Now a new corporate history by Irene Martin and Roger Tetlow, Flight of the Bumble Bee: The Columbia River Packers Association and a Century in the Pursuit of Fish, has just been released.

Born in Astoria in 1899, the Bumble Bee Seafoods eventually became a national and international success story, employing thousands of workers and fishermen at ports in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and elsewhere.

Published by the Chinook Observer Publishing Company, the book contains hundreds of historical photographs of the company’s fishing boats, workers and packing plants, as well as company labels and other illustrations.

Roger Tetlow and Irene Martin, are both well known for their historical research and fisheries publications, including Legacy and Testament, the story of Columbia River Gillnetters, and The Beach of Heaven, a History of Wahkiakum County by Irene Martin and originally published by WSU Press, and Barbey, The Story of a Pioneer Columbia River Salmon Packer, by Roger Tetlow. The Flight of the Bumble Bee is the only book available about a company known from Alaska to California and beyond.

Available by mail from the Chinook Observer, P.O. Box 427, Long Beach, WA. 98631, @ $22.95, plus $5 each shipping/handling.  $1.79 each sales tax for Washington residents