Label from early Blaine cannery to appear on new harbor building

Blaine, home to the first salmon cannery in Whatcom County, has a rich canning history. The first cannery at Semiahmoo opened in 1881, and by 1909 at least five canneries were processing and packing salmon at Semiahmoo and in present day Blaine.

The Port of Bellingham will soon recognize that history with artwork on its newest building in Blaine. The port plans to install a replica of a can label from Blaine’s original cannery on the storage building that’s under construction near Milhollin Drive. The replica will be approximately six-feet by 15-feet and painted on aluminum, said Blaine harbormaster Andy Peterson.

The label, from a can of Fraser River salmon canned by Martin & Tarte, was placed on cans sometime between 1881 and 1884, said Richard Sturgill, founding director of Drayton Harbor Maritime, a local maritime history group. John Martin and James Tarte opened the Martin & Tarte cannery in 1881.

“It’s just going to be kind of an iconic label that marks the beginning of the fishing industry here,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a nice visual reminder of our maritime heritage in the harbor.”

Martin & Tarte sold the cannery a few years later, and the cannery at that location eventually became part of the Alaska Packers Association, which operated for nearly 80 years at the site of present-day Semiahmoo Resort.

The mural will be installed in early November once the building is complete, Peterson said. The 20,600-square-foot, $3.4 million weblocker building is a storage facility to replace a similar building near Jorgenson Pier, in the industrial part of Blaine Harbor.

The mural will be on the building’s east end and should be visible from the plazas in downtown Blaine.

“Our goal is that not only does this connect Blaine Harbor with its history but it will be a point of interest to people in downtown Blaine, drawing them down into the harbor and exposing their curiosity into the history of Blaine Harbor,” Peterson told the Port of Bellingham commission at its September 17 meeting.

Commissioner Bobby Briscoe suggested including some information about the can label on a sign or plaque near the building, and commissioners expressed interest in adding more historic fish can labels to the building in the future.