be performed.

So, it -- it felt like you're working as a team, the whole time I grew up. It was really easy. You have a lotta people that are able to help out on our crew, so -- I'm really appreciative of a -- lot of --

Fred Kraun, Jr. is a cousin of mine. Just about the same age. And so he grew up doing the same thing on the beach gang.

Of course, we'd all run off and go fishing in the summertime, but -- And that was kinda the fun part, but then we'd have to go back to work in the fall time. So, we were all spring and fall crew. So.

LARECE EGLI: Can you talk about who else works on that crew, and the other jobs, and a little bit more about how, like, the actual day-to-day work you guys did? In the spring/fall crew?

CARVEL ZIMIN: Oh, spring/fall crew. Of course, there was, you know, a lot of my good friends.

What we were responsible for doing is to open up the buildings, make sure that there's heat and water, make sure that the pipes going, everything that you have to do to make the house livable, if it was repairing doors or windows, or whatever.

We were kinda jack-of-all-trades, so we had everything going for the summer crew that was supposed to show up.

And my brother and -- both my brothers worked at South Naknek. Cousins, lots of cousins. Walter -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I worked there. CARVEL ZIMIN: Friends, Bruce Andersen. Shirley's -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Locals, lotta locals. CARVEL ZIMIN: Lot --

All the locals -- that seemed to be a perfect fit for spring/fall crew, because you already lived there, and you had a place to stay and a place to eat. You didn't have to open up a building.

So, it was always a pretty easy transition for people living outside to come walk -- you know, get off the plane, go right to their building and everything was ready to go. And gettin' ready for summer, so.

LARECE EGLI: What do you think the value of the spring/fall crew is? CARVEL ZIMIN: I thought it was pretty high. Nothin' would happen without us.

And, it -- No, actually, I -- I know that we were part of a team. I think this is something that had to happen before something else had to happen.

And so, we were -- we were, one, lucky to get employment. Two, you know, got paid to do it, and were working with good friends. And, even the summer people -- a lotta the summer people were all really good friends, or still -- still are today, so.

Well, it was -- It was always just something we did, I guess. I don't know.

It was -- It was fun to do the spring/fall crew, getting everything goin' in the -- in the springtime. And then transitioning it off to people who got off the plane, and makin' sure they did their job so that we can just go hang nets, and jump on a boat, go fishing.

And then we'd fish all summer long, and then we'd come back at the end of f -- fishing when it slowed down a little bit, and we'd jump right back into work, and they'd transition us t -- to us to take over, and then they'd get on the plane and leave.

And then, we'd just go and winterize buildings and -- and get everything set before winter set in, so that nothin' freezes or breaks and -- ever -- everything'd be ready for the next year.

So, it was -- it was a continuous getting ready for the next thing, if you wanna say -- put it that way.

LARECE EGLI: Do you remember what the first year is that you worked on the spring/fall crew? CARVEL ZIMIN: Is it 1976? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: High school. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, I was still in high school. In '75 or '76.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We used to get the White House ready. Iron all those curtains. CARVEL ZIMIN: We all started a little younger. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Everything was set, perfect. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

We all started a little younger than you're supposed to. I think you were supposed to work 'til 18, but we ended up havin' to work. Because our dads were there, and we knew that nobody was, you know -- everybody -- everything was gonna go great. We all worked as a team, still.

But, it was -- it was kinda fun where -- I remember working during the day, 'cause, of course, my senior year, I -- I only had to go half the year, you know. And so, the other half of the year when I got off the plane in South Naknek after school was over, is I'd go down and go to work on the beach gang.

And one day we were supposed to graduate, and -- and I was driving forklift on the beach gang, and I drove off of the plank, on the wooden plank, got the forklift stuck.

And I -- I was kinda -- I had to run, because I had to go to my graduation, and I had to leave my friends to pull my forklift out. So, that was kinda interesting, and different, I guess.

LARECE EGLI: How old were you when that happened? CARVEL ZIMIN: Oh, that was probably when I was a senior. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: '77, you graduated. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I did '78. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, I was 18. 17, actually, when that happened.

LARECE EGLI: Do you have any other favorite stories about those years working on the beach gang? CARVEL ZIMIN: Lotta good friends. I think, like I said, there -- you know, everybod -- all the local people were friends and re -- related, but, you know, there was a lotta outside people that were good friends on the beach gang.

And you'd have Norwegians and Swedes, and all kinds of -- CARVEL ZIMIN: They'd be Italians. And there'd be all kinds of ethnic groups.

And -- And -- But they were all -- I mean, we were able to talk and joke and have fun and play games, and, you know, all kinds of neat things together. So.

I guess growing up there, one of the things I thought I took for granted was that so many different ethnic groups were represented, and they were just all friends. So.

I mean, the Norwegian guy, he loved to play soccer, and he'd talk like Norwegian and stuff, and the Swede guy would be the same thing, and -- And, just, it was always kinda cool. So.

Some of the other stories, I guess. I don't know. I don't know. When I was working with -- on the beach gang with Bill Brown's dad, Grant Brown, who was the winter watchman before my dad.

He was always such a gruff old man, and, you know, he'd -- he'd have a big loud voice, and anything he said, you -- you kinda jumped and -- But, you know, I knew him as a -- as a friend, also, so it wasn't so bad.

But, he was actually pretty interesting to -- to have to work for, and one of the times that we -- one of the jobs we had was to pull up some of the planks off the decking. And, in order to do that, Brownie decided that he would use a pile driver, which is a great big dev -- device that had a big long cable on it, And they -- we'd put a hook on it, and -- and he'd run the pile driver and pull the planks up.

And that was one way of replacing the decking on the -- on the deck. And, I was driving the forklift. After he'd pulled up a plank, I'd grab ahold of it with the forklift and drag it off.

And one time he was pulling some of the planks up and then Per was -- like I said, the Norwegian guy, he'd run around and -- after they pulled the plank up, he'd try to grab it, put it down again so that I could take it away.

So, it was always pretty dangerous. You had hooks flyin' all over the place and --

And over the top of the winch house, Brownie had a canvas house, so that when it was raining out, it wouldn't rain on the brakes.

And I guess I musta been a little bit slow gettin' my forklift, and Brownie would yell at me, "Get over there and get that pipe." And so, I was always aware of it.

And they pulled up a plank, and Per went and grabbed it and put it down and I ran over with the forklift, and I started pulling it backwards.

And Brownie was standing inside the canvas house, and he didn't realize that one of the planks was hanging up on the canvas. And so I stopped and Brownie came out and he started yellin' at me, "I said to pull that thing outta there." And so, I says, "Ok."

So, I backed off, and I pulled the whole house down. And he was standing there with his hands in the air, and he looked around, he smiled, he says, "I said go!" And so, that was kind of a funny little story.

But, we always had that -- You always had big projects that seemed like -- you know, you're always changing deck, or you're always driving piling. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Piling. CARVEL ZIMIN: And then doing caps and doing lot of hard and heavy work.

And bein' able to do that was always kinda fun. You knew that -- You felt accomplished when you were done -- when you were done, when you got a project done, so it was al -- k -- kinda fun.

LARECE EGLI: And can you talk about why that hard, heavy kind of work was so important for the cannery? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause it was busy. CARVEL ZIMIN: Well -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Lots of people. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, there --

Everybody had to have everything ready for when the salmon hit. I mean, when -- when the -- when the salmon started showing up, you had to be ready to process 'em.

You had to have good planks, you had to have decking, you had to have -- you were havin' tenders come by with loads of fish, so you --

I mean, everything had to work in sync with the salmon run, and you never really knew when the salmon were gonna show up. So, you had to be ready ahead of time, and ready for anything.

And you didn't wanna have any downtime trying to fix something, because the more you had salmon processing, the more money the cannery made. And so, I guess it was -- it was pride in your work, too, I think. So.

LARECE EGLI: Well, and -- I ju -- I know from living there myself that a lot of -- a lot of this is that -- it takes on such an importance because the season is so short. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: And so, I can only imagine that having that local knowledge, to be able to see the storm damage throughout the winter, to anticipate that tho -- that -- that's part of what gives you the ability to do your job that much better, and to work really closely on that team.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. No, I -- I agree. If you were there and you knew what had to be fixed before summer started then you were, you know, you were ready to go.

So, it d -- didn't matter if there was big ice chunks comin' down the middle of the river and breakin' piling off during the winter. Then you knew that next spring, as soon as ground thawed, you were ready to go and fix it.

And then, you knew -- had -- had it all lined out, where you're gonna get the piling, where you're gonna get the wood, where you're gonna get the nails.

Make sure everything is all set to go, and soon as the weather allowed, that's what you did.

LARECE EGLI: Right. And in order to even do that maintenance, you have to have all those materials on hand. CARVEL ZIMIN: We -- LARECE EGLI: Can you talk about that?

CARVEL ZIMIN: We always had a lot of -- a lot of supply. You had to have everything pretty much there in South Naknek, because you can't just go down to the Ace Hardware store, or you can't just go over to the lumber place and --

You had to have all your lumber there. And you had to have all your stockroom and all your parts and all your carpenter shops and all your nails, and all your -- Everything there on hand for whenever somethin' broke down, in order to be able to fix it.

So, no doubt when -- in the spring, one of the big things that we did was we received the spring barge. And it had a lotta supplies. I mean, it would be a barge completely full of supplies for all the different departments that were available to get supplies.

You had -- You stocked up -- The -- The cannery was almost like self-sufficient. And so, you had to have all of the -- everything you needed for whatever might pop up. So.

Hi. LIAM STEWERT: Hi. LARECE EGLI: We have -- someone joined the group. Can you introduce yourself? LIAM STEWERT: My name is Liam. LARECE EGLI: Hi Liam, can you spell your name for us? LIAM STEWERT: It's L-I-A-M. LARECE EGLI: Ok. Well, I brought a sticker for you from the project. Thank you for joining us. LIAM STEWERT: You're welcome.

LARECE EGLI: So, on self-sufficiency, can you talk about everything that the cannery would provide that made that self-sufficiency possible? CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, it was like a village, I guess.

You had to have your laundry. You had to have your laundry personnel and all -- whatever it takes for makin' sure that that was -- department was running smoothly.

You had your mess hall. And you had all your groceries, your frozen or non-frozen.

You had your cooks, you had your carpenter shop. You had carpenter, woodworkers -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: You had the bull cooks.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Bull cooks in the mess hall. You had everything. Everything to keep everybody going for the summer. Self-sufficient, I guess.

You had mechanics in the port shop, like her dad was and --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Because if I worked my full eleven hours, they need extra help in the canning warehouse, I was down there 'til midnight, 1 o'clock.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Oh, yeah. So, it was -- You had a pretty much a standard of eleven hours a day, seven days a week. But most of the time, it was more than that, because sometimes people needed help in different departments.

So, it was always kind of whatever it took to get the job done, and -- and they pulled people away from other places. And, it made good for -- good overtime, I mean, we -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- we made a lot of money at -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Cooling warehouse.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Good overtime doin' whatever we could to make sure that the cannery was able to process and move on to the next thing.

LARECE EGLI: Was a lot of that driven by the teamwork that you talked about? CARVEL ZIMIN: Absolutely. LARECE EGLI: Or was that something that came from the administration?

CARVEL ZIMIN: No, I -- I think that the administration, Gary Johnson in particular, but all the superintendents, knew that they could always count on everybody helping out, no matter where you were at.

One time, we were out fishing during the middle of the summer, and decided -- or, Gary Johnson decided that his -- his fish cutting crew was -- had been working too many hours, and they were gettin' pretty tired.

And Clyde and I and the partner that we had on our boat just tied up to the dock. And we come up on top of the dock and Gary says, "Well hey, can you help us out? Can you go split all these fish here, give my -- my a crew a little bit of a break so they can get a few hours of sleep?"

So, we did. We -- We thought it was kinda fun. We already knew how to split fish.

We were tasked with splitting a bunch of king salmon, which, we liked kings anyway. I mean, we loved to catch kings, and -- These guys are -- know how to split fish, too.

But yeah, we were asked to split some fish, we were -- and we felt like we were part of the team again, even though we weren't even on the clock.

We were supposed to be out fishing for ourselves a -- and so, Gary, I thought was pretty cool in asking us to help him process some of the fish, so -- And get his crew some -- some sleep time.

LARECE EGLI: Can you talk a little bit more about trying to get sleep in the middle of -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh, my gosh. LARECE EGLI: -- the busy Bristol Bay season?

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, it's busy 24 hours a day, pretty much. Because the tide goes in, tide goes out, twice a day, and -- and when the tide comes in, no matter what, and you've got fish on the boat, you gotta process it in the cannery and --

So yeah, durin' the summertime it's pretty busy. Us fishermen in the boats out there, were -- had to stay fishing pretty much all the time, too. To in order to make a living.

So, everybody -- the whole -- the whole village, the whole cannery, the whole area, stayed busy pretty much 24/7 during the summer.

'Cause you only had three weeks outta the year, maybe? At the very most, and then processed 40 to 60 million fish. That's a task, so.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We got married 40 years ago. During the busiest time of the year. A -- CARVEL ZIMIN: In June. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And, everyone got -- from the cannery came to the wedding.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. It was kinda fun -- Like I said, we had friends on -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We still never took a honeymoon. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, but we -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We're still busy. CARVEL ZIMIN: W -- We had friends -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Before red season.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Like I said, that came off the summer crew, and then, of course, all of us locals, and so it was -- it was quite a wedding. There was a lotta people there. So -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It was a big wedding. The whole cannery was there.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Those guys and all the locals, so --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We're actually in a book. Our wedding. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm. It was kinda fun. And then it was like, June 16th, it was just before salmon season. So I don't know who picked that. Wasn't me.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We had to. It was the only time. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: Where was your wedding? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: South Naknek. CARVEL ZIMIN: South Naknek, right there -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: In the little church. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Right next to the --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Even the mosquitoes were invited.

CARVEL ZIMIN: It was the Russian Orthodox Church right on the boundary of the Alaska Packers Association. The South Naknek plant. So.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It was a good, too, because a lotta the cannery workers never seen a Orthodox wedding. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: So, they were -- It was full.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. So the cannery there were probably 4 to 600 people there. And then, all the locals, there was a couple, 300 locals. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: It was like --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: My dad's still is like, "My daughter's marrying my best friend's son." So, that was cool. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause his dad and him were best friends.

LARECE EGLI: Are there any other memorable events that you can remember that surround that community of the cannery? CARVEL ZIMIN: Hm.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We used to have our little dances upstairs in the rec hall. That -- Remember those? CARVEL ZIMIN: Oh yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We'd have at the end of the season. CARVEL ZIMIN: End of the season, very --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We all got dressed up and we didn't recognize nobody. Like -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- we were all in our work clothes.

CARVEL ZIMIN: So, all the cannery workers that wanted to take a break also, they a -- they had a company party. Gary Johnson was the one who and -- decided on that, and -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It all looked nice.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Or maybe all the -- all his workers from college wanted to -- it was always kinda fun. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It was fun.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, with a lotta locals there, a lotta cannery workers there.

Well, other things that we used to love to do, too. Interaction between the village and the -- the cannery was, we all loved basketball. We had a basketball gym, and the local town folk in high school or outside of high school, you know, were all basketball players and loved to have basketball tournaments.

And then, when all the cannery workers showed up, there was a good amount of people that were good basketball players, so we'd have the town team of South Naknek play the cannery. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They still have --

CARVEL ZIMIN: And it was always a good rivalry. I mean, it -- some years that they would be really good, with a couple of good players, you know, but most of the time our local guys would just kick their butt.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They still have the hoop up. The hoop's still up. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: Where is the hoop? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: By the stockroom. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: By the stockroom. And so, that's where it would be the cannery workers versus -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Well -- Well, that was -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Went in on their spare time, and then they'd go to the gym.

CARVEL ZIMIN: No, actually we had a -- a gymnasium built there in 1980, I guess. And it was an indoor -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: No. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- indoor -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It was my sixth grade when I moved there, so '70s. CARVEL ZIMIN: Ok. 70s? I -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause I moved in there when I was sixth grade.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, so there was a basketball court and everything else. So, we'd go up there, and -- and that's where we'd have a lot of our intermural basketball games at the cannery.

LARECE EGLI: At -- At -- In the village there, in South Naknek? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. So. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

CARVEL ZIMIN: They'd also have volleyball tournaments down in the big warehouse. That was kinda fun. They'd have anywhere from 10 to 12 different teams of --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I remember pushing those -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- different departments, and -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- mug up carts. Didn't have wheels -- four wheelers, and we had to push those carts.

CARVEL ZIMIN: And that was always right around July 4th, because they always -- it was like -- just -- just after the beginning of salmon and just before the big run hit, there was usually a lull, where there -- there wasn't much going on, or -- you know. But there was a lotta cannery worker -- workers that had to stay busy, or, you know --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And then, Fourth of July, too, we'd do -- I'd get the kids, and we'd all get in the wig (sp?), and with our Fourth of Julys, and -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Oh, yeah SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- here I'm pulling 'em with laundry lady and the kids, and -- I have pictures of those.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. It was always fun. These guys grew up down there, too. They had a lotta fun watching all the different things happen. So. Mm-hm. LARECE EGLI: Um --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We used to have -- Gary would have Mother's Day champagne breakfast. LARECE EGLI: Mm. Yes.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Drink champagne on the clock, eating breakfast. So, that was pretty cool. They would treat the mothers, even Pixie and them, because, you know, women.

LARECE EGLI: Why do you think he did that? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause he appreciated women's help. All the help.

Bein' a lady is a lotta work. You have a lot -- Like, your grandma.

Growing up with his -- his grandma, we'd sit down to eat and she'd, "We can't eat until the men eat first." And then the ladies and the kids.

And like -- I was like, "Man, this is 2000. I'm gonna eat first with the men." You know?

But she -- That was her rule. Men eat first and then we -- then the ladies and the kids. That's just the way grandma Mary grew up.

LARECE EGLI: And I can only imagine as a woman, many of you working were probably also mothers. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

LARECE EGLI: And so, you've got that added responsibility of not just caretaking for all of the other workers that are there, you're still balancing caring for your family.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Gary was so nice. I got to work with my kids, and he'd go fishing. And I had a room in the laundry, and we'd sleep in there.

CARVEL ZIMIN: So, your mom and Mandy. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: She grew up in the laundry, and Mandy, and -- CARVEL ZIMIN: (inaudible) SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- later on, I got my hairdresser's license, and I got to open shop in the back and have a laundry work with my kids. So, I was amazed.

Then -- Then I decided, you know, I'm doing really good with this hair job, so I finally quit and opened up a business and left the laundry. I was there 17 years. Laundry. Well, mess hall and then the laundry. Yeah, it was fun.

CARVEL ZIMIN: It was a career. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It was a job. CARVEL ZIMIN: It was part -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It was a job. CARVEL ZIMIN: It was your job, you got paid, and it was part of the year, of course.

We -- I always had fishing, and then we had that spring and fall income, and then you had spring and fall, but also laundry in the summer, so it was -- you know.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. Yeah. 'Cause I'd have my spring girls, and then I'd just work by myself with a -- girls that came from Washington.

And then when they left, the wint -- fall crew girls would -- like Denise and Pixie and -- They would come help me. 'Cause they would go fishing. Yep, so --

CARVEL ZIMIN: One of the things that I should bring up also is, when I was their age, I ended up havin' to stock shelves in the company store, and --

LARECE EGLI: How old were you? CARVEL ZIMIN: Gosh, I probably was -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Liam's age.

LARECE EGLI: How -- How old are you boys, can you tell us how old you are? LIAM STEWERT: I'm 10. LARECE EGLI: Liam is 10. SAM STEWERT: Turning 13.

LARECE EGLI: And Sam is thir -- almost 13.

CARVEL ZIMIN: So, when I was growing up, about that age, in the cannery house -- in the winter house, my dad was the winter watchman at the time.

One of the things that -- that they did at the time was, they had a -- a -- a company store. Alaska Packers Association had a -- a store.

And they would continue to sell goods during the winter to the locals, and in order to do that -- even durin' the summer.

But, they would sell all the goods that, like, the boats would buy for -- for surviving out in the fishing industry, you had to have groceries to eat.

So the -- Groceries and hardware goods and everything. Whatever it took to get through the season in the summertime, they also kept on selling during the winter when all the -- all the other people were gone, the locals would -- would continue to go down to buy stuff at the store.

Well, my dad was the storekeeper, because he was the winter watchman. It came along with the job at the time.

And so, he employed his kids. He put us to work. We didn't get paid, but, I mean, it was a team, again, as as family.

And, I remember my oldest sister, Carol, and Lois, and my older brother, Clyde, and myself, and my younger brother, Carl, all havin' to go down after school and go -- after the store was closed, and then go stock shelves for the next day.

And it was open seven days a week most of the time during the winter.

But one of the things we -- we learned was, you know, how to stock a shelf. You have to go downstairs and figure out what you needed upstairs, because downstairs was all the storage of the case -- case lots. And then upstairs was all the shelves.

And then, you'd take all the -- the boxes and -- and carry 'em up the steps and then open 'em up, and then stamp 'em with a --

You have a stamp -- price stamper, and then whenever you put everything on the shelf you put the label out so that people could read it. You know it -- It was that type of thing.

It was just being a -- a storekeeper or -- or somebody working in a store. And it was kinda fun, I guess. Lotsa work.

It was kinda cool, at one point, my dad decided that he can commandeer a conveyor belt. And so, that -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's what that is. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, that conveyor belt, dad put that in there.

And all it does is, right next to the steps going down to the -- the lower floor, where all the stored goods are, the case lot stuff, you just carry the cases over, put it on the conveyor, hit a lever, and it would go up.

And then, one of the other kids -- you know, the brother or sister that was up there grabbin' the cases and then takin' 'em out on the floor. So.

LARECE EGLI: And this is -- I think I've seen it. It's in the -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's where the supplies are. LARECE EGLI: -- supply room where we have the stuff stored for the exhibit right now, right? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yes, exactly.

LARECE EGLI: There's that conveyor belt that goes up. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: Ok, we were looking at that -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: -- and I wondered. But -- So --

CARVEL ZIMIN: No, all that whole area downstairs was all storage. LARECE EGLI: That was the storage? Ok. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, that was the storage for the store.

LARECE EGLI: And so that converyor belt came from -- ? CARVEL ZIMIN: Just the cannery somewhere, I'm not sure. LARECE EGLI: One of the cannery lines? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, one of the can lines. LARECE EGLI: Wow.

CARVEL ZIMIN: And it became available and my dad says, "Hey, I could use that." And instead of havin' my kids pack up a case of peaches, they can just put it on a conveyor belt and pfft."

And so, he was always very intuitive, dad was. He was very innovative. Whatever it took to -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's where I got my first bicycle, was the store.

CARVEL ZIMIN: They had all kinds of goods, they had clothes -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: But then we're all wearing same clothes, 'cause we got 'em from the cannery store. CARVEL ZIMIN: Company clothes, yeah.

Yeah, Alaska Packers Association had their own -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: White boots, and -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- t-shirts. You guys seen the Alaska Packers t-shirts. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, it was kinda cool.

LARECE EGLI: I wonder if there's any -- CARVEL ZIMIN: That's probably why we still do t-shirts. LARECE EGLI: -- of those still hanging around.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I have Grandpa's and Junior's in a frame.

LARECE EGLI: I mean, I remember, as a kid, it was just something you did every year, was you'd go to the different stores, and that's what -- those were the t-shirts that we wore growing up, You know, I remember -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: -- you know, my stolen from Naknek Trading Company, and -- you know.

That was -- That was your summer shopping.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Do you remember sliding down the hill and not supposed to go down the cannery, but we snuck a couple times? CARVEL ZIMIN: Oh, yeah. Yep. We did all kinds of fun stuff.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Put your coat up and "brrrrrr." Becuase that one big beam right there, you'd hit it.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Oh, yeah. Gr -- Growing up as a kid, and they did the same thing, too, is during the wintertime you'd take sleds and go down the hill.

I mean, you found a hill that was full of ice and snow, and that was one of 'em. And it was all cleared away and ready to go.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: But ours started from the school and down to the cannery. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: So it was like -- CARVEL ZIMIN: It was all --

The school was on the top of the hill, and you can go all the way from the school down the road to the cannery, and then down the cannery on the ramp.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh, we got in trouble, though. We got in trouble. So. CARVEL ZIMIN: You c -- I imagine you can get hurt, but we never did. LARECE EGLI: End up in the middle of the river for cryin' out loud.

So, the -- we're -- we're kinda talking a little bit about what I think is a really important thing for people who aren't familiar with our community, the way that we are, is the size and the geographic location of our community is part of what dictates the importance of having this cannery store. And having the resources that the cannery comes with.

Can you talk a little bit more about some of the other resources that the co -- that the -- the canneries have provided -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, one of the things -- LARECE EGLI: -- for our communities?

CARVEL ZIMIN: One of the things they also did when I was a kid was that they had a hospital. A company hospital.

Alaska Packers had a doctor, a surgeon, actually, come in. They had a medical doctor that was retired and they -- he would have his own hospital, his own nurse, his own rooms. A operating table, x-ray room.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I remember that. CARVEL ZIMIN: Have you guys been over to that hospital? That was ac -- they actually had a doctor and a nurse in there.

And when I broke my arm, I went to the doctor and they put it in a cast.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: When I was working there, when they closed it, the files were still sittin' there. I don't know what happened to those files, but my file was in there.

It's like, "Oh my gosh." I don't know where they went.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Medi -- Medical files. But yeah, it was -- That was one of the things that they did.

Of course, growing up there, it was always nice that dad had the keys to all the places. One of 'em was the carpenter shop, so anytime I was growing up, if I had to go cut a board or do something, I was able to grab Dad's keys and go down and get some wood or lumber off the rack or plywood or whatever it took.

And build something, or go to the machine shop and work on, you know, cars or -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: July of -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- whatever.

So you had -- You had a lot of resources that were available for us in South Naknek, 'cause there was no place to go, other than the cannery.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: July of '75, they were still active, because my grandpa was flown from Egegik to South Naknek. Why didn't they fly him to Dillingham? CARVEL ZIMIN: That was the hospital. And he had a heart attack, and so the -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Arrived up in a flat-bed, remember? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

So, lotta the area knew that there was a -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: A hospital. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- a hospital and a doctor. So, anytime somebody had somethin' tragic happen - car wreck or motorcycle wreck or heart attack, or --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: A broken collar bone. CARVEL ZIMIN: Whatever it -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yep. CARVEL ZIMIN: Whatever it was, they'd just load 'em up in a plane or whatever. Ship 'em on a boat.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Sammy and Liam's grandma was born in -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Was no ambulances back then, so. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- the hospital there. Helvie's (sp?) had her baby there. Her first daughter was there. Born there.

CARVEL ZIMIN: So that was -- That was part of the reason why it's really significant, is that the -- it brought resources to the -- not only the village of South Naknek, but the area, the community.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Remember the nurses. They used to have nurses. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Dcotor's room, and the nurse, and --

I remember the nurse would take care of me, and then the doctor would come in. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm. It was a regular hospital. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's like a real -- like a real clinic. CARVEL ZIMIN: So, pretty cool.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. I remember the beds. Used to have those little white beds. I was wondering, "Why does this thing have this thing up?" This four leg, you know. They had that and they were like -- I don't -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Traction. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- know what happened to all those beds. CARVEL ZIMIN: Traction and all that. It was kinda cool. Even Bumble Bee has 'em.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Even the surgery table had a light above it. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm, yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yep. Those were like -- CARVEL ZIMIN: I remember --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Too bad you couldn't go back and just watch everything.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. I remember going in there, like, for my broken arm and stuff. There was a fisherman that was in there that had fish poisoning from, you know, from out in the bay.

He had a cut or somethin', and some fish gerd got in the thing, so he was up there being seen for that. It was Italian guy.

And he had his hand underneath this red lamp or this infrared lamp. And that was the cure for it, I guess.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Do you remember when the nurse passed? Well, I remember them taking her out in a body bag. CARVEL ZIMIN: No, I'd -- I -- I knew that she had passed away, I guess I wasn't there.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: You were probably working. You were probably stocking shelves. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, You never know. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: So, your first job, even though you weren't paid, was stocking shelves in the store CARVEL ZIMIN: Yep. Hm-mm.

LARECE EGLI: Then in high school about 17 years old -- CARVEL ZIMIN: On the beach gang. LARECE EGLI: -- you joined the beach gang. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yep. So, it was pretty much my whole life.

LARECE EGLI: Then what's your next job? CARVEL ZIMIN: My next job?

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: He got married when he was 20. CARVEL ZIMIN: Bein' husband. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: How old were you when you became winter watchman? CARVEL ZIMIN: I guess I don't know. It was 2002? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Um, 2001. CARVEL ZIMIN: 2001? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Sonya got married then.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, I never really paid attention to how old I was, but I was always -- LARECE EGLI: Oh, so -- Yeah, so -- But it really it's -- it's pretty -- it -- it's more recent? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: More recent. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, 2001. LARECE EGLI: Ok. CARVEL ZIMIN: We're in 2018 now, so 17 years ago.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Well, it was a decision, because, you know, when my father passed away, my brother always lived with my father, and he's a little bit retarded. And he had to have a power of attorney.

So it would depress him to move, so we decided to take the job, just because he was there. And we had kids in college and -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Well -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- it was just building up.

CARVEL ZIMIN: I mean, we had options to move away and do other things, but we decided to stay there. I mean, it was part of our life already, but there was other things that kept us there. So.

LARECE EGLI: Right. So, taking on that additional responsibility of caretaking for the entire cannery twelve months out of the year, instead of just doing the start up, fishing, and then -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: Closing up the cannery -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, it -- it was -- LARECE EGLI: -- you decided to take on that additional responsibility.

CARVEL ZIMIN: It was an add-on and that kept us there, I guess. And, it -- we continued to work like we do now, pretty much all year round.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: You know, when I restored the whole house, I told him, "I'm not gonna move there unless we restore it."

And when I restored it, I found so many names in that house. CARVEL ZIMIN: Written on walls and stuff. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Commissioner Regan's (sp?) children's writings is on the wall. CARVEL ZIMIN: Lot -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They grew up there. CARVEL ZIMIN: Lotta history.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: So, it's probably 1930s. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And Carvel Sr.'s writing, and Sonya's writing and Clyde's writing and his kids. You just see so much of names in there that I -- CARVEL ZIMIN: The history of the place. Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: History of --

So I'm making the kids write their names -- CARVEL ZIMIN: They have their names on walls. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- in the basement wall, because I'm want -- you know, we gotta put our name there, too. So.

LARECE EGLI: Have we gotten pictures of those names when we've been over there? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Nope. LARECE EGLI: Maybe we can remember. That would be really nice to make sure that -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm. Maybe the next time that we go.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And Bill Smith was there. Dani -- Daniel's dad. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, Daniel's dad was there. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: He grew up with the boys. And his name was on the wall. Like, wow.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Danny and William Scrappa (sp?). SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It was under some real thick -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Bill Smith, yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- old- fashioned wallpaper, upstairs in your old bedroom. Like, holy cow, these are some cool names. I'm like, "Holy cow!"

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. There's a lotta history, a lotta tie-in to that cannery, specifically. LARECE EGLI: Yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: And legacies that -- LARECE EGLI: Yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- families that lived there.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah, I mean, can you tell me anything about wh -- where -- where -- where does that come from, that -- that people -- 'Cause it's kind of a tradition, you know, to -- to leave your mark somewhere. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's why we're leavin' our mark in the basement. 'Cause there's -- You could just see it. Even Samantha wrote her name. "I was here." Was like -- CARVEL ZIMIN: I don't know, it --

LARECE EGLI: It -- Is it just human nature or -- CARVEL ZIMIN: I guess so. LARECE EGLI: -- the canneries inspire it? SAM STEWERT: don't know, either.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I know, I was changing Jess' (sp) bed back there, and I moved the boards. You know, the old boards. And Janice Hodgeton (sp?) wrote her name on a board.

You know, she's passed away. I'm like, "Wow, this is -- Wow, this is cool." You know.

She's under the bed, writing her name. It's like, "Wow." You know, so we have lotta memories in that house. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And then, we redone the ceiling. You can tell where the old woodstove was. Was like, "Wow, can you imagine an old wood stove?" In the living room, remember? It had a fire, remember, it was a fire on it.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. We pulled some of the ceiling tile down, and we discovered that the house had been in a fire before. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Stove's -- Stovepipe. Really a fire. CARVEL ZIMIN: We found burnt stuff on the ceiling, and -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: By a wood stove.

CARVEL ZIMIN: -- we had to do some research to figure out that there was a fire and, you know, how the house was the -- occupied before and why.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We have a picture of the house with the old bicycle car. What's it called? The fancy car, that's down by that, um, lead shop. The old guts of it. I have a picture of it.

Our house, in that day to now, and I'm having it put together as black and white and then ours now. Yeah, it's history there.

LARECE EGLI: So, what additional responsibilities came with becoming the winter watchman? CARVEL ZIMIN: Additional? Oh, well, I ended up becoming the -- the supervisor during the summertime, and there -- there was a lotta additional responsibilities to that.

But as far as the winter watchman's job, it's been the same pretty much every year. You make sure that everybody in -- that -- that you are able to watch all of the buildings and make sure nobody breaks into anything or, you know, you track down and figure out who did it or --

You're always makin' sure that nobody steals anything or --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: To me, nowadays, you really need a watchman, because Bumble Bee has been broken into.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, Bumble Bee's abandoned and they don't have -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Really bad. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- they don't have anybody there, so people just --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And if no one was at South Naknek, Diamond N cannery, it would probably people in there, too.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Yeah. And not necessarily locals. I don't blame a whole lotta locals at all. That -- I know that it's the -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's the skiffs comin' over. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- it's the boats and the skiffs there in the summertime that -- people'll come upriver for two, three weeks and they just wanna go exploring in their time off and break into buildings, so. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause he saw mud tracks goin' up, and then goin' back, so it's the skiffs.

CARVEL ZIMIN: But, yeah, that's the -- it -- it's -- it's a -- it's one of the big responsibilities as the winter watchmen, is to make sure that everything stays intact for the company.

LARECE EGLI: Now, I even live there, and I know this place, so, I think it's interesting though or those who don't have that experience out there, that part of the reason that it is so important to have a family like you guys there, is because the electricity is actually shut down for the majority of these buildings, so we think about like, modern security and surveillance, it's not really feasible.

Because of the size of these places, the number of nooks and crannies that all need to be monitored. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm. No, there's no way -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Tell her the --

LARECE EGLI: So, it comes down to a family like you guys. Having that presence, having that knowledge. And then, in my opinion, it's having those relationships. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yep. And -- LARECE EGLI: And so, if you can take it from there --

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, I -- I already know that as -- as a winter watchman, I'm always aware of what everybody's doing. Not necessarily to -- to be nosy, but I gotta know who has tendencies to do what.

And if something happens, you could pretty much figure out who did it, just because of my knowledge of everybody in town, or whether a boat or a skiff came by, or if somebody new in town, or somebody has -- doin' somethin' else somewhere else --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Remember the year of -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- and all of a sudden they have time to break somethin'. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- when the power went out for two weeks? LARECE EGLI: Yeah. That was devastating.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Thank God the cannery was there, because no one had nowhere to go. So, Clyde hooked up the generator, and was cooking for the whole village. LARECE EGLI: Because --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And Josie's husband and my dad were on oxygen. Thank God the generators were working. LARECE EGLI: Now -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: For two weeks.

LARECE EGLI: That was in 2013? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Can't remember. LARECE EGLI: When they had to restring the power line, right? My dad flew the -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Helicopter to -- LARECE EGLI: He -- the helicopter over. I mean, that was -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: The poles snapped like toothpicks. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: Uh, the -- Yeah. The r -- At the river crossing, and it -- I tell you, I was on the north side, but looking -- just driving down the road and not seeing the lights of South Naknek was the spookiest thing in the whole world.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. We were without power for two weeks after -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: So, was thankful Clyde was living there then. It wasn't 2013. We were there 2001. So, it was before Clyde.

So, he hooked the generator and was cookin'. So, he had all that food from the cannery, so cookin.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, the cannery has its own generator power. And that's why he was able to turn power on at the cannery. He ran his own cannery generator and it lit up the whole plant. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And water.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Versus South Naknek, which, it only had power to NEA. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Because nobody was ready. CARVEL ZIMIN: Naknek Electric Association. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Like this earthquake. Nobody was ready. CARVEL ZIMIN: Nope.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: So it -- At least Clyde had water and food and heat. Especially for the elders. LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm. CARVEL ZIMIN: Hm. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

LARECE EGLI: So, I mean, I know we've talked about it four or five different ways, but there really is this responsibility back and forth of the community caring for the cannery, but the cannery also -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Cares for the community. LARECE EGLI: -- cares for the community. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And it was the only fuel --

LARECE EGLI: Can you talk a little bit more about that? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- it was the only fuel that we h -- Nowadays, it's run by the council, but back then it was -- cannery was selling the fuel to the village. Oil and gas.

CARVEL ZIMIN: So. Yeah, I mean, they always -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Wintertime. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- they always take a part of -- whatever has to happen in South Naknek, usually goes through the cannery.

And so, like I said -- Like she was saying, the only place in town was to -- to buy gas or stove oil or diesel was at the -- at our plant.

And so, that was one of things as winter watchman, I was a fuel salesman also.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We also made the gym and the library as one of the spots to go to, in case. Or the cannery. And --

LARECE EGLI: And that's just up the hill from the cannery -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. LARECE EGLI: -- so it's all -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: -- pretty close? CARVEL ZIMIN: Hm-mm.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause I'd been hi -- handing out things in case something happens. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, it all goes hand-in-hand, I think.

Like you said, it -- the -- the resources that the cannery has is important to the community, and the -- and the community is important to the cannery also. So amount of people that work. (pause)

LARECE EGLI: What do you think the most important role of the cannery is in the community? CARVEL ZIMIN: Employment. And processing fish, makin' sure that the company stays viable in selling their product, so that they can make money to keep on employing people. And so -- It's -- It's all together.

LARECE EGLI: Anything else you would like to share? CARVEL ZIMIN: Hm. No, I -- I think we're pretty much covered it.

We got a lotta different things happening all the time. It seems like every year is different.

Nowadays, I do a lot of supervisory role, but they also ask me to run tenders and run boats, and I run skiffs, and we do whatever we have to to get the job done for the company because, I mean, we have to make money for the company, too, in order for me to stay employed, so.

It -- It's just all part of it, I guess. But, we do whatever we have to, and -- We do have a lot of resourceful people that work for our company, that either work durin' the summertime, or just all year long.

You know, my cousin, Walter Hodgeton (sp?), he does a great job of filling in for me when I'm gone, and his -- his wife is their grandmother, and she does a great job in the summertime cooking, she's -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: She took over my job. When I left.

CARVEL ZIMIN: She -- She's down there in the mess hall cooking for us, and so -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I recommended her and she took over. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- laundry and in and out mess hall, so. It's just all one big family.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I used to cook for spring and fall. It was fun. Brian and Rami (sp?) thought they were gonna be the bakers growing up. Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: Well, and you said the lotta resourceful people worked there. I know what that means, but I know a lot of the people that read this interview later, or listen to it later, aren't necessarily going to know what that means. Can you explain that?

CARVEL ZIMIN: In what way, I guess? What are you lookin' for?

LARECE EGLI: What is our Bristol Bay resourcefulness? What makes you that resourceful person that's that key team member that you wanna work shoulder to shoulder with?

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, I don't really have a solid answer to that. I think everybody that lives in South Naknek is a -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Watches out for each other, and --

CARVEL ZIMIN: No, it's everybody knows how to accomplish whatever it takes, because there's -- you can't just go down the street and find -- and -- professional. You're a jack of all trades. You're a handyman, you're able to do carpentry work, you're -- can do welding, you can do machine work, you can work on cars, you can work on boats, you can work on airplanes.

You -- You know, everybody has a lotta talent in a lotta different fields, whereas, I guess, a lotta the people in the city only like, have professional jobs and doing one thing most a their lives. They're really good at it, but can they do all of those things.

So, you grew up with all of the -- my brothers, sisters, cousins, friends that were able to share their knowledge in different fields, and whatever it took to -- to -- to -- to try to help out, to try to fix the problem at hand. You were able to do it. Or had to do it, actually.

Had no other choice. You didn't -- You could -- You had no other resource. So. A lot of the resources right within each person. So, I would say that.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah, it's pretty important, and to me it's one of the more unique things about living in -- in bush Alaska is that you do have to be a master of a lot of different little skills. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Sammy, what do you think of the NNN project and where grandma and grandpa live at? SAM STEWERT: Reaches my satisfaction. I find it enjoying. Well, in my enjoyment, where it's these stories you guys can tell.

CARVEL ZIMIN: And when you guys are all grown up and we're -- we're really old, and you guys are the ones that take over, you're gonna know how to work on a car, you're gonna know how to fix a door or a window, you're know gonna how to do insulation, you're know gonna --

You're gonna know how to all the things that I do right now, even though you guys don't do it -- know it now, you're gonna have to. SAM STEWERT: Yes. LIAM STEWERT: Yep. SAM STEWERT: Alright, that's -- CARVEL ZIMIN: So -- That's it.

LARECE EGLI: Do you have a favorite story you can share about the cannery, Sam? SAM STEWERT: Hm. (pause)

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Goin' in the mess hall. SAM STEWERT: Oh, yeah.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Growing up in the buildings. A lotta the big buildings are empty when everybody's gone, and you're able to run around a big warehouse or big mess hall on solid floors, or -- LARECE EGLI: When I was -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- skateboard, or --

SAM STEWERT: Going to Diamond O and -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Going to Diamond O. All kinds of fun s -- SAM STEWERT: That was one of my favorite things.

I remember walking there, and when I was walking down the road with Grandma and you, you with that big revolver. CARVEL ZIMIN: Oh yeah, my big gun. SAM STEWERT: That big one.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Well, there's a lotta bears out. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. SAM STEWERT: Lots of 'em.

And a fox walked by. I was amazed by it. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Then saw bears, a lot.

Still these -- I never went to South Naknek without seein' a bear. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm. SAM STEWERT: At the dump or anywhere.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, the wildlife, you have over -- SAM STEWERT: All around you. CARVEL ZIMIN: You have bears, foxes -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Sammy's parents -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- eagles -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Sammy's parents -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- fish. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- own this A-frame and they're tryin' to find property to put it on, and Sammy's wishes is to what, Sammy? SAM STEWERT: No.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: He wants to put it right at the cannery, live in the cannery. 'Cause he likes the cannery. SAM STEWERT: Right next to their -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yep. Right next door. SAM STEWERT: Hm-mm.

LARECE EGLI: At the end of the season when I was probably about your age, Teal Smith would get done fishing and be in town before he headed back to Dillingham, and every year we would have a field trip.

And we would start at about Peter Pan, and go all the way down to Red Salmon and creep through all the canneries. You always had to dodge the winter watchman so you didn't get caught. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yes.

LARECE EGLI: We didn't break anything, but it was just, you know -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, it's those guys that break stuff that I -- LARECE EGLI: It's the ones that break stuff, yeah. Yeah, but it was -- it was -- CARVEL ZIMIN: So, ya --

LARECE EGLI: -- a big deal to be able to sneak into the box loft or something, or find that, you know --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We used to play hide-and-go-seek, remember? LARECE EGLI: Where all the wooden box parts were left over from -- CARVEL ZIMIN: It's adventuresome. LARECE EGLI: It is an adventure. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We would play hide-and-go-seek.

LARECE EGLI: And if my mother knew about it, with all those bears under the docks, she would have a cow. So hopefully my mom's not listening to this right now.

CARVEL ZIMIN: I know. We've all been there. LARECE EGLI: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Not supposed to go into the cannery. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, but we did. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: But we did anyway. LARECE EGLI: We did anyway. We did anyway. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah. Well, I have some -- some photos here. Would you like to -- I can put all these on a thumb drive for you. But if you wanna click through any of these, if you see something -- CARVEL ZIMIN: A lot of the -- LARECE EGLI: -- worth talkin' about, tell me what building it is, and we'll talk about it.

CARVEL ZIMIN: That looks like PAF or somewhere else. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah, that's not us. LARECE EGLI: Is that somewhere else? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause look at this, honey. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, that's the tower at the PAF -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's not us.

LARECE EGLI: Ok, so we're looking at the water towers of the PAF in the background, and there's a big warehouse-style building with some 55-gallon drums in front.

And so, this is not -- Yeah, this is record number 434 of the Pacific Northwest Studies collection. So that one is not at NN.

CARVEL ZIMIN: That is at NN. That's the -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That is the -- well, uh -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Foreman shack. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Foreman shack. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

SAM STEWERT: That blue building? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yep. SAM STEWERT: There? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And here's the mess hall over here. LARECE EGLI: Mm. Ok, ok.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 435 is foreman shack. Diamond NN. Yep, Diamond NN. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yep. LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm.

CARVEL ZIMIN: This is the provisions warehouse, that's Bunkhouse 5, Bunkhouse 4, Bunkhouse 3, Bunkhouse 2, Bunkhouse 1. LARECE EGLI: Ok.

CARVEL ZIMIN: And Filipino mess hall. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And the laundry. Look at the laundry. LARECE EGLI: The mess hall --

So, this was taken from up around the ways (Marine ways used to store boats during the winter), right? CARVEL ZIMIN: B -- By the -- LARECE EGLI: Coming down? The boat ways? CARVEL ZIMIN: Chinese -- Yeah, right by the Chinese -- LARECE EGLI: Chinese. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- graveyard. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Hospital. SAM STEWERT: A little to the left? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Hospital.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Here's the hospital, right there. Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Here's the laundry, Sammy.

LARECE EGLI: Is there anything you can tell me -- SAM STEWERT: Well, that's down -- LARECE EGLI: -- about the Chinese bunkhouses? CARVEL ZIMIN: They're not in the picture. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They're not in the picture. CARVEL ZIMIN: The Chinese --

LARECE EGLI: From where this picture is taken, though? CARVEL ZIMIN: No, this is not the Chinese bunkhouses, this is Chinese graveyard. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: This is the mess hall. LARECE EGLI: Ok. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, so the -- the -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They're over here, look. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, they're -- they're actually over to the right -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They're actually right here.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. They're not in the picture. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They're not the picture.

SAM STEWERT: So, it just down the road from the mess hall, right?

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: You know, where the swing is upstairs? The provisions? You walk upstairs and there's that big swing? That's where it is, Sammy.

LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm. Now, the -- the -- Can you tell me why the Filipino mess hall has that name? CARVEL ZIMIN: The Filipino mess hall was the Chinese mess hall before, when they had segregation, to keep most of the people that ate a certain type of food continue on that diet.

And then they had the other mess hall for everybody else that -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They had wonderful food. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mostly Italians. And Sicilians. But, that -- that's what I remember.

The big -- the stories that I used to hear about Chinese mess hall was the great big woks that they used to cook in.

And then, the Filipino mess hall had their own style of food for the Filipinas who were the traditional fish cutters at the time. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Book three tanks, dear (sp). CARVEL ZIMIN: Ok. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: OK.

LARECE EGLI: Did you ever eat at the Filipino mess hall? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. That was -- LARECE EGLI: Yeah? CARVEL ZIMIN: It was always very tasty. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Not me. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm, yeah. That was -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I was getting a pot.

CARVEL ZIMIN: What we were -- When we were so small, we had to bring pots down at 12:30 or 5:30. 12 o'clock was lunchtime, and 5 o'clock was dinnertime, usually, and within a half an hour to 45 minutes after everybody ate and started to leave, there was a lotta leftovers.

So, they were able to give the locals -- instead of throwing it away to the garbage dump, they would give it -- the leftover food away. It was always very hot and very good and very tasty, and always wonderful to have. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Look, no trees.

CARVEL ZIMIN: We were always lookin' forward to gettin' the -- bringin' the pot down and they'd fill it up with all the different food groups, and then we'd take it home.

LARECE EGLI: And so, that would probably happen more than once a day? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, twice a day for me. Shirley, too. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. Yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Mm-hm.

LARECE EGLI: Mm, so -- so -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: There's the lead house. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

There's my grandpa's house. Grandpa Nick built that house, and Grandpa Mary -- Grandma Mary and my dad grew up in that house. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And there's your other one he built. LARECE EGLI: Is that one still there? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. This house is still there.

LARECE EGLI: Ok, we're lookin' at -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: There's your -- LARECE EGLI: It's on the left here in image number 443. And, this -- And this is still taken from -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yes. LARECE EGLI: -- the Chinese -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm. LARECE EGLI: --graveyard location, correct? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: And you said this is the lead house? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: This one is the lead house.

LARECE EGLI: Can you tell me about the lead house? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's where they would make the leads. If you go there now, it's got pieces of lead in there. You know, the little leads. CARVEL ZIMIN: For the -- For nets and stuff. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: For the nets. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: Those are the weights for the fishing nets. So, were they casting them there, and putting them on the ropes? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yep.

LARECE EGLI: Is there any of that casting equipment -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I -- CARVEL ZIMIN: I think all the -- LARECE EGLI: -- or anything hanging around? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I think it's just few pieces of lead. LARECE EGLI: Just few pieces of lead around, huh? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. LARECE EGLI: Hm.

CARVEL ZIMIN: They'd have their own blacksmith shop and all that kinda stuff, too. You'll probably see it in the pictures.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Look at the house we lived in. LARECE EGLI: What color were these -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Gray. LARECE EGLI: -- do you remember? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's gray. LARECE EGLI: This was -- This is -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's gray. CARVEL ZIMIN: Gray with a red roof.

LARECE EGLI: So, all the bunkhouses and things -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Gray. LARECE EGLI: -- when you guys were growing up were gray? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Gray. CARVEL ZIMIN: Gray with red roof. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

LARECE EGLI: Gray with red roofs. Ok. That's part of what we're gonna try to recreate in this model, is some of the paint colors, so -- There's another. Yeah, the color's not -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yep, that's -- LARECE EGLI: -- much brush.

That's still our provisions warehouse? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yep. Mess hall. LARECE EGLI: Mess hall. Filipino mess hall. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Number four. LARECE EGLI: Uh-huh. That must be --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: What is that? LARECE EGLI: It's down on the -- not the carpenter shop is behind it. This is --

CARVEL ZIMIN: This is the pig pen. LARECE EGLI: Is that the pig pen? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. The -- Look, from the pig pen lookin' down the aisle to -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh, yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- provisions warehouses. LARECE EGLI: Mm. CARVEL ZIMIN: That --

LARECE EGLI: Now, pig pen reminds me. Can you tell me anything about animals at the cannery? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I don't remember any.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, pig pen was nicknamed that because that's where they kept a lotta the old, discarded machinery. So, it had nothing to do with animals. So.

They -- But they did have a -- animals, livestock that they brought up in the springtime that were slaughtered and -- and cooked on camp in the mess halls. But that had nothin' to do with the pig pen. LARECE EGLI: Mm.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Pig pen was just a place where they had a junkyard for discarded equipment. LARECE EGLI: Old metal pieces.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: But, you know, there's -- there's no mess hall. There's their freezer. CARVEL ZIMIN: You just can't see it well. It's there.

LARECE EGLI: But, I know -- You -- You've told me you have a -- a hutch made out of turkey boxes? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Well, live turkeys -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh, Grandma -- Grandma Mary's.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Live turkeys were brought in, also, as part of this. It -- And, those turkey boxes kept live turkeys, and then they were slaughtered there, and then cooked, so.

Some of the boxes were reused again, if you will. For -- Because there wasn't a whole lot of lumber stored around, people that -- whenever they discarded anything back -- back in that day was -- lotta the wood was reused. Or -- in this case, it was reused for a hutch.

LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm. And that -- that's partly because there's not a lot of large trees and things like that in our area, so -- CARVEL ZIMIN: There's no trees that you can harvest for anything of use. Everything had to be brought in in the springtime.

LARECE EGLI: Can you talk about any of the -- the other boxes that people reuse all the time? CARVEL ZIMIN: They do a lot of -- lotta the salmon boxes were reused. Kerosene boxes for sleds.

Gosh, just about anything that you brought up, if it was made out of wood - and a lot of it was made out of wood - was repurposed for different things.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I took a picture of the one at Savonoski Church. It was made out of some box. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Thought, "Wow, that's pretty cool."

CARVEL ZIMIN: Some people build houses out of it. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It -- It's something soda on it.

LARECE EGLI: I have seen pictures in -- that John Branson has used in his presentations. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: John Bran -- LARECE EGLI: -- Cuttin' old gas cans into -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: John Branson and I are -- LARECE EGLI: -- just shingling a whole roof with gas cans, and -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- We compare notes all the time.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah, he's -- I could see you guys havin' a great conversation. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah. And it -- it's -- it's -- you can -- you can see that when you walk through the bunkhouses, all of the makeshift furniture and things like that, that cannery workers have been making and using over the years. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: The stools. LARECE EGLI: The stools. Yes. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Or spools, I mean.

LARECE EGLI: Spools. But they double as a nightstand, they're furniture. But really, they -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Boxes.

LARECE EGLI: Boxes turned on end, and fastened to the wall in different ways. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-mm. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm. LARECE EGLI: Yeah, it's pretty creative -- creative way to get comfortable.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Well, that's the ways there. LARECE EGLI: So the ways are located on the backside of the cannery -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Look at that Chinese graveyard. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yep. LARECE EGLI: Oh, wow.

And -- The -- The -- That fence is no longer there, is it? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-mm. LARECE EGLI: We're lookin' at -- SAM STEWERT: It's that big wood -- CARVEL ZIMIN: It's there, but it's -- LARECE EGLI: -- photo number 460. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- in the trees. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's overgrown with bushes. LARECE EGLI: Oh. SAM STEWERT: It's these big pile of wood going -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. SAM STEWERT: Yeah.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I think your grandpa has a picture of that boat. CARVEL ZIMIN: Chicken coop. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's the chicken coop.

LARECE EGLI: Ok, so this is right next to the White House, correct? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yep. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

LARECE EGLI: So, here's a goofy question. Were there actually chickens in the chicken coop? CARVEL ZIMIN: I imagine so. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I don't know. We probably -- I don't know, yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: I imagine so. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Probably. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. That's probably where it came from. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Just the way it's built inside.

CARVEL ZIMIN: That's what they called it, is the chicken coop. Then they turned it into housing. So -- (inaudible).

LARECE EGLI: So who -- who -- do you remembering staying in there? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We'll ask your mom. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: So we have to ask Annie? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: She would -- She's -- LARECE EGLI: She'd know. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- She's in -- She's an -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- You need to interview her.

LARECE EGLI: Ok. Yeah. We'll -- You know, I'm gonna write her down. We can do that this next year.

CARVEL ZIMIN: That's the house we live in now. It's the winter house. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh my gosh, that's the garage. LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm.

CARVEL ZIMIN: And this is the garage that Shirley has all her stuff in. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's two door --

CARVEL ZIMIN: This is the big Cat garage. LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh, my gosh. CARVEL ZIMIN: Look at all the mud. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: There's that thing we -- CARVEL ZIMIN: There's a Cat right there (inaudible). SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- you repaired that.

LARECE EGLI: Ok, so this is image number 468. So this must have been taken sometime in the spring, right? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. LARECE EGLI: There's no grass, and that is a muddy disaster.

LIAM STEWERT: This house right here, it used to be their old garage, but it got broken down, then they started using this one.

LARECE EGLI: So this one is -- the one on the -- the building on the left that we can just see the edge of is no longer there? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's there. CARVEL ZIMIN: No, it's there. LIAM STEWERT: Uh, it's still -- SAM STEWERT: It's up. LIAM STEWERT: It's still there, but it's just -- the front of it broke down. CARVEL ZIMIN: It's all fall down.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Look at -- Your bedroom. LIAM STEWERT: Yeah, and that's where my bedroom is, right there. It used to be -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Grandpa Junior's. LIAM STEWERT: -- Grand -- Grandpa Junior's. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. LIAM STEWERT: Yeah, it used to be his room. And on -- on the door it says "Danger" to keep the girls out. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yes. Yeah. LARECE EGLI: Oh, that's funny.

LIAM STEWERT: And it's actually still on the door. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yep. That's cool. I like the doors. LARECE EGLI: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh, my gosh.

LARECE EGLI: Is that right next to the house? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's my greeenhouse. LARECE EGLI: Is that your greenhouse? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's my greenhouse. CARVEL ZIMIN: That's the crow's nest. LARECE EGLI: Mm, ok. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's my greenhouse. He moved it there.

LARECE EGLI: So, tell me about the crow's nest. CARVEL ZIMIN: That's a place where they kept a lotta this -- like, the head of the m -- port shop, and the carpenter boss and that kinda -- the head supervisory people would stay there.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Look at the laundry clothesline. Here's the laundry. I remember those clotheslines. Lotta wool blankets on there. Wow, they moved it.

LARECE EGLI: So, this is num -- photo number 472. So, this had to have been personal clothing, because the laundry would've been usin' the big dryers -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: -- right? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. Plus -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Well -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Plus, they -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- no, of the laundry also used the -- that -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- they -- we -- we wa -- LARECE EGLI: Did they? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays, Thurs -- We all had our sheet-changing day, and then Sunday we'd wash to -- super -- sup -- you know, Gary Johnson's or we'd wash this person's and we always -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- personally washed our clothes.

CARVEL ZIMIN: They -- They used both dryers and clotheslines. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: Depending on what -- I mean, not for the whole crew. I imagine just for side jobs and stuff.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause Sunday would be the White House, and then Mondays would be number 5, and Tuesday would be number 3, and -- Every day was a thing for each bunkhouse.

LARECE EGLI: So, cannery workers would bundle up all of their linens, and they'd come drop it off, right? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yep. CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah, I remember when I worked for Sue Asblen (sp?) down by Pederson Point, watchin' her kids down at the cabin, we'd take our -- our laundry every week to the cannery.

And I just remember these big bags, with the huge safety pins -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yep, mm-hm. LARECE EGLI: -- going through, and -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They do. Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah. You didn't take anything that was at risk of shrinking, 'cause I -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: -- think they washed it at about a thousand degrees. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Steam. LARECE EGLI: Steam. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They used steam.

SAM STEWERT SR: I remember seeing some of the fishermen use those clotheslines as antennas so they can listen to their radios in their country, like Croatia and stuff like that.

LARECE EGLI: Come, come come. Come -- You're in the hot seat. LARECE EGLI: Ok, we've got a joiner. Family reunion is beginning. Can you introduce yourself for us? SAM STEWERT SR: Sam. LARECE EGLI: Sam Stewert? SAM STEWERT SR.: That's me.

LARECE EGLI: Ok, tell us about the antennas. SAM STEWERT SR.: Oh, they would use those clotheslines. They were made outta wire, and so they'd clip these little radios - these handheld radios that they had - so they can listen to their local stations, like over in Croatia and Europe and stuff. It's pretty neat to see. LARECE EGLI: Wow.

SAM STEWERT SR.: I'd go there and, "What're you guys doin'?" 'Cause they're just sittin' in the grass, you know?

LARECE EGLI: How old were you -- when -- when do you think this happened? SAM STEWERT SR.: I was probably 13 or 14. LARECE EGLI: 13 or 14, so that woulda been in the '90s?

SAM STEWERT SR.: About '93, '94. LARECE EGLI: '93, '94. SAM STEWERT SR.: Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: Wow. Were you working there? SAM STEWERT SR.: Under the table. For Gary Johnson. LARECE EGLI: Since you guys all started working -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: -- when you were seven years old, unofficially. SAM STEWERT SR.: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: Who approved this? Wow. Wow.

So -- But on the radio communications, I think we do need to talk about that part of the -- part of the house. You guys have the radio room.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, one part of our house was actually the wireless room, they called it. And, that's where they had a professional electrician -- electronics person, and he would monitor all the radios and the transaction between the canneries and the tenders, and the transactions between our cannery and a different cannery, say in a different area.

So, he -- he did a lotta the radio. That's why they called him a radio man. He'd work on the radios. He knew how to plug in different devices in the radios and fix 'em and stuff, so -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: He had a cool radio room.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Mm-hm. He'd have all of his wares, too. He'd have shelves and shelves of diodes and crystals and all kinds of that -- whatever they used back then. And he'd be able to repair just about anything.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah, 'cause for some of these long-distance communications, that would have to be an old shortwave -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Shortwave, yep. LARECE EGLI: -- radio. CARVEL ZIMIN: Ham -- Ham radio, all kinds of stuff. LARECE EGLI: Hm-mm. Hm-mm.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause nowadays, the watchman works -- answers the radios at night and you answer 'em during the day. SAM STEWERT SR.: Yep. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: See, they're still on the radio.

LARECE EGLI: Well, and just us living in our rural village, I mean, cell phones have changed everything, but, I mean, radios were it.

I mean, did you have a call sign on the radio? SAM STEWERT SR.: I did not. LARECE EGLI: You didn't? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Junior did. LARECE EGLI: Junior, you did. Well, I guess my dad's a pilot, so I got -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

LARECE EGLI: I had a call sign from the time I was little, so, you know. 'Cause we had radios all over the place. But it was important wa -- way of communicating.

SAM STEWERT SR.: I think it still is. Cell phones aren't totally reliable out there yet. LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm. Mm-hm. (pause)

Is that just another view of the -- CARVEL ZIMIN: That's between the bunkhouse 3 and 2. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's the bed frame. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's falling over.

CARVEL ZIMIN: But, they -- they did it for some -- I don't know what it was before. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They moved it. CARVEL ZIMIN: No, it fell down. It blew apart.

LARECE EGLI: Ok, so this one's kinda just in skeletal -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh, where Martin and Laurie lived. LARECE EGLI: -- remains? CARVEL ZIMIN: I don't know if they did. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Martin and Laurie lived in there when they first -- LARECE EGLI: So, we're lookin' at photo number -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: There's number two bunkhouse, right here. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: Ok. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Number four.

LARECE EGLI: We're lookin' at image number 476, so this little shack that we see here is not really standing anymore? CARVEL ZIMIN: Nope. It blew acr -- apart in the wind.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: There's the provisions, right there. LARECE EGLI: Ok, ok. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They're a good trail goin' down. (pause)

My greenhouse. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yep. LARECE EGLI: Greenhouse again. We're looking at image number -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It still looks like that. LARECE EGLI: 480. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Wow, I wish the wall looked like that.

And, you know, our yard -- our driveway boards are comin' up. Like, planks. So, it had to be a boardwalk right in front of the garage.

LARECE EGLI: Oh, in front of the garage at your house, so that the -- it's kinda -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: There's a big board right -- LARECE EGLI: There's dirt over it now, but there used to be a boardwalk?

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Looks like there's a board comin' up, this long. I told you you're gonna need to move it, it's gonna pop up. (pause)

Wow, that's the second garage. LARECE EGLI: Second garage? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Theres's the hotel. Look, no trees. LARECE EGLI: Mm-mm. This is in -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: No trespassing. LARECE EGLI: -- image number 484.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's the -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Store. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- store. LARECE EGLI: Store. Ok, so -- so right here, from the bottom left -- 'cause this is the backside --

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, is it though? LARECE EGLI: Right? Is it? Or is this the front side? CARVEL ZIMIN: I'm not -- It might be a different building. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: No, that's the hill. CARVEL ZIMIN: I don't recognize -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Here's -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- this fence there. No, it still is. That's the store.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Because here's goin' down and here's -- CARVEL ZIMIN: There -- There -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- here's -- CARVEL ZIMIN: There musta been a different thing before they made it a store.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Junior, here's the married quarters. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, it is. And there's the front of the dock down there, and the hotel would be right up here.

SAM STEWERT SR.: Yeah, and that addition where the door is is not there, right there. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, that might've been a warehouse for some other reason -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Then they may converted it. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- (inaudible). Yeah.

LARECE EGLI: Ok, so we're lookin' at image number 488. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Rec hall. LARECE EGLI: Rec hall. When did it become used for the rec hall? Upstairs? CARVEL ZIMIN: After the store closed -- LARECE EGLI: After the store closed. CARVEL ZIMIN: And Gary Johnson probably was part of that --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Then they made a little -- CARVEL ZIMIN: After the store closed they could -- the company store during the wintertime, they -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They -- The little company store back here, remember? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And then we'd have to walk through.

LARECE EGLI: So, the store got smaller? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, it got smaller, and then it went away. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

LARECE EGLI: What do you think drove -- What -- What drove that store becoming smaller? CARVEL ZIMIN: I don't know. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I don't know. CARVEL ZIMIN: Just the changin' times.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Then they completely -- No more store. LARECE EGLI: Sears catalog? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Probably. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: I mean, more people shopped at Naknek Trading then yard or somethin'.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah. So, resources probably became available in another way. So, that conveyor belt runs from this back, left corner -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yep. Upstairs. LARECE EGLI: -- up, and that's where you'd bring your boxes of heavy peaches and things up?

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: The winch house. That's still standing. LARECE EGLI: Ok, so this is the winch house that would've housed the winch for the boat ways. CARVEL ZIMIN: To pull -- To pull the boats out. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Right by the stockroom. Down.

LARECE EGLI: M'kay, so this is image number 496. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Still standing. LARECE EGLI: What color -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Red. LARECE EGLI: It was red. Just a standard -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Diamond -- They call it -- LARECE EGLI: -- APA -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They call it Diamond O red. CARVEL ZIMIN: No, 'APA red'. LARECE EGLI: APA red. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: APA red, yeah. LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: There's a ways. We have Grandpa Nick's pictures, and he has that. I have pictures of him workin' on this ways. CARVEL ZIMIN: Those are tugboats. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm.

LARECE EGLI: So, this was part of your job with spring/fall crew? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Not this one. LARECE EGLI: No? Was to pull those boats? No? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: I --

CARVEL ZIMIN: No, it was the same thing at Diamond O. We did barges and tenders. The --

This set of ways was at NN Cannery, and they pulled up tugboats and flat scows. Pretty much the same thing, just different era.

LARECE EGLI: Ok. So, this wasn't in use during your -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-mm. CARVEL ZIMIN: No, this was -- This had fallen in, and -- LARECE EGLI: Pre-dates. CARVEL ZIMIN: nobody -- nobody used it. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Not even your dad's time, I don't think. CARVEL ZIMIN: No. Huh-uh.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Grandpa Nick's time. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, Grandpa Nick's time. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause I have Grandpa Nick with that boat. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yup.

LARECE EGLI: So, that had to been some pretty old technology that was powering that winch -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 1930. 'Cause Grandpa Nick's pictures --

CARVEL ZIMIN: The technology to run the steam winch had changed over the years. It started out as crude oil burners. Bunker-C.

And that -- that drove a steam tank that provided steam to a -- like a -- a -- a railroad engine. Like, where you had two pistons go "Choo, choo, choo, choo."

And that's what drove the winch to pull the cable, and then on top the cable was a cradle, and these boats would sit on the cradle, and they'd get hauled outta the --

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: You can see two cables. CARVEL ZIMIN: There's four -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Or three. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- actually four parts. One, two three, four. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah.

CARVEL ZIMIN: So, it'd be tack -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh yeah, four. CARVEL ZIMIN: -- block and tackle-type through cables so you can get more pull.

LARECE EGLI: Ok, and this is image number 500. CARVEL ZIMIN: Bunkhouse five. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Wow, look good. They're building right here. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah they're probably buildin' somethin' there. LARECE EGLI: Yep, because the f --

CARVEL ZIMIN: Provisions not there yet. LARECE EGLI: Provisions isn't -- Yeah, this is all open. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah.

CARVEL ZIMIN: There's the ice house. LARECE EGLI: Is that -- That's not there anymore, is it? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's still there. CARVEL ZIMIN: It's still there. LARECE EGLI: Is it?

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's still -- It's ready to fall over. CARVEL ZIMIN: It's ready to fall, yeah. LARECE EGLI: Oh, ok.

CARVEL ZIMIN: But it was an insulated house that -- one of the jobs my Grandpa Nick had was -- as a winter watchman -- and, might even be him. But that's kinda -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: No.

CARVEL ZIMIN: That's kinda the job that they had, was they -- they had a -- a man-made pond that would hold water, and then they would cut ice chunks outta that durin' the winter.

And then they'd haul it into the ice house before spring, fill this all the way up to the top, and it was insulated so it would last all summer. And that was your refrigeration for the summer.

LARECE EGLI: Ok, so we're lookin' at image number 504. So, behind where the current provisions warehouse was, there was a pond? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Nope. LARECE EGLI: And -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Yes. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It was kinda in the back.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yes, it was a man-made pond. It was a dam, they called it. LARECE EGLI: In -- On -- But a dam of what? CARVEL ZIMIN: Water. And --

LARECE EGLI: Of water of the little creek that comes through? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, 'cause there's a little creek that comes through -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: 'Cause there's a creek over here, and then they made it over here.

LARECE EGLI: Can you tell us the name of the creek? CARVEL ZIMIN: Alaska Packers Creek.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah, that's what I remember, is Packers Creek, right? CARVEL ZIMIN: Hm-mm. LARECE EGLI: That's what everybody pretty much calls it.

So -- So, they -- they'd take that froz -- cut those frozen ice chunks out, and carry 'em over and put 'em in -- CARVEL ZIMIN: And stack 'em in the Ice House. LARECE EGLI: In that little ice house.

And this is conveniently located to the mess hall. You're -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, so the ice -- LARECE EGLI: You're pretty much just right there. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, you brought -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's -- It's -- CARVEL ZIMIN: -- the ice in, Ice House, and then you just brought -- went on over to the mess hall, so. LARECE EGLI: Just a quick jaunt over. Wow, do --

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, mess hall, but other buildings. You know, the -- the White House had -- there was -- Whaddya call those refrigeration house? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: They do, it's still there. CARVEL ZIMIN: It -- It's the old refri -- LARECE EGLI: The old ice box, kinda. CARVEL ZIMIN: Ice box. They called 'em ice boxes. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: It's still there.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Well, they'd take chunks of ice outta there and put 'em in the ice box in the winter house -- Or, I mean, the White House so that they'd have refrigeration. They could store food in there. Keep it chilled.

LARECE EGLI: So all this ice woulda had to been gathered early enough in the year? CARVEL ZIMIN: Oh yeah. It -- It was a -- a big job to be able to do all that. And they usually had three wintermen to each plant. My grandpa was one of three different wintermen that lived there.

One in the house that we're at, the house that Grandpa was in, and then the -- the one up on top where Brad lives in now. Was a -- a winterhouse also.

So, they -- I mean, they had three different families that had to live there, because they had so many different things to do during the winter, before everybody came up in the spring.

LARECE EGLI: Before we could all just hit switches and have everything just be powered and function, it took three families to keep this place going? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. LARECE EGLI: Wow. CARVEL ZIMIN: It was all year long. LARECE EGLI: Wow.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Sam, your bunkhouse. LARECE EGLI: Oh, I forgot to zoom in. We should make sure on our image number 504, it -- can you -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Oh, we don't know those guys. LARECE EGLI: Ok. I thought you said you might have recognized one. CARVEL ZIMIN: He had a hat like that. Yep.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And those are from the store. LARECE EGLI: Ok. CARVEL ZIMIN: Italians used 'em a lot. Bunkhouse 2.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That looks like a Native. That guy in the white hat looks Native.

Wow, look at the boardwalk. LARECE EGLI: I know, it's so straight.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And look at the piping, all on top. LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm.

So this is image number 508. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Number four. CARVEL ZIMIN: Bunkhouse. LARECE EGLI: Bunkhouse number four. CARVEL ZIMIN: Four. LARECE EGLI: From the back side.

CARVEL ZIMIN: That was a paint locker. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. CARVEL ZIMIN: Stored a lotta paint in there. Probably for working on the ways and the different bil -- barges that they had to paint. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah, and the mess hall. CARVEL ZIMIN: Right behind the paint --

LARECE EGLI: Yeah, this is right behind the mess hall, and Packers Creek is kinda running -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Packers Creeks runs under here. LARECE EGLI: Underneath the -- CARVEL ZIMIN: This is the paint locker, this is also the Chinese bunkhouses. LARECE EGLI: Bunkhouses. Look, there's no brush, you can see 'em.

Ok, we're looking at image number 512. And they look like they're -- the Chinese bunkhouses are pretty intact and standin' up straight here. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yep. LARECE EGLI: There they are. CARVEL ZIMIN: There's Chinese bunkhouses. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Wow. Fancy.

LARECE EGLI: Yeah, they still have color on 'em. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Maybe the fire thing. Mm-hm.

LARECE EGLI: And these -- They -- Do you think they were just being used as storage at -- in this point? CARVEL ZIMIN: No. They were probably bunkhouses (inaudible) SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh, look -- this one has steps. LARECE EGLI: Probably bunkhouses. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: -- this one has steps. LARECE EGLI: Were they utilized as bunkhouses at all when you guys -- CARVEL ZIMIN: No. LARECE EGLI: -- were kids? No. CARVEL ZIMIN: Didn't have Chinese people there. LARECE EGLI: No, but nobody -- nobody was -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: No.

LARECE EGLI: They were just probably storing nuts and bolts and things like that in 'em at that point? SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Yeah. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah. Yeah, when we were there. But that image there is probably being used as a bunkhouse. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Old. Mm-hm. Bunkhouse. LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Same thing. Chinese bunkhouse. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Look at all that wood. LARECE EGLI: Mm-hm. Back when they were maintaining 'em, huh?

CARVEL ZIMIN: That's the blacksmith shop. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Oh yeah, the blacksmith shop. CARVEL ZIMIN: They had a blacksmith that was able to make any -- anything, really. From iron.

LARECE EGLI: Ok, so this is image number 524. So, they would've been fabricating their own tools and parts? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yep. Parts. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's why they had that big stove thing in there.

CARVEL ZIMIN: Yeah, there was a big furnace in there. Heat. Probably wood fired. Or coal fired. Lumps of coal, I think, is what I remember.

LARECE EGLI: And all of that coal would be -- CARVEL ZIMIN: Would heat up whatever you had to -- to make molten iron. He had forms and different things. You had to make lead -- you could make bearings for some of the machinery in there. (pause)

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Provisions. LARECE EGLI: Now, provisions warehouse, right now, looks like a fisherman's net loft. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. CARVEL ZIMIN: Up on top, the fishermen had lockers up there.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: That's probably where they kept all the salt barrels that came off the boats. CARVEL ZIMIN: I don't know. I think the people are startin' to show up here. LARECE EGLI: Ok. CARVEL ZIMIN: So.

LARECE EGLI: Well, we can -- CARVEL ZIMIN: We can continue some other time if you want. LARECE EGLI: We can.

SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Send me this, and I'll write 'em down. LARECE EGLI: Well, I was gonna give you this whole thing -- SHIRLEY ZIMIN: No, we'll ta -- LARECE EGLI: -- on a thumb drive. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And we'll look at 'em. LARECE EGLI: Do you want it? CARVEL ZIMIN: Yes. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: We'll mark 'em. LARECE EGLI: And then you guys can make notes, and you can do it at your own leisure. CARVEL ZIMIN: Yes. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: And I'll send it to you. LARECE EGLI: Ok. Amazing. Thank you. SHIRLEY ZIMIN: Mm-hm. CARVEL ZIMIN: This was a lot --