TONY DEMENTROFF MARTIN was born September 15, 1886 in Toshevo, Bulgaria. His native language was German. Census records indicate that he came to the US about 1906 and was living on the Kenai Peninsula as early as 1920, and in Seldovia by 1930. His naturalization papers from 1930 say that his name was officially changed from Triffan Marinoff to Tony Martin at that time.
Tony was involved in just about every activity that was happening in Seldovia area in his day. He was an active fur farmer and salmon fisherman. In 1928 the Pacific Fisherman’s Yearbook reported that he had produced 80 barrels and 25 half barrels of pickled herring in that season.
By the time fox farming became unprofitable in the Great Depression, fox on the Kenai Peninsula had already become rare. On March 26, 1932, the Seldovia Herald reported that Tony Martin had returned from his trap line along Fox River, at the head of Kachemak bay. “He made small catch, the usual thing it appears, this season, but the few pieces are of fine size and excellently shaded. A lynx, six black male mink, a collection of ermine and then there is the fox, golden red and brown … T. Martin in all his trapping and woods experience had never seen anything like it. The fur has caused a sensation in Seldovia … the scarcity of fur-bearing animals, T. Martin maintains, is due to depletion of the rabbit crop … as with the fur bearers though, the veteran trapper regards the next few years as an adjustment period, and believes that with proper supervision return to normal conditions will be accomplished … .”
Hank Kroll relates a story that involved Tony:
Tony Martin was one of my father’s friends. He lived directly across Seldovia Bay from the town. The Urban renewal contractors had left hundreds of cases of dynamite in a shed next to where he was living. My father and I went across the bay with his little Diesel Boat. It didn’t have a name except Diesel Boat. He let it go dry at half-tide below were the dynamite was stored and we proceeded to carry cases of dynamite down and load it in the boat..
Tony was glad to get some of the dynamite out of his front yard and helped us carry the stuff. A week later the authorities burned up all the rest of the rest of the dynamite. It was good that we got our share first. As any homesteader can tell you dynamite is a very useful tool.
We had the boat loaded in a couple hours and had to wait for the tide to float it. After eleven hours of zigzagging and pounding we entered Tuxedni Bay. Pop beached the boat about a mile from Crescent River and we proceeded to pack all the explosive up into the woods. We stacked it on scrap lumber and covered it with the remains of a surplus army tent left over from WWII. Those old olive drab canvas tents were good camouflage. Over the years we used the dynamite to remove stumps, build roads, and blast boulders into pieces so that we could remove them off the sand spit.