All Stories | Page 12 of 28 | The Filson Journal

The Filson Journal

Illustration of three large bears walking through an arctic field

How to Avoid Attacks in Bear & Cougar Territory

Consciously or unconsciously, humans, bears, and mountain lions, along with many other large mammals, all speak the same language with their bodies. The body language of an unleashed dog on the porch lazily lifting its head to watch you pass tells you it is no threat.

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knife cutting venison sirloin held by hand next to a hasselback potato on top of a wooden cutting board with sauce in a small bowl

Filson Food: Santa Maria Venison Sirloin

When we think of American BBQ, we tend to think of Southern BBQ: slow-cooked brisket, pulled pork, pit beans, coleslaw, etc., but there are a lot of other BBQs to be found around the U.S. Case in point, California BBQ.

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black and white boots on a dusty and grassy ground

Boots on the Ground: The History of the Combat Boot

“A-ten-hut!” Cue the sound of many warrior feet coming together at once. One of the most important pieces of gear in a soldier’s arsenal today, the U.S. Army’s combat boot has been through many iterations over time. In fact, over the past two hundred years, the combat boot was updated for almost every new war.

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North Cascades: Bastion of the Wild

Sitting like stone guardians just below the Canadian border, the North Cascade mountains are keepers of the wildness that once roamed unchecked across North America. Soaring high into the skies, their stony and snowy peaks seem to scrape at the clouds that pass overhead demanding tribute as they float by. Sparkling like scattered gems, glacially fed lakes brilliantly reflect the sunlight while, through deep green valleys, bright, blue-gray rivers run down to the surrounding flatlands. It is a spot where a person could quickly leave behind all of the trappings that attach themselves to our modern daily existence and transport to another existence entirely.

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Climber Fred Beckey: Spirit of the Mountains

If you listen hard enough, you can hear Fred Beckey’s spirit whispering among the towering peaks and hidden valleys of the Northern Cascades. Around campfires, bar tops, or anywhere that people gather, his name tends to pop up. He is an outdoors urban legend, the mythical mountaineer who spent eight decades solely focused on one thing and one thing only: climbing.

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Rick Myers: Profile of an Illustrator

In Rick Myers’s garage sits a hand-built dingy—shiny with newness, waiting patiently for water. Adjacent, the oars that will propel it lie unfinished across two sawhorses. The illustrator holds a bench plane. With both hands, he runs the razor’s edge of the tool across the oar blade, and curly ribbons of red and yellow cedar fall in a fragrant pile around his feet.

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The Salty Dawg Saloon

In the Middle East and Europe you can visit places built over 2,000 years ago. In Alaska you are unlikely to see anything older than 50. That’s what makes the Salty Dawg Saloon in Homer such a rarity. It possesses a history that goes back to 1897, when the first building was built, and it holds onto it.

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filson rain proof jackets laid out on cloth surface various colorways olive green, tan, navy, brown, etc.

Signature Materials

Signature Materials: Technical Rainwear Pt. 1

When you’re outdoors and can’t escape wet weather, staying dry is a very real need. Quality rain gear not only keeps you more comfortable—in cold temperatures, it can prevent life-threatening hypothermia. Rain gear that strikes a balance between conflicting criteria such as water resistance vs. breathability, mobility vs. simplicity, and packability vs. durability solves problems for the outdoorsman. This article takes a look at some of the modern technologies available to keep us dry, and how they work.

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Bay Weld Boats

The shop is loud. Metal screams on metal. Chop saws, band saws, air saws, table saws, skilsaws, drills, grinders, and welders all sculpt, slice, and meld aluminum plate and extrusion into boats for Alaska’s most discerning captains.

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hand with guard device working a detail on the border of a white canvas sail

How to Repair a Ripped Sail at Sea

You hear a sound you shouldn’t. Standing at the helm, getting a good look forward is tricky through rigging, mast, and mainsail. But that long ripping sound was not a good sign. Your crewmate below can hear the sail flogging and she pops her head up out of the hatch: “Need a hand?” While she takes the helm, you scramble forward to assess the damage. Your task now is to stabilize the situation before it worsens.

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boot in improvised snowshoe made out of lashed pine boughs

How to Build Backcountry Snowshoes

Traveling into the backcountry can be filled with fun, excitement, and adventure; however, it can also be very dangerous. Mother Nature can quickly turn an enjoyable afternoon hike into a life-threatening situation. An unexpected snowstorm in the mountains can bring a host of problems. With cold temperatures and low visibility, travel can become extremely difficult, if not impossible, due to deep snow.

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Zech Bennett: The Undersea Tradesman

When you meet Zech Bennett, he seems like a pretty ordinary guy. Not too tall or too short, he seems somewhat in shape but is not a chiseled gym rat. The brown hair sticking out from underneath his baseball cap is slightly askew, and his face breaks into an easy smile. He is the type of person you could share a few beers with at the bar while swapping stories about ferrying kids to events or catching up on the latest scores. It’s only when you hear what the 32-year-old Homer, Alaska, resident does for a living that you realize there is more to him than you see at first glance.

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exterior view of large shipyard building with sign reading

Pacific Fishermen Shipyard: The Origins of Ballard’s Oldest Working Shipyard

Pacific Fishermen Inc., or “PacFish,” as it is known to the many boat builders, ship crews, employees, family members and stakeholders in the Ballard community, can be traced directly back to the year 1871. It was in this year that a 47-year-old Norwegian immigrant, ship carpenter, and operator named Thomas William Lake settled on the north side of the Salmon Bay waterfront in unincorporated Seattle and opened his own shipyard.

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two people in lush mossy forested area tending to food cooking by an open fire

Q & A With the Open-Fire Chefs of Portland’s Tournant

Tournant is an open fire cooking and events company. Based in Portland, OR, their business serves as a homage to the Pacific Northwest, to one another, and to all the things they hold dear: food, fire, nature, craft, connection, community, seasonality and sustainability.

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Kate Mitchell – NOMAR

An old homesteader once told Kate Mitchell, “That was about the year you figured you weren’t going to starve to death.” By then, much of the community enjoyed wanton luxuries like electricity and indoor plumbing. That was also the year Kate moved to Homer.

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black and white image of people in antiquated clothes and hats standing behind a large stack of bound wooden boxes reading

You Take What You Can Get: Or Suffer the Consequences

The stampede for gold into the Klondike of the Yukon territory reached a peak in 1898. In that same year, 1,200 other miners set out for other regions of the far north, including to the Koyukuk and Chandalar river drainages in the remote Alaska Territory interior, in a desperate search for similar riches. This region is situated in the northwestern part of Alaska, with the Koyukuk River flowing through it from the borders of the Arctic Ocean to where it enters the Yukon at Nulato.

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The Puzzle Master: Kathy Burek

Anyone who has ever spent hours huddled over a puzzle knows the joy of finally figuring it out. Whether it’s an obscure image coming together piece by piece, that head-scratcher of a rhyme finally making sense, or completing the last box in a crossword, the endorphin rush of finally getting the right answer makes all of the effort worthwhile. But imagine devoting your life to untangling complicated mysteries but rarely knowing if you have solved the puzzle correctly. Most people couldn’t handle it, it might even drive them mad. But, Kathy Burek has done this almost every day for the last twenty-five years, and she loves it.

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small bowls of salt and lemon and condiments and salmon laid out on a wooden cutting board

How to Preserve Your Catch

Winter brings slower days and time to cook – and a freezer full of fish after a summer of harvest. Nourishing and delicious protein, wild salmon brings brightness to the table through the cold weather months. This recipe is a personal favorite provided by Nelly Hand at Drifters Fish, a local Pacific Northwest business.

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Renowned Artist and Activist: Ray Troll

Ray’s Alaska adventure started in 1983, when he moved here to help his sister open a seafood retail store in Ketchikan. Ray soon turned to art to document his experiences in the unique fishing culture that permeated the town.

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Black and white image of a crowd looking at the SS Portland at Schwabachers Wharf

SS Portland: The Ship that Started the Boom

Both April 6, 1895 and August 17, 1896 stand out in the history of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska as the moments when miners prospecting along the Klondike River in Yukon Territory discovered gold from the sediment panned from those cold waters. From these initial discoveries, a torrent of fortune seekers would soon flood the Canadian wilderness.

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hand removing salt crust from a baked fish with lemon and herbs exposed on top of the fish skin

Filson Food: Whole Salt Crusted Fish with Horseradish Cream

Cooking in a salt crust is essentially a method of steaming, but instead of using water to steam, the salt crust holds in the natural moisture from the fish to steam itself. With the addition of herbs and citrus in the salt crust, we are effectively cooking in a flavor pressure cooker.

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vintage black and white image of large crowd of people all in suits at the oregon improvement co. facility

Journey to the Yukon: Passage Aboard the Steamships from Puget Sound to the Far North

The month of July 1897 was an exciting time to be living on the West Coast. Steamships with names like Excelsior and Portland were docking in the ports of San Francisco and Seattle, respectively, loaded down with tons of gold mined from the Klondike region of the Yukon territory of Canada. Alaska was the gateway by which anyone with a desire to strike it rich could make the journey northward and, if well prepared and lucky, eventually return to civilization a millionaire.

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black and white image of woman in art studio with assorted paint brushes and reference images strewn about and tacked to wall

Marian Beck: The Saltry Restaurant

The first thing you notice about Marian Beck is her hands. Graying Alaskan fishermen all have the same hands, swollen and powerful from decades of picking fighting salmon from gillnets, stacking seining gear, or baiting hooks. Her hands look like they’ve been taken from someone else’s body, twice as big and twice as old, and transplanted onto her wrists.

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dish of candied, bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers in circular metal dish

Filson Food: Roasted Pheasant Jalapeño Poppers with Bourbon Red Pepper Jelly

A version of this recipe can most likely be found in every single hunter’s recipe rolodex from the Florida Panhandle to the Olympic Peninsula and everywhere in between. It is a go-to no matter where you hunt your fowl, and works equally well with ducks or doves.

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For the Love of Wooden Boats: Port Townsend’s Shipwrights Co-Op

Southeast of Port Townsend is a gravel yard where large boats balance on blocks of wood and slender steel stands. Removed from the water, the vessels reveal pleasing, functional curves. Inside massive sheds, deliberate Lilliputians in warm and dusty clothing crawl in and out of the leviathans to a symphony of hand and power tools.

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Western Flyer: The Vessel of John Steinbeck

On the morning of Monday, March 11, 1940, writer John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts boarded the sardine seiner Western Flyer at a wharf in Monterey, California. Both men were moving slowly because a fiesta to celebrate the end of fishing season had gone on late into the night after a boat parade, a barbecue, and seine skiff races. Steinbeck and Ricketts were well-known on the waterfront—and elsewhere—so their departure on a six-week expedition drew a raucous crowd. They didn’t get away until that afternoon, and as the Flyer eased from her berth, Steinbeck noticed that the whiskey they’d loaded for medicinal purposes was gone. “Good,” he thought. “A lot of people I know won’t be getting sick for awhile if the booze does its job.”

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large derelict wooden ship docked on a black sandy/muddy beach

The SS Bering

The story of the SS Bering begins with her launching under another name, the Annette Rolph, on July 4, 1918, in Fairhaven, California. The ship was a wood-hulled “tramp” freighter built for the trans-Pacific trade and joined the fleet of the Rolph Navigation and Coal Company. At 245 feet in length, she was one of hundreds of wood-hulled vessels produced for the maritime industry in World War I.

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Grainy black and white image of man in white helmet and black coat looking out at large snow capped Mt. Rainier

Filson Moto Collection

Whenever you set out into the wild, be it the icy hell of Alaska or the rocky forests of the Pacific Northwest, you can’t do better than to have a Filson Garment on your back. That’s the way it’s been for over 120 years.

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black and white image of two chained working dogs with snowy coats standing on rocky ground

Coldfoot: More than just another gold camp – a place that defined those who lived in it

The history of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 promised fortune to many who made the journey north to the gold fields of the Yukon Territory, with many of those headed to Dawson City and Circle City in Alaska as jumping off points. By 1898, the search for riches had expanded to other regions of Alaska, including the remote Northwest interior and its network of rivers and tributaries. History has recorded the efforts of those brave souls, and how their search for gold helped to create new settlements and trade routes.

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The Ocean’s Top Predator: Puget Sound Orcas

Black fins sliced the water and rose higher and higher, close to our boat. With a puff and a blow, the orcas surfaced: members of J pod, the southern resident whales that frequent Puget Sound. The whales blew mighty breaths. They are mammals,
like us.

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