Raising foxes and minks for their fur was a big business in Southeast Alaska in the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. Fur farms flourished in and around Petersburg as well as many other sites in the region.
A former Petersburg man has been cataloguing fur farms and fur farmers from Yakutat to Ketchikan on and off for the last three decades. Larry Roberts worked as an archeologist with the U.S. Forest Service from 1980 through 2001. He now lives in Grand Junction, Colorado but returned to Petersburg this month and donated copies of his research to the Petersburg Public Library and Clausen Museum. He stopped by the studios at KFSK and spoke with Joe Viechnicki about his findings.
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