A Ballard Story: Pacific Fishermen

October 9, 2026 — February 28, 2027

Access to this special exhibition is included with a General Admission ticket. On Free First Thursdays, Museum admission is free and special exhibition entry is available for $5 at the door.

Plan Your Visit

Related Events

A Ballard Story: Pacific Fishermen explores the history, resilience, and ongoing evolution of Seattle’s maritime industries through the story of Pacific Fishermen, Inc. — one of Ballard’s last working shipyards and a living symbol of the neighborhood’s working waterfront.

For more than 150 years, the Pacific Fishermen site has connected generations of shipbuilders, fishermen, maritime workers, and families whose livelihoods have been tied to the waters of Salmon Bay. As Ballard has transformed around it, Pacific Fishermen has remained a powerful example of continuity, adaptation, and community.

Through immersive design, historic photography, oral histories, interactive elements, artifacts, and contemporary perspectives, the exhibition connects visitors to the place, people, industries, and communities that shaped Ballard and continue to shape Seattle today.

Courtesy of Herbjorg Pedersen (670 x 440 px)

Visitors will journey through:

The changing landscape of Ballard before and after settlement
The history of shipbuilding and commercial fishing on Salmon Bay
Immigration and multigenerational fishing families
The dangers and realities of maritime work
Doug Dixon’s role preserving Ballard history and culture

Ballard's maritime history is not simply a story of the past, it's a story still being written.

As the neighborhood continues to evolve, A Ballard Story: Pacific Fishermen preserves the voices, skills, traditions, and places that have defined Ballard for generations while exploring what comes next for Seattle's working waterfront.

_{Tor Tollessen, 2026.011. Nordic American Voices Oral History Collection.}
Stories from the Fishing Community

A Ballard Story contains excerpts from 16 oral history interviews gathered between 2000 and 2026 as part of our Nordic American Voices (NAV) and Vanishing Generations oral history projects.

The interviews tell about life at sea, and the rewards, sacrifices, hard work and perseverance that goes into a lifetime of fishing.

Watch & Listen