Browns Point Salmon Bake
Browns Point Salmon Bake Promises a Northwest Feast
TACOMA, Wash. – The Browns Point Salmon Bake will celebrate its 66th anniversary this summer the traditional way: with salmon baked on cedar spits on the shores of Commencement Bay.
The Browns Point Salmon Bake will take place from noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 4 and Sunday, Aug. 5 at the Browns Point Improvement Club (BPIC) in northeast Tacoma. Organizers expect to feed salmon dinners to 3,500 people this year.
The event is free and includes live music, entertainment, a beer garden and activities for children. Salmon dinners cost $20 for adults, $12 for children and $17 for seniors. Dinner includes corn on the cob, green salad, a roll and beverage, and of course, salmon, which – unique to Browns Point – is baked on cedar spits over fire pits of green alder wood. Dessert, chowder, hamburgers and shakes will also be available.
People can also visit the neighboring Browns Point Lighthouse Park to tour the 1903 restored Lightkeepers Cottage and museum. The Lighthouse and museum house exhibits featuring the Life and Times of Jerry Meeker as well as hands-on displays of a single-room school house and historic kitchen; a Boat House maritime museum with replica Coast Guard surf boat; and the Pump House where the original lighthouse fog bell is hung and can be rung. Raffle tickets can be purchased at the Bake where a $1,000 cash prize, donated by the Browns Point Improvement Club will be the top prize.
The Bake is a gathering that has been attended – and tended – by many generations of families. Browns Point resident Bill McConnaughey and Dick Collins, will helm the salmon “pit.” The Browns Point tradition of cooking Salmon has been passed down through generations and began with the Bake’s founder, Jerry Meeker.
“It is an all-volunteer effort,” said Brian Fransen, a volunteer at the Bake and a lifelong resident of Browns Point. “In some families, Salmon Bake duties have become a legacy.”
The Browns Point Salmon Bake began in the early 1900s when Puyallup Native American Jerry Meeker hosted traditional-style clam and salmon bakes on the beach at the end of summer, just as he had with his tribal family prior to settlement of Browns Point by Europeans. It is the longest continually running salmon bake in the state, which started in 1946, and happens every other August.