At its peak in the late 19th century, the Columbia River fishing industry supported as many as 55 salmon and tuna canneries, together processing tens of millions of cans per year.

For a time, canneries prospered and merged. They shipped fish from Astoria across the world, attracted Chinese and Scandinavian immigrant families and tied themselves to the character of the region.

Though canning is now long gone, evidence of its past remains. Stories of canneries are told in relics on pilings, in historic displays at the Columbia River Maritime Museum and on the sides of buildings in faded signs.

One enduring reminder of the region’s canning past are its colorful variety of salmon labels, made to correspond to various brands, varieties and grades of fish sold in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

These labels are now objects of collections, articles and books. They’re so present in Astoria as to even wrap around the city’s trash cans.

At one of the city’s oldest fish processing plants, now the Hanthorn Cannery Museum on Pier 39, displays recount the stories of cannery workers over more than a century — and gather together collections of those recognizable labels.