A summer sojourn in Petersburg, Alaska

Northwest native Don “Jerry” Pugnetti heads north to the Last Frontier

Don Pugnetti Jr.
Gig Harbor, Wash.

Petersburg, Alaska — Steep mountain slopes thick with Sitka spruce and Western hemlock form a picturesque backdrop to this small, isolated fishing village at the northern tip of Southeast Alaska’s Mitkof Island. Beyond that, even taller peaks crested with glacial snow and ice loom in the distance, edging on the Canadian border.

This majestic scene reminded immigrant Peter Buschmann of his native Norway when he first ventured here in 1897. Two years later he purchased a 40-acre tract along a deep fjord where the north end of Wrangell Narrows meets Frederick Sound, and he built a fish cannery and sawmill. Buschmann recruited other Norwegian immigrant families who moved here. Over time as more came they spawned the city that bears his first name. It was incorporated in 1910.

Today, Petersburg is officially a borough and its expanded boundaries encompass the entire Mitkof Island as well as nearby Kupreanof Island and a stretch of largely uninhabited mainland extending to the Canadian border. The borough’s roughly 3,000 residents are more ethnically diverse than the early days, but the community has not forgotten its Norwegian roots.

So strong is the heritage that Petersburg holds the nickname “Little Norway of Alaska.”

“The early immigrants came mainly for economic reasons,” said Donald R. Nelson, author of Little Norway: The Story of Petersburg and whose immigrant father arrived here in 1919. “There were hard times in Norway, and they came to America so they could put bread on the table. And they also wanted to be free and independent, and they could do that in Alaska. My father loved Norway, but he wanted to live his life to the fullest and make money.”

Petersburg Mayor Mark Jensen, a crab fisherman who has presided over the borough 11 years, said the early immigrants brought a strong work ethic with them.

“They worked hard farming and fishing in Norway and applied their knowledge and skills here. It has been carried on over generations. We now have many other nationalities represented in the community, but those early Norwegians helped form Petersburg’s foundation.”

Jensen is himself part of that rich heritage. His grandfather immigrated from Norway’s Lofoten Islands just after the turn of the century and settled here in 1905. His uncle, Gordon Jensen, was among a key group of community leaders who in 1965 purchased a financially teetering cannery—the forerunner to Buschmann’s original facility—and launched Petersburg Fisheries, Inc. The purchase saved the plant from potential closure and averted a possible significant downturn in the local commercial fishing industry. The cannery still operates as part of Seattle-based Icicle Seafoods, Inc.

Petersburg’s adhesion to its original social and cultural heritage, as well as its economic engine, is built around commercial fishing. The lush fishing grounds teeming with salmon, halibut, black cod, herring, and crab lured the original wave of Norwegian immigrants. It’s now home to a sizeable commercial fishing fleet and fish-related industries.

Grant Trask, who runs Das Hagedorn Haus bed and breakfast with his wife, Lila, remembers arriving in Petersburg in 1973 as an 18-year-old from the tiny city of Osakis, Minn., to find work on fishing boats.

“I frequently heard Norwegian spoken on street corners in town,” he said. “I knew right off the bat that this was a Norwegian town. But it also was Alaskan. People were so approachable. I seemed to fit right in.”

Trask, a third-generation Norwegian American, currently leads a community choir that performs Norwegian songs for heritage-based events.

Petersburg’s harbormaster, Glorianne (Glo) Wollen, is a third generation Norwegian American. She oversees the public marinas occupying a wide swath of the harbor and serving as a year-round home to fishing boats as well as seasonal commercial vessels and private yachts.

Wollen said Norwegians visiting Petersburg often have an impression that the community is stuck in the old ways.

“The Norway we perceive today is progressive, modern,  and open to change and trying new things,” she said. “To them, we seem a bit old fashioned. The traditions we still hold dear came from our immigrant families. We have kept those traditions, and they are what binds us. It’s how we want to be. We’re here because we want to be here.”

By anyone’s best estimate, about one-third of Petersburg’s inhabitants can trace bloodlines to early Norwegian immigrant families. Another roughly 10 percent have lineage to the original native peoples who lived on these lands. That lineage can be traced back as far as 10,000 years. Tlingit clans had established villages and had used locations around Mitkof Island as seasonal camps to hunt and trap salmon for their food. There is signage around Petersburg and museum exhibits recognizing those native roots.

When it comes to honoring and celebrating its Norwegian tradition, the community comes out en masse. It emerges particularly around Syttende Mai when Petersburg puts on its four-day Little Norway Festival. The widely recognized gala has gone on annually since 1958.

The festival features a variety of Norwegian-themed events and activities that include a large-scale parade through downtown featuring a replica Viking ship named Valhalla. The rest of year the ship sits in Bojer Wikan Fishermen’s Memorial Park next to the Sons of Norway Hall. Other fun-filled events include a herring toss, traditional choral and dance performances, a Scandinavian pageant along with singing, dancing and light-hearted partying in the main street named Nordic Drive.

The festival is not just for those who love their Norwegian heritage. The entire community turns out.

“You’ll see people who are Irish wearing bunads and dancing to Norwegian music,” said Kari Petersen, program director for the Petersburg Public Library. “Everybody takes part.”

During the festival, the streets fill with people wearing bunads, the prized traditional folk costumes with designs of representing specific Norwegian communities and regions of their forefathers and mothers. But most predominant is a bright blue bunad, which is Petersburg’s own.

In 1972, Alma Wallen, a founder of the Little Norway Festival, conceived of the idea to give Petersburg its own look. She got friend Solveig Simonsen to collaborate with her on a design. Simonson then spent 200 hours sewing the distinctive women’s costume from durable royal blue sail cloth with a floral design depicting 10 varieties of Alaskan wildflowers. Later, men’s and children’s styles were added.

The original bunads were donated by Simonsen’s family and now stand on display at the Clausen Memorial Museum with other community treasures. The costume is formally recognized as the Petersburg region’s bunad.

Evidence of the community’s embrace of its tradition appears everywhere year round. Many homes fly both the American and Norwegians flags from their porches, and a wide variety of Norwegian themed items are available in souvenir shops and other businesses. Sing Lee Alley Books and Gifts is a popular destination for locals and visitors alike, offering an extensive array of Norwegian-themed books and items.

Rosemaling, Norway’s cherished folk art style, is also a trademark of the community. Creative rosemaling designs appear on the side of buildings and around doors and windows of many Main Street businesses. In the Sons of Norway Fedrelandet Lodge, a wide array of colorful rosemaling designs cover the walls and even the ceilings of some rooms. At the longtime establishment Lee’s Clothing, rosemaling even adorns a rubber boot that serves as the front entrance door stop.

The Sons of Norway Lodge, with more than 400 family and individual members, is very active. It is the oldest lodge in Alaska, and its building is among the most distinctive structures in the borough. With its barn-like, gambrel-shaped roof, the building has stood since 1912 on pilings over Middle Harbor. The lodge also serves as a center for communitywide events.

On a recent visit, lodge President Sally Dwyer and fellow members Sue Flint and Polly Koeneman were found making smørbrød for a community memorial service at which 200 people were expected.

“I learned from my grandmother,” said Dwyer, a third-generation descendant of original Norwegian settlers. “We were raised preparing Norwegian food and learning other traditions. We now live and breathe our heritage.”

The Petersburg Public Library displays a treasured collection of Norwegian language books that original immigrants brought with them. The library’s own roots were founded by these books. In Petersburg’s early days, a single shelf in a Main Street business contained them for the early Norwegians to share with one another.

“At one time the collection held more value to the community, as Norwegian was the primary language for many community members,” said Kari Petersen of the library. “Many descendants became bilingual. Children born here and parents learned and spoke English well, but still spoke Norwegian in the home as the family’s primary language. English was secondary. Today the collection’s value is a historic artifact of our community.”

That lone shelf of books spawned the idea for what became today’s modern full-service library. Library Director Tara Alcock said the original books were preserved by the Sons of Norway Lodge, which donated them to the library 20 years ago.

Celebrating Petersburg’s Norwegian traditions shows no signs of diminishing. Now, a fourth generation has set stakes to carry on. Schools contribute to the trend, offering extracurricular activities and courses from first grade through high school taught by volunteers. Students learn the Norwegian language, rosemaling, and Norwegian songs and dances.

is a fitting example of this rising generation. Growing up in an original immigrant family with three generations of commercial fishing, she began working on her father’s boat during the summer while in middle school in the 1980s. Later, after graduating from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., with a nursing degree, she returned home and now works as a critical care nurse at the Petersburg Medical Center. But she also tends a commercial fishing boat with her husband, Aaron Phillips, and is very active in Norwegian-related events and activities.

Kvernvik has been involved in such activities since grade school, participating in dancing, rosemaling, and learning the Norwegian language. When she turned 21, she joined a Little Norway Festival organization called the Valkyries. The 15-member women’s group, along with a similar men’s contingent called the Vikings, seek to liven up the festival with their participation.

“I knew when I went to college that I wanted to come back here,” she said. “It’s the people and the culture, and it’s home. My Norwegian heritage is an important part of that culture.”

Photos by Don Pugnetti Jr. unless otherwise noted

See also “Soaking up Norwegian culture in ‘Little Norway'” by Michelle Newman, The Norwegian American, September 2024.

This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of  The Norwegian American.