The Yakutat and Southern Railroad was a unique railroad in the United States: its sole freight commodity was raw fish. Not only that, its schedule depended on both the tide each day, and the fishing season itself; thus, the railroad would lay dormant during the winter.

The Y&S began operations in 1903, with the express purpose of hauling fresh-caught raw fish from the Situk River to the cannery wharf in Yakutat, 11 miles to the north. Fishermen would bring their salmon to Johnson Slough on the Situk River and load it onto a Y&S train. The train would then take the fish north to Yakutat, where they would be off-loaded at a canning facility, where they would be canned and shipped from Monti Bay, a deep-water port within Yakutat.

The cannery in Yakutat which was served by the Y&S filed for bankruptcy in 1971, thus bringing to an end the Y&S and the over 60 years of hauling raw fish. Surprisingly, the cannery is still operated today, but is not served by any railroad. Various Y&S equipment can be found in a city park about a mile outside of Yakutat.