Once There Were Thousands, Now There is One

Join us as Tim Troll discusses his experience and research related to the sailboat and Bristol Bay commercial fishing.

Tim Troll is a long-time resident of Alaska having come to the state in 1978 as a VISTA volunteer lawyer for Alaska Legal Services in Bethel. He now lives in Anchorage but spent many years in the Bush including Dillingham where he developed an interest in the long history of the commercial salmon history of Bristol Bay. The commercial fishery began in 1884 and up until 1951, the salmon of Bristol Bay were harvested by sailboats. He will discuss the legacy of the sailboat and how it defined and still defines the history of the Bristol Bay fishery. In 2022, he was part of a group of people who restored one of the few surviving and seaworthy Bristol Bay sailboats and sailed it from Homer to Neknek in 2022. He is the author of several books of Bristol Bay history including Sail for Salmon: The Early Years of Commercial Fishing in Alaska's Bristol Bay 1884-1951.