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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2020)
B1 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2020 CONTACT US FOLLOW US Alyssa Evans aevans@dailyastorian.com facebook.com/ DailyAstorian A living link to the past Josephson is a connection to Astoria’s fi shing industry By JENNIFER NIGHTINGALE Mike Josephson’s great grandfather, Jacob Baker, in 1894 in Astoria at Kinney’s net rack. Jennifer Nightingale Mike Josephson is the owner of Josephson’s Smokehouse. T his year, Josephson’s Smokehouse celebrates its 100th year of smok- ing fi sh. S tore owner Mike Joseph- son is the fourth generation of his family to lead the store. Throughout the smokehouse’s duration, Josephson and his family have adapted through changing times and condi- tions to continue the family’s tradition of welcoming visi- tors into the historic shop. 5th and 6th Street on the Asto- ria waterfront. Now, all that is left of the cannery is the build- ing where the smokehouse stands. Only the boiler, pil- ings and ballast rocks remain. For 30 years, the Joseph- son building housed the head offi ces of the Columbia River Fishermen’s Protective Union. The union, organized in 1875, was considered by many the heart and soul of Astoria. Members pushed for higher prices for fi sh, and worked to improve safety, navigation and salmon conservation. Humble beginnings The business grows Josephson’s great grandfa- ther, Jacob Baker, fi shed in the l ower Columbia River during the 1870s. In the 1880s, one- fi fth of Astorians were fi shers, according to the U.S. Census. At the time, there were over 39 canneries along the lower Columbia River. In 1883, Astoria was called the fi shing capital of the world. More than 630,000 cases of salmon were packed that year, the equivalent of 43 million pounds. The building that houses the smokehouse was built in 1898 as part of the Marshall J. Kinney Cannery, which at the time was the largest fi sh can- nery in the world. Kinney’s cannery was located between The union faced signif- icant environmental chal- lenges in the 20th century, with upstream dams, irriga- tion gates and toxic industrial discharge. In the 1930s, the union initiated the fi rst signif- icant legal action against pol- luters on the river. In 1938, Anton Josephson purchased the building and moved his smoked salmon business into what is now the smokehouse. Mike’s father, Cecil, fi shed for 43 years in the s almon g ill- net fi shery. In 1955, he began buying salmon in small quan- tities from fi shermen that he knew from his many years of commercial fi shing. See Josephson, Page B2
