Original subtitles

[narrator] A fort on the frontier,

where a unique group of soldiers protected the nation.

They were major players in every war

that the United States has ever fought in.

[narrator] A forgotten facility

where big business was plundered by locals.

The fishermen hated the fish traps.

They turned into a fish pirate.

[narrator] And a deserted shack

that raised an American legend.

[Ann] I don't know if America knows of this building.

But I know that they should,

because it actually changed the course of history.

[narrator] Scattered across the United States

are abandoned structures

and those who know their stories.

These forgotten ruins reveal the past of this land

and its people.

These are the secrets of Hidden America.

In the Arizona desert near the Mexican border,

is a site where pioneers fought

to protect the nation.

[Lobo Bazan] I'm a soldier.

I did 20 years in the military.

So, when I stand where they stood,

it's like me...

touching them,

and them...

touching me.

[Dr. Kwami] We're right at the southern end of Arizona,

just 600 yards from the border.

[Hadley] For a large part of American history,

this was the frontline.

[Bell] Men on horseback could appear out of nowhere,

cause mayhem,

and then ride off

into the wilderness.

[narrator] One place was built

to contain the mayhem.

[Dr. Kwami] There's a collection

of buildings in this area,

and they appear to be made from mud

or... or from the desert itself.

[Hadley] There's close to 20 buildings.

This must have been home to so many people

at some point.

[narrator] This place would see many iterations of warfare.

[Dr. Kwami] These men embarked

on a deadly game of cat and mouse

with one of America's most infamous enemies.

[Bell] Unbelievably, this is the first place

where aerial warfare came to America.

[narrator] Veteran Carlos Lobo Bazan

was brought to this area

by the military over 30 years ago.

[Lobo Bazan] You can feel the energy here.

I tell people that the minute that they step on this ground,

they're not just walking into some patch of dirt.

Everything happened right here.

[narrator] But this part of Arizona

has not always been as peaceful as it is today.

[Bell] You can see the border wall from here.

But when this place was built,

that frontier was brand new.

[narrator] To make way for new railroads,

this land was bought from Mexico in 1854,

adding 30,000 square miles to Arizona and New Mexico,

moving the border south by up to 100 miles.

To defend this new frontier,

a series of camps were constructed,

but one was built different from the rest.

[Bell] Initially just a tent camp.

this place housed up to 5,000 soldiers in its heyday.

[narrator] This is Camp Naco.

[Lobo Bazan] This place was established

for the purpose of protecting the border.

All sorts of wild people were out here,

because it was literally, uh, a lawless place.

[narrator] Manning this frontier camp, was a new kind of soldier.

Army veteran, Charles Hancock, has lived and served

in Southern Arizona for three decades,

and has a passion for the men who came before him.

[Charles] Well, there's a sense of pride.

I think about the soldiers,

the... specifically the African American soldiers,

men who were referred to as Buffalo Soldiers.

[narrator] Fighting in the American Indian Wars

just years after being freed from slavery,

the first Buffalo Soldier regiments

are said to have been given their name by their enemy.

The Native Americans revered the Buffalo

as being one of the toughest,

most majestic critters on the plains.

[snorting and grunting]

[Charles] The Native Americans admired these men.

They were fierce fighters, just like the buffalo was.

[snorting and grunts]

[narrator] Even though the Buffalo Soldiers

were keeping the nation's southern border safe,

in the era of segregation,

they would not have been welcome

in much of American society.

[Charles] Here, they could not go

into a bar or a restaurant to have a refreshment,

but they could have gone across the border into Mexico to a cantina and had a beer.

[narrator] Yet the Buffalo Soldiers

were entrusted with missions of the utmost importance.

And soon,

that landed the notorious Francisco Pancho Villa

on their doorstep.

The Mexican Revolution was a very scary time.

Pancho Villa was hell-bent on killing gringos.

In 1916,

Pancho Villa's men brought the Mexican Revolution

to the United States.

They raided the New Mexico border town of Columbus

for arms and ammunition.

[Hadley] And for the Americans, this is the final straw.

The American government launches the Punitive Expedition,

and this is a mission to capture

or kill Pancho Villa.

[narrator] A huge force of 10,000 American troops would enter Mexico,

including planes, armored cars,

and the Buffalo Soldiers of Camp Naco.

[Dr. Kwami] The Buffalo Soldiers were led

by Captain Charles Young.

[Charles] Charles Young was the third African American to graduate

from West Point Military Academy.

[narrator] The Buffalo Soldiers staged a number of successful raids.

And soon, troops were closing in on their target.

[Lobo Bazan] Pancho Villa got wounded

by one of his own troops.

So, he literally was not able to ride much.

[narrator] Yet, Pancho Villa would evade U.S. forces

in the huge deserts of northern Mexico.

For Charles Young and the Buffalo Soldiers,

the expedition would soon turn into a nightmare.

American forces encounter not Pancho Villa's army,

but the Mexican government's army.

And they get in a skirmish,

and many of the Buffalo Soldiers are captured.

[Dr. Kwami] And President Wilson at the time declared

that there could be all-out war if these soldiers were not returned.

[Bell] After only ten months,

the U.S. pulled their troops out of Mexico,

ending the Punitive Expedition in failure.

[Dr. Kwami] Although the expedition was not a success,

Captain Charles Young led his men with distinction

and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

[narrator] The Buffalo Soldiers would return to Camp Naco

with valuable combat experience.

And just two months later,

the United States and the troops based here,

would enter into a global conflict.

Just hundreds of yards from the Mexican border,

Camp Naco has long watched over this part

of North America's largest desert.

In 1917,

US forces were gearing up to join World War I.

Yet, the Buffalo Soldiers stationed here,

and their decorated commanding officer, would not join them.

[Charles] When World War I began,

Charles Young was a senior African American colonel

in the United States Army.

Had Young been allowed to stay on active duty

and participate in World War I,

Young probably would have been

the first African American general officer.

[Dr. Kwami] Many white officers refused to serve under a black superior.

And President Woodrow Wilson himself confirmed his forced retirement.

[narrator] The Buffalo Soldiers of Camp Naco

would stay in Arizona for the duration of the war.

But early in the conflict,

the top brass realized they needed more men in France.

One hastily-assembled African American regiment

did ship out to Europe,

and would fight with distinction.

[Charles] The 365th Infantry Regiment out of New York

became known as the Harlem Hellfighters.

[Bell] Assigned to the French army for the duration of the war,

the whole regiment was awarded France's military honor,

the Croix de Guerre.

[narrator] Germany surrendered less than six months

after the first major American offensive,

and the troops shipped home.

In the new era of peace,

it seemed like Camp Naco might have outlived its usefulness.

But this border town had not seen its last battle.

[Dr. Kwami] In 1929, trouble flared up again,

in what was called the "Escobar Rebellion."

[Bell] An American pilot hired by the rebels,

was meant to bomb the Mexican side of the border,

but, accidentally hit Naco, Arizona, instead.

[Hadley] Ends up hitting a Mexican general's car,

who had left it on that side of the border for safekeeping.

[Bell] What he did achieve, however, was the first aerial bombardment

of American soil,

over a decade before Pearl Harbor.

[narrator] After this last run-in with trouble,

Camp Naco returned to civilian hands.

And the soldiers here left for other parts of the frontier.

Yet the Buffalo Soldiers would live on.

[Charles] But the name, "Buffalo Soldier,"

carried on with some of the African American units

all the way up until World War II.

[narrator] Camp Naco was used as housing for local civilians.

But after an arson attack in 2006,

it has been empty.

Its mud shell slowly crumbling back to desert dust.

Today, over a century after it was built,

Camp Naco might have a second chance.

[Dr. Kwami] The camp has been purchased by the city of Bisbee,

and has been given a grant of over $8 million for refurbishment.

[Lobo Bazan] There is a history

within our own nation that needs to be told.

Some way, somehow, this was forgotten.

We can't forget it anymore,

because this is part of our nation.

And those soldiers

did something that none of us could ever imagine doing.

[narrator] In upstate New York,

sits the ruins of a place that nearly changed

the political future of America.

[Martin] We're in a part of New York

that's dominated by the Catskill Mountains.

It's an especially beautiful place,

known for the resorts that used to attract people to escape the city.

[Dr. Szulgit] With this particular site,

there's no real way to get there.

There isn't even a road.

It's just a steep, 2-and-a-half mile trek

to get up to the building.

[Katherine] There are signs warning of rattlesnakes attached to the trees.

Coming up here is not for the faint-hearted.

[narrator] The mists and trees hide the skeleton

of a long-forgotten building.

[Betsy, breathily] Wow. Incredible.

I doubt there's anything quite like this anywhere in America.

It's so evocative.

[Katherine] If you were to stumble across this place,

you would have no idea what its original purpose was.

[Martin] Why? Why is this here?

Why would someone go to all the effort, trouble and expense

of erecting this monstrosity?

[narrator] Crumbling concrete hints at this building's shady past.

[Dr. Szulgit] This place is really remote.

If you were doing some kind of secret meeting here,

nobody would ever know what you're up to.

[Katherine] This was once one of America's premier leisure destinations,

but it would fall foul of natural disasters and political intrigue.

[narrator] Betsy Jacks has lived in the Catskills her whole life,

and is an expert on the area's strange history.

[Betsy] It is a bit of a hike,

but... definitely worth it.

It's so unusual to find something that looks like a...

a Roman ruin.

I feel like we've gone back in time

in this slightly spooky, slightly beautiful place.

[narrator] For hundreds of years,

this area was a mystery to many New Yorkers.

[Katherine] In the early 1800s,

the super wealthy of the United States

would go on vacation to Europe.

Europe was seen as the old cultural capital,

and America was seen as uncouth and wild.

[narrator] But urban New Yorkers

would soon find out what they were missing.

[Katherine] Thomas Cole, the father of American landscape painting,

loved this area.

And he based many of his most famous paintings here.

[Betsy] Thomas Cole painted these area that were considered dangerous,

and he thought that was really exciting.

And so, his paintings played up the danger.

He'd bring in a storm cloud over one side,

and these dead craggy trees.

[narrator] Surprisingly, Cole's paintings would start a vacation revolution.

[Dr. Szulgit] A whole new movement was started

in a new way to take a vacation,

which was to go to the Mountain House.

[narrator] Perched in the clouds on Overlook Mountain,

this was one of the most ambitious hotels of its era.

This is the Overlook Mountain House.

[Martin] With over 300 guest rooms,

and at an elevation of 3000 feet,

the Overlook was the highest Catskills hotel of them all.

[narrator] The Overlook Mountain House became so popular,

it attracted the attention

of the most powerful man in the land.

[Betsy] So, this place was so grand that even presidents would visit.

And famously, Ulysses S. Grant came here.

[Katherine] Grant had long been a heavy drinker,

and despite managing to stay sober

in the early years of his presidency,

the pressure was mounting and mounting on him.

In July, 1873, he paid a visit to the Mountain House,

and was seen putting away bottle after bottle

on his coach ride up the hill.

[Betsy] Evidently, when the president did arrive,

he was so inebriated

that they say he had to be "poured into bed."

[narrator] Yet, in the years to come,

this Catskill resort would come to host

a very different sort of leadership,

one intent on dismantling the nation.

The Overlook Mountain House near Woodstock, New York,

was one of the premier hotels

in the Catskills.

But it was soon hit with tragedy.

[Martin] Just four years after it opened,

the Overlook was ravaged by a fire

on April 1st, 1875.

[Katherine] The cries of fire were originally ignored

because it was April the 1st, and people assumed

it was an April Fool's Day joke.

[Betsy] Can you imagine this whole enormous place...

erupting in flames?

It must have been quite a sight

for miles and miles.

[narrator] The Overlook Mountain House would be rebuilt,

and reopened just two years later.

But its secluded location

would attract some politically shady guests

with Russian connections.

[Martin] In October, 1917,

the old Romanov dynasty was brought down

by a communist insurrection.

The Marxist worker's revolution in Russia

would lead to a "Red Scare" in the United States.

[Katherine] In the early 1920s,

the young J. Edgar Hoover was in charge of monitoring

these radical political groups.

And he had spies in nearly every Communist group in America.

[Martin] And one of those infiltrators

found himself at a meeting

at the Overlook Hotel.

[narrator] During the 1920s,

the Overlook Mountain House led a double life

as the unofficial headquarters of the Communist Labor Party.

[Betsy] I think this would be a really perfect place for a secret meeting,

because it is absolutely in the middle of nowhere.

It's just so remote.

[Katherine] In May, 1921,

it was the setting of the Unity Convention of Communist Parties,

a secret four-day meeting of leaders

of communist parties from across America.

[Martin] And during this meeting,

these various communist factions agreed to come together

and form, what will eventually become,

the Communist Party USA.

[narrator] There was also evidence of Russian involvement.

[Katherine] Hoover's informer reported that the Soviets

had sent the group $50,000,

along with encouragement to come out into the open

and seize power in America.

But J. Edgar Hoover made it a personal mission

to thwart this party,

throughout the whole of his 48-year career with the FBI.

And I think it's fair to say, he's certainly succeeded.

[narrator] Eventually, the Communist supporters moved on.

And towards the end of the 1920s,

another group would enjoy the remoteness of this mountain.

[Martin] Most of the big resorts in the Catskills

were closed to Jewish people.

And as a result,

Jewish businessmen...

um, would eventually develop their own resorts.

[Betsy] There was a whole community

of hotels in the Catskills.

that, um, served primarily Jewish clientele,

and that became known as the Borscht Belt.

[narrator] The Overlook Mountain House

was bought by New York hotelier, Morris Newgold.

But this Jewish-owned safe haven

would start to attract some unwanted attention.

[Katherine] The Ku Klux Klan were on the rise nationally in the 1920s,

with an increasing presence in Woodstock.

Not long after this,

the Overlook Mountain House burned down for a second time.

And many believed that arson was the cause.

[Martin] Despite the fact that the Mountain House burned down twice

in less than 50 years,

Morris Newgold is gonna rebuild.

But this time, he's gonna build one that will last forever,

because he's gonna make it out of concrete.

[narrator] Morris Newgold would dedicate

almost 20 years to the rebuilding project,

yet he died in 1940

with the structure still a work in progress.

His family sold the land

and the hotel was abandoned.

[Szulgit] The golden age of the Mountain House came and went,

but this one is the highest mountain house,

the most remote,

and it's that very fact that has saved it

because the others were pulled down.

This one's in the middle of nowhere

and people just left it for nature to reclaim.

[narrator] Today, the bones of this hotel

have become part of a wilderness area

preserved by the state of New York.

[Alcock] Ironically, in its abandonment,

the overlooked mountain house is more popular than ever,

with thousands of visitors trekking up to see it every year.

So many people have built on this site now,

just attempt after attempt to make a go of it.

In a way, it's now a great success.

It's a beautiful attraction,

and people come here from all over the world.

[narrator] In Alabama,

an unassuming building nurtured a national icon.

[Ann Clemons] I think it's just amazing

to stand within the walls of this structure.

It changed the course of America.

[narrator] Three miles from the town of Abbeville,

an abandoned structure stands alone in the fields.

This house has clearly not been used for a long time.

The windows are broken,

and the wood is splintered.

[narrator] Despite its dilapidated appearance,

these walls nourished a journey that sent shockwaves

through every corner of America.

[Clemons] She was courageous, she was unselfish,

she influenced what I am and who I am today.

[Kenya Davis-Hayes] This underdog story started here,

in the middle of nowhere,

but it ended in the nation's capital,

with the country's highest honors.

[narrator] On the outskirts of Abbeville,

Ann Clemons is exploring an abandoned building

that was pivotal in her hero's life.

[Clemons] This has been one of the most incredible experiences,

to walk in one of America's greatest legends' footsteps.

[narrator] Over a century ago,

Ann's icon came through these doors for the first time.

This is the first residence of Mrs. Rosa Parks.

[Davis-Hayes] She was born here, in Alabama,

on the 4th of February in 1913.

[narrator] 42 years later,

her actions on a bus in Montgomery

would spark a revolution across America.

This moment was a culmination

of childhood influences and experiences

which began here, in this building.

It was built by her grandfather and her father.

Her paternal grandfather and grandmother lived in this house,

as well as the brothers and the sisters of her father.

[Davis-Hayes] Rosa's father was a carpenter,

so he had the skills to build a house.

And you can even still see his handiwork

in the carvings throughout the home.

[narrator] Rosa's father often traveled away from home for his work,

but the rest of her family was there to protect her

from the unsavory aspects of early 20th century Alabama.

[Davis-Hayes] The KKK had a very strong presence

and had rallies all across the state,

including here in Abbeville.

[Philip J. Merrill] The Ku Klux Klan infiltrated all aspects of life

and caused a great deal of fear

for African Americans.

[narrator] Although both of Rosa's grandfathers had white ancestry,

they still knew the Klan could strike at their homes

at any time and without provocation.

[Clemons] Rosa Parks remembered

her maternal grandfather always having

his shotgun handy,

just in case the Klan decided to burn their house.

[narrator] Nevertheless, Rosa's maternal grandfather, Sylvester Edwards,

didn't let fear get the best of him.

As the son of a white slave owner

and an enslaved mother,

Sylvester was determined

to use his quirky sense of humor in unexpected ways.

[Clemons] Her grandfather really had this...

terrible aversion of white people,

but he used to play jokes on them.

He would go up and say, "Hi,"

and the other white people standing around him said,

"Don't shake his hand. He's a Negro."

And then he would have a big laugh and leave.

[narrator] Even though Rosa's grandfather was light-skinned,

these jokes could have had dire consequences.

[Merrill] He could have been lynched, arrested, beaten.

So, Rosa grew up watching all of this,

and it never left her.

[narrator] As Rosa navigated segregated America,

she looked up to her grandfather

and his unconventional ways.

And it soon became apparent

that this gave them a strong bond

that would influence her actions outside of the family home.

[Merrill] Roughly at the age of 10,

Rosa Parks was threatened by a young white boy,

and in a true act of defiance,

she picked up a brick to defend herself.

That was a very dangerous thing for Rosa to do

because she could've been lynched.

[Meares] Rosa later said about the incident

that she'd rather be lynched than live to be mistreated.

[narrator] But Rosa's grandfather wasn't the only person

to teach her the skills she needed

to set her on the path to becoming an American legend.

Education was a priority in Rosa's family,

with her mother serving as a school teacher

for many years.

When she got to the sixth grade,

her mother sent her to the Montgomery Industrial School.

The school was also commonly known as Miss White's school.

[Clemons] Miss White was a white woman from the North,

but she didn't treat them like white people treat black people.

She taught the young children

how to talk, how to write, how to think.

[Davis-Hayes] Alice White is credited

with encouraging the girls in her school for being ambitious

and doing whatever they desire to do with their lives.

Rosa Parks really took this to heart.

Alice White started a civil rights fire within her.

[narrator] Years later,

the influence of Alice White would be felt

in every corner of America

as the nation took a dramatic step into the future.

[narrator] In Alabama,

the influences that would make Rosa Parks a hero

began in this home.

In 1943, at the age of 30,

Rosa acted on all she had learned

and joined the NAACP,

the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

[Clemons] When Rosa Parks was a member, she had many tasks.

She was an investigative reporter,

but also developing and starting

the youth council of the NAACP.

[narrator] She encouraged younger people

to challenge the rules of segregation

with acts of non-violent protest,

such as organizing their own spelling bees

and checking books out of the white-only libraries.

Yet, it was outside of this role,

on the evening of December 1st, 1955,

as momentum for equality built across the nation,

that she changed history.

[Merrill] Rosa Parks decided

that she was not going to give up her seat on a bus.

This changed the face

of the modern-day civil rights movement.

When the driver demanded that we give up this seat,

I felt that the time had come to not take it anymore.

I had had enough, and this was truly the end

of being pushed around.

[narrator] Rosa was arrested for disorderly conduct.

It was an action that shook

and galvanized the African American community.

[Davis-Hayes] Over the course of the next year,

over 50,000 African Americans in the city

boycotted the public busing system.

[narrator] This boycott became a catalyst for change

for the civil rights movement across America.

But Rosa's story didn't end there.

She went on to receive the Medal of Freedom award.

[Meares] So, from this little cottage in rural Alabama,

Rosa became someone

who really effected profound change in America.

[narrator] Despite this humble beginning,

when Rosa died on October 24th, 2005,

her body was given the nation's highest honor.

[Clemons] She had a statesman's funeral.

She was the first non-government person

to receive that honor.

She also was the first woman,

not to mention African American woman,

to lie in state in the Rotunda at the Capitol.

[narrator] Today, nearly two decades after Rosa's death,

the house where it all began lies abandoned.

But this is about to change.

Jerry Lathan and his team of historic restorationists

are planning to move the building

to a more accessible location

and convert it into a museum.

[Lathan] The goal is, if a young Miss Parks

walked back into this museum herself,

she would recognize everything.

It would look exactly like it did when she was a child.

[Clemons] I think that this building

should be preserved in any way possible,

even if it has to be relocated,

because America should know about this building,

because it actually changed the course of history.

[narrator] In Ketchikan, on the southern tip of Alaska,

one building stood up to pirates.

[Martin Perez] These buildings are special.

This place helped Alaska become a state.

[Szulgit] This is George Inlet.

It's a beautiful, almost pristine environment.

[Rob Bell] But in the middle of it all,

there's these old buildings.

They almost look industrial.

[Meares] They're driven into piles in the water.

Why on earth are these buildings here, half in, half out?

[narrator] Scattered around the structures are clues to their purpose.

[Szulgit] There's these rusting relics,

parts of ships possibly, or winches.

[narrator] Once, these belonged to a trade that put Alaska on the map.

These buildings are one of the oldest buildings of this industry.

[narrator] But for the sake of keeping up with demand,

these structures ended up driving a wedge into the community.

Many locals saw the pirates as heroes,

a bit like Robin Hood.

[narrator] For 19 years,

Marty Perez has lived a remote life

as the watchman of these abandoned buildings

in Ketchikan, Alaska.

[Perez] This place is special to me

because it's quiet.

I first came here in... I think it was fall of '97.

[narrator] Working here,

Marty has followed in his father's footsteps,

yet his father had a very different experience.

My dad was a fisherman all his life,

and he started sailing for this place in 1950.

[narrator] Marty's dad was fishing

for one of Alaska's most abundant resources.

[Szulgit] People have been catching salmon in Alaska

since people have lived in Alaska.

[narrator] Constructed in 1914,

these structures were built to exploit a natural phenomenon

that millions of salmon undergo each year.

When they leave the ocean,

they swim up Alaska's rivers to spawn and die.

[Bell] Locals call the salmon season "the salmon run."

It's a time when cities on the coast really come to life

with people trying to catch the fish.

[narrator] But the annual salmon run only occurs during the summer

and the precious pink meat spoils in just two days.

These buildings were constructed to solve that problem.

This is the George Inlet Cannery.

This is the canning line.

In its heyday, we'd be doing 1,000 cans a day, maybe more.

[narrator] Today, canned Alaskan salmon is a staple on the shelves

of grocery stores across America.

But that wasn't always the case.

It was thanks to a global conflict that the industry boomed

and buildings like this were constructed.

[Bell] In July 1914, World War I broke out in Europe,

and suddenly, European powers had thousands of troops

living in dirty, cramped trenches.

[Szulgit] Of course, an army marches on its stomach,

you need to feed these people,

so canned food that will last for a long time becomes important.

I think the soldiers liked the canned salmon,

because salmon is full of protein,

you can eat it cold, you can eat it on a cracker.

[Szulgit] Even before America joined the war,

millions of cases of canned salmon were being sent over to Europe

to be enjoyed by British and French forces.

[Bell] Having been built at the start of World War I,

this place really grew on the Great War's salmon demand.

[narrator] By the 1930s,

these buildings were one of 13 canneries in the Ketchikan area,

packing 1.5 million cases of the pink fish a year.

This earned it the nickname,

"the salmon capital of the world."

But the majority of this natural resource

wasn't caught on boats.

These canneries needed a lot of fish,

so they used fish traps.

[Szulgit] Fish traps are simply a funnel

where the fish swims down a small, little, narrow bottleneck,

and then it doesn't see the way out.

And they're just there waiting for you to come and collect them.

[Bell] Fish traps really were a game-changer.

Thousands of fish could be caught with very little effort.

[narrator] Yet, due to their huge yield,

these traps forced a divide

between the cannery and the local community.

The problem with fish traps is that they catch a lot of fish,

and this meant that local fishermen

couldn't get enough salmon,

and this had a a big impact on the Alaskan way of life.

[narrator] With their livelihoods threatened,

some swashbuckling locals took matters into their own hands.

[Szulgit] When the big industry takes away the resources,

you're gonna get pirates.

[Perez] A fish pirate was a guy that went around

and he robbed the fish traps.

[Meares] The pirates really saw themselves

as stealing from the rich and giving to the poor,

but I'm sure that they actually kept the profits.

[narrator] To combat these pirates,

canneries like this stationed armed guards on their traps.

[Bell] They were no match for the pirates,

and so a lot of the time they just let the trap be robbed.

Of course, sometimes this was also because the men working on the traps

were in on the deal.

[narrator] But in 1937,

both side's attention was grabbed by a new enemy

when an armada entered Alaskan waters.

Japan sends over a fleet of fishing vessels,

but these are no ordinary ships.

[Szulgit] These boats were absolutely massive,

and they had not only the abilities to catch huge amounts of salmon,

but to can them right on board,

and it struck fear into the hearts of not only locals,

but the cannery industry.

[Meares] You've got to remember that Alaska

was only an American territory at the time.

It wasn't a state, so it didn't have the same protections.

And that means the Japanese saw Alaska as a really easy target.

[narrator] Yet Congress thought otherwise.

[Szulgit] Washington came to Alaska's aid

and negotiated with the Japanese

and made a treaty to stop the Japanese

from coming into Alaskan waters.

[Meares] This was a totally historic moment.

It was the first time in history

that international fishing boundaries were contested.

[narrator] But Washington had an additional motive

when coming to Alaska's aid.

With its abundant resources,

the U.S. government wanted to make Alaska a state

and needed to win the approval

of many locals who were against this.

[Szulgit] The treaty with the Japanese

started to make the locals feel that, "Hey.

Maybe the federal government is here to help us out."

[narrator] In the 1950s,

Washington stepped up its efforts to cement Alaskan statehood

and offered further concessions

as they declared political war on the fish traps.

[Szulgit] Fish traps had already been banned

in the rest of the United States,

and they offered the Alaskans an olive branch and said,

"If you join us as a state,

we will ban fish traps there as well."

[narrator] With this promise, on August 26, 1958,

83% of the population

voted for Alaska to join the United States.

But this represented a nail in the coffin for these buildings,

because without the traps,

they became uneconomical to operate.

[Perez] George Inlet Cannery, it shut down.

It canned its last can in August of 1958.

[narrator] Today, nearly seven decades later,

Ketchikan is still known as the salmon capital of the world.

And while fish are no longer canned here,

these buildings still contribute to that name.

[Perez] This place is now used as a tour place.

We have tours here.

People seem to like it.

I think it's good that it's being used

because before it was just sitting here doing nothing.

This place would have fallen in the bay.