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For many years Dolly Varden, a species of char, was considered by many to be a trout because they only saw it in freshwater streams. Early fishermen found it especially abundant throughout Southeast Alaska, so in 1907 several fishermen in Wrangell Narrows began catching and shipping Dolly Varden. It took no investment other than a boat and a net.

That is, until the State of Washington classed it as a game fish and objected not only to the sale within that state, but also to the shipment into the state. Consequently, the steamship companies refused to take on Alaska shipments for the Puget Sound. The salmon fishermen as well as the Bureau of Fisheries agents didn't much like this. The Bureau said of Dollys, "They are a very serious menace to the salmon, many millions of whose eggs they consume each year, and if an outside market could be provided, the salmon industry would benefit, at the same time that a new industry would be created."

Despite the ban, in 1908, Dolly Varden, rainbow and steelhead "trout," continued to be fished commercially and sold fresh, frozen and pickled elsewhere other than in Puget Sound. Steelhead, also known as salmon trout, are related to salmon, but that wasn't widely known at the time.

All this was changed by Isabel Ambler Gilman in 1910. Born and educated in England, she came to Ohio and taught throughout the Midwest. After marriage, she studied law at a school later absorbed by Northwestern University. In 1910, the Gilmans moved to Petersburg where she became school principal. In December, she supposedly was the first recognized woman lawyer in Southeast. (Nome's Josephine Todman was reportedly the first in Alaska in 1902.)

As Mrs. Gilman managed the school and listened to the town's politics and gossip, she learned that many Southeast fishermen seined Dolly Varden in March and April and had been shipping their catches to restaurants in the Seattle area. Then came that dreaded law. The Washington legislature enacted it to prohibit the sale of trout in that state. Southeast Alaska fisherman seemed to have lost that source of income.

Mrs. Gilman took up the cause of the Alaskan fishermen, and hurried to Olympia where she convinced the Washington State Commissioner of Fisheries that the Dolly Varden was a char, not a trout, and hence could legally be marketed in Washington.

Washington State removed its restrictions upon the importation and sale of fresh Alaska Dolly Varden ten or more inches in length. In 1911 a few fish were shipped south.

In Alaska where the Bureau of Fisheries managed all fishing, there was no special fishery for Dollys, and the catch was generally incidental to salmon fishing. In 1912, about 3,900 pounds of Dollys were sent out fresh, as well as 400 pounds of the frozen fish. No mention of shipments was made in 1913.

At the end of that year, the Washington State Fish Commissioner made the widespread announcement that there was no prohibition upon the commercial utilization in that state of Dolly Varden shipped from Alaska.

This no doubt had much to do with stimulating shipments in 1914. Most of these were from Ketchikan and Petersburg. Fresh Dolly Varden, 62,555 pounds of them valued at $3,763, left Alaska in 1914. The boom did not last. About a third of the poundage went out in 1915.

With the abundance of Dollys, fish processors experimented with canning them. In 1916 and 1917, Midnight Sun Packing Company in Kotzebue caught and canned Dollys, 2,600 cases in the latter year. The next company to try canning was Pacific American Fisheries (PAF) at Port Mollar in 1923, but the product must not have had a ready market, as this was the only year the char were packed. An unnamed cannery or canneries produced 336 cases in 1952; 10,800 cases in 1953; and 864 in 1955.

By 1919, Ripley Fish Company handled all of the fresh Dolly trade, and 108,672 pounds were shipped from Southeast Alaska in 1921. Edwin Ripley's company started in fall 1916 in Seattle, and in 1918 he was buying fish in Petersburg, by 1922 in Ketchikan. A year later he didn't have a Territorial license and seems to have quit operating in Alaska that fall.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Dolly Varden shipments fluctuated in poundage, and the reports do not differentiate between Central Alaska and Southeast Alaska. In 1941, the catch for commercial use was insignificant. One operator in Southeast reported 2,217 pounds of fresh char valued at $244 and 605 frozen pounds at $67.

By 1943, six men were making shipments, but the amount was small compared to previous decades.

Up until 1955, when my library no longer contains the annual federal reports, only sporadic shipments of fresh and frozen Dolly Varden had been sent from Alaska. On my future research list is when commercial shipments ceased. Was it at Statehood?

Pat Roppel, a 50-year resident of Southeast Alaska, is the author of numerous books about mining, fishing, and man's use of the land. She lives in Wrangell.