Talley Scow

Here is another beautiful historical photo from the Monsen Family Collection. This jumps us back in time, to the sailboat era, showing us a typical tally scow setup. It was probably in the Nushagak area. A flat scow is tied behind the tally scow for salmon reception and the tally scow is anchored to a permanently anchored buoy. A wind charger is evident on the roof of the tally scow, to charge the batteries for the DC power utilized.

All fish were unloaded from the sail boats by peughing by the two-man crew of the sailboat. (A peugh was similiar to a one-tined pitch fork.) The fish were then counted by the tallymen. This was sometimes the hardest work of the fishing day. As the tally scow became loaded, it settled lower into the water making peughing an easier task.

©Photo from the Monsen Family Collection

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