The History Behind These Gargantuan Oregon Salmon Is Beyond Fascinating
By Catherine Armstrong|Published March 04, 2019
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Catherine Armstrong
Author
Writer, editor and researcher with a passion for exploring new places. Catherine loves local bookstores, independent films, and spending time with her family, including Gus the golden retriever, who is a very good boy.
Anglers in Oregon who love salmon are in luck – they can be pulled from rivers all over the state, year-round. In the spring, you’ll find Chinook salmon in the Columbia, Willamette, and Rogue. In the summer, the Columbia is the place to fish, and in the fall you’ll want to head to Astoria. During winter months, the best salmon fishing is found in Oregons coastal rivers.
Today’s angler might be thrilled to pull a 30-40 pound Chinook from the river, but at the turn of the 20th century they were so huge that some were over 100 pounds.
At the dawn of the 20th century, the Columbia River was full of huge Chinook salmon - some weighing 100 pounds or more.
Photos like this one, taken in 1906, were common. The salmon regularly weighed in at 80-100 pounds - more than twice the size of this little boy. They were called "June hogs" due to their size and the time of year they were typically caught.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. In the early 1940s, several dams were built that hampered the salmon's spawning ability, and the fish that did make it were only about half the size. Combined with overfishing, loss of habitat, river pollution, and other factors, the days of the ginormous Chinook were over.
Bumble Bee purchased several of the canneries, and in the 1960s, Bumble Bee's production in Astoria was the largest seafood canning operation in the world.
