Our Story

Chinook & Company traces its powerful connection with wild salmon to our family of pioneers who came to Alaska from a struggling town on the Washington coast just after the Great Depression. Like so many others whose lives have merged with the celebrated salmon runs of the North Pacific, they built a boat, sailed north, and went fishing. They named their boat the Lottie M after the matriarch of the family, worked like their lives depended on it, and settled in the vibrant seaport of Cordova on Prince William Sound.

Linda Meuter, the founder of Chinook & Company, is the granddaughter of those adventurers. One of eight sisters, Linda grew up with a passion for the wild place in which she lived, secure in the knowledge that she was forever bound to Alaska. Her family’s ties to salmon and the sea never weakened when Linda’s father became a cannery superintendent for a company with its headquarters in Washington State. They found another home there and joined the flow of fishers and packers who match their annual migrations to those of the salmon. Linda went north in the spring, south in the fall, and along the way she found the man she married. Her husband, Steve was also taken by the lure of the north and has become a seasoned expert in the fishing industry. Together they brought three daughters into the world. Linda became a teacher and eventually a regional university instructor. Always, she returned to Alaska, to salmon, the wildness of the place she had known so well since she was a child.

In 2005, Linda combined her passions for Alaska and wild salmon in a business that reflects the ideals she holds most closely to her heart. On the waterfront in Ketchikan, she replicated an old dockside company store and invited her customers to sample the highest-quality canned salmon from the local fishing grounds of Southeast Alaska. Chinook & Company was born. With the help of her daughters and like-minded local employees, Linda has spent the last ten summers sharing her family’s story, celebrating the sustainability of the wild Alaska salmon runs, and explaining the nutritional and environmental benefits of eating wild salmon instead of farmed.

Now, Chinook & Company offers an on-line shop where you can find the same delicious Alaska salmon products we sell on the dock in Ketchikan. We know you will share the excitement that inspired four generations of our family when you enjoy one of the last remaining wild foods on the planet.