Funter Bay History: 1965 Aerial Photos

Recently I was browsing through the USGS Earth Explorer website, looking for historic aerials for another project I’m working on. I came across a set of 1965 aerial photos of Funter Bay that I don’t think I’ve seen before.

The photos run in a series of 4, going approximately North to South over the West side of the bay. They clearly show the Thlinket Packing Co cannery (owned by Peter Pan Seafoods at the time).

These are pretty high-resolution photos, I’m only able to post snippets here since the full size images are huge! Other areas of detail include several homes and cabins, like Harold and Mary Hargrave’s place:

You can also see the “neighborhood” where I grew up, Crab Cove. This was before most of the modern houses and cabins were built, some of the structures seen here were later torn down or incorporated into larger buildings. My family’s house would be near the top middle, between the creek and the railroad-like marine slipway

These photos were taken on July 8th, 1965, during the fishing season. The time may have been later in the evening, as you can see several salmon trollers anchored or reversing to anchor:

You can also see various ruins and abandoned relics around the bay, such as the old Keeler Cabin (upper middle):

The wreck of the Nimrod:

And another wreck, likely one of the cannery tender vessels, next to some abandoned fish trap frames:

The original images are far too large for my website, at ~250mb each. You can find them on https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ with the following steps:

– Scroll to Funter Bay (or other area of interest). Make sure the area you want to search is centered in the website, as seen below, and click “Use Map”:

Next click “Data Sets”:

Then expand the “Aerial Imagery” section, select “Aerial Photo Single Frames”, and click “Results”:

You should now see a bunch of aerial photos of your selected area. For Funter Bay there are at least 6 pages to scroll through, and some of them are mis-matched photos from different areas.

Since it’s a government site it’s not very user-friendly, but it does have a lot of neat content. They are apparently still adding photos and data as archives are scanned, so it’s worth checking back every few years to see if anything is new!

Funter Bay History: Aircraft Mishaps

While Southeast Alaskan aviation is generally safe and efficient, the sheer number of planes in the area means there are the occasional accidents. Local preference for paint schemes on aircraft runs towards bright colors “so the search party can find it”. (Bright bottom paint is also popular on boats, so you can be found in case you wind up capsized).

Here is a crashed plane that I visited when I was 5 (I’m in the little blue suit!) The damage looks severe, but everyone walked away. This is a Cessna 206 which was bringing a party of hunters back to Juneau, the pieces were later pulled out by a helicopter.

Below are a few more aircraft incidents from the Funter Bay area that I was able to compile from public data:

10/4/1979: An aircraft was reported “spiraling down” in the vicinity of Funter Bay, spotted by the fishing vessel Carol Ann. The Coast Guard and State Police located the crash and recovered three bodies. (Daily Sitka Sentinel)

4/29/1985: Piper 32-300 belonging to LAB became trapped between two snow showers, made emergency landing in Funter Pass. Plane damaged but no injuries: http://aircrashed.com/accident/SEA85LA099.shtml

10/29/1985: Amphibious Cessna 206 crashed at Funter Bay. Wheels failed to retract and plane nosed over during water landing. http://aircrashed.com/accident/SEA86LA019.shtml

11/30/1987: Cessna 206 belonging to Channel Flying took off with tailwind and was pushed into trees by downdraft. No injuries (this is the one I have pictures of).

5/25/1992: Piper 32-300 (Air Excursions of Gustavus) clipped a tree in the Funter pass. Was able to land at Juneau:  http://aircrashed.com/aircraft/aANC92LA079.shtml

8/6/1992: Cessna 207 operated by Alaska Juneau Aeronautics crashed in Funter Pass. Pilot turned to avoid cloud and hit mountain. 2 serious injuries.

2/28/2007: Cessna 207 operated by Wings of Alaska made an emergency landing on a beach at Funter after having engine trouble. The plane ran off the beach and sank, but the pilot and passengers were uninjured. An article and photo are here: http://www.kinyradio.com/juneaunews/archives/week_of_02-28-00/juneau_news_02-28-00.html