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Samuel Elmore Cannery
Astoria, OR
Designated an NHL: November 13, 1966
Designation withdrawn: October 12, 1993
Built in the late nineteenth century and expanded during the twentieth century, the Samuel Elmore Cannery became the center of salmon canning for Oregon and much of the Pacific Northwest. This industry was a cornerstone of the Northwest's resource-based economy from the late 1860s until after World War II.
William Hume started the first salmon cannery in the United States in 1864 on the Sacramento River. When gold mining waste from upriver led to a decrease in the salmon run, Hume and his brothers moved their business to the Columbia River. In 1866 the Humes built the first cannery on the Columbia at Eagle Cliff, Washington; twelve canneries were in business between Astoria and Portland by 1874. In 1875, New York native Samuel Elmore became an agent for R.D. Hume in San Francisco. In this capacity, he marketed canned salmon to Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, the Far East and England. Elmore partnered with Joseph Hume in an Astoria cannery in 1878, and three years later bought out Hume and built his own cannery. By 1881, thirty-five canneries were in operation on the Columbia River, and the size of the salmon canning industry was surpassed only by wheat agriculture in the Pacific Northwest. Salmon were so abundant in the early years of the industry, canneries were not able to pack the number that were caught.
The salmon catch on the Columbia River peaked early in the history of Columbia River canning, however. In 1883, fifty-five canneries on the Columbia packed 630,000 cases of Chinook salmon, comprising two-thirds of the entire Pacific Coast production. The number of salmon from the Columbia gradually declined in subsequent years. This decline was a great concern for the Astoria cannery owners, and some opened canneries in Alaska to ensure their production. The first cannery was established in Alaska in 1878 to take advantage of the large population of ocean sockeye salmon. Many of the Astoria cannery owners, including Samuel Elmore, owned one or more Alaska canneries in addition to their Astoria holdings. Within ten years the Alaska salmon pack surpassed that of the Columbia River, but the quality of the product was not as high. The decline in Chinook salmon led Columbia River canneries to pack sockeye salmon which was finally able to find market acceptance. In 1891, the production of canned salmon was greater than demand, prompting many of the Alaska canneries to join as the loosely organized Alaska Packers Association, an organization that set a maximum production limit for the canneries. This approach succeeded in limiting production; Samuel Elmore and George Hume were two of the founders and directors of the association.
The Columbia River Fishermen's Protective Union went on strike in 1896 to demand higher prices for their fish, in light of the diminishing Chinook runs on the Columbia. The cannery owners were ineffective in their efforts to deal with the union as a united front and the fishermen were given a slight increase in their take. The outcome of this strike made the large Astoria cannery owners inclined to form a cooperative agreement amongst themselves. In 1899, the Columbia River Packers Association was incorporated; it was comprised of seven canning companies with ten canneries along the Columbia River and a large plant at Bristol Bay, Alaska. Samuel Elmore was the organization's vice president and was a major force in bringing the cannery owners to the agreement. Particularly notable about this new venture was that each participating owner was either bought out or given stock equal to the value of their cannery and their land. The company then centralized operations, using the Elmore plant as the main cannery and using the other cannery locations for uses such as office space and cold storage.
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Elmore constructed his first cannery on the site in 1886; this building was later used for storage and also as a Sunday school for the West Astoria Methodist Episcopal church until it was destroyed by fire in 1931. In 1898 Elmore advertised in the local paper, the Daily Morning Astorian, for contractors to build a wharf and new cannery building. The contract went to John Antone Fastabend, who also built canneries for Elmore at Rooster Rock and Garibaldi. The cannery was constructed in stages, covering four acres by 1954.
While the declaration of a national "Canned Salmon Day" in 1914 indicates the importance of this product to the American diet, salmon canning became a progressively shorter season on the Columbia River due to the continuing decline of the salmon runs. In order to increase the number of working days at canneries, owners tried canning a variety of other products. In the early years of salmon packing, Columbia River canneries had tried to can Oregon beef but the product was not successful. Over the years, crab and shrimp were also canned, but it was with the albacore and its kin, tuna, that a year-round fish supply was found. In 1937 large schools of albacore were found off the coast of Oregon, and the Columbia River Packers Association did a small canning of the fish. With initial market acceptance, the Columbia River Packers Association constructed a major addition to the salmon cannery in 1938-1939 to handle the new product. Tuna was so successful on the market that another addition was added to the Elmore plant at the end of 1939. The fact that tuna could be frozen before canning ensured a steady supply of fish for processing in the salmon off-season and created year-round processing at the Elmore plant. Tuna production quickly surpassed salmon both in terms of quantity and market recognition. Both products were canned with the ‘Bumble Bee' label which is now more popularly identified with tuna.
The Samuel Elmore Cannery was designated as a National Historic Landmark on November 13, 1966. It was deemed nationally significant as the longest continuously-operated salmon cannery in the United States. The Elmore Cannery was listed in the annual report to Congress concerning threatened Landmarks every year starting in 1977. When the cannery closed in 1980 due to the centralization of company facilities, the owner and the City of Astoria sought to find a new use for the complex and encourage its preservation. The cannery was in a very deteriorated condition, however; in 1990 the northwest corner of the building and its support pilings collapsed. The lack of any adaptive use for the cannery and the high costs of rehabilitation spelled the end of the cannery. In 1991, the City of Astoria approved demolition, but required that Historic American Engineering Record documentation be prepared.
As the owner proceeded to dismantle the cannery as part of demolition, it was destroyed by fire on January 26, 1993. The Landmark designation of the Samuel Elmore Cannery was withdrawn on August 11, 1993 and the property was removed from the National Register of Historic Places.
Last updated: August 29, 2018