A Century Of Experience In Alaska

In 1923 seventeen-year-old Vern Johnson arrived in Alaska searching for adventure and opportunity of the last frontier. Vern was an incredibly resourceful young man and quickly adapted to life in the arctic. He traveled to remote villages by dogsled to trade furs and other goods. He was well known for his snowshoe hare snares which earned him the moniker, “Rabbit Snare” Johnson.

After WWII, Vern Johnson started Alaska Canvas Supply and Commercial Sewing in Fairbanks. He repaired zippers and adapted clothes for the military to better withstand the frigid arctic temperatures and canvas tents and tarps. Vern “Rabbit Snare” Johnson spent the next thirty years running his business in Fairbanks until his retirement in 1971 when he sold the business to Bill McIntyre.

The business was then renamed Alaska Tent & Tarp and they continued to expand their product line with Airplane wing covers and innovations in tents. When the Alaskan Pipeline project began it brought an enormous opportunity to McIntyre and Alaska Tent & Tarp. After the first winter, the out-of-state contractors quickly realized that they were not equipped to deal with the harsh arctic elements and turned to McIntyre and Alaska Tent & Tarp for help. They applied their knowledge of the deep cold to design unique products to meet the requirements of working in the Arctic and quickly built a reputation as the best fabric product manufacturer on the North Slope. In 1975 Alaska Tent and Tarp began making geomembranes to support Oil Field’s adherence to environmental worksite requirements.

Alaska Tent & Tarp was sold to Jim and Sandy Haselberger who in 1995, further strengthened Alaska Tent & Tarp's position as the leader in arctic industrial fabric solutions, before being acquired by Airframes Alaska in 2018. In 2022, Airframes Alaska revamped the industrial sector of Alaska Tent and Tarp to form the newly developed TundraTech Alaska to better serve the energy, environmental, and military industries of the far north.

Today's Expert Leader In Arctic Grade Solutions

TundraTech is headed by longtime Alaska Tent & Tarp employee Kelly Dart. Like “Rabbit Snare” Johnson, she came to Alaska in search of adventure and opportunity and has spent years working in the tough arctic conditions TundraTech's products are made for. Dart's extensive background working in a diverse range of field projects has established her as the go-to expert in the industry. The TundraTech team carries with it the reputation that Bill McIntyre established as the best fabric product manufacturer on the North Slope.