Square gas cans

This is another question arising from my reading of Richard Proenneke’s journals. In a thread about the first book I wrote this:

I’m reading the second book now, and it appears from one paragraph in particular that the cans were actually used for gasoline:

This was in 1977. Now, I’m a city boy; but I spent some time in rural areas and had been riding minibikes and motorcycles since I was five. I don’t recall ever seeing one of these square five-gallon gas cans. How common were they? Did all gas companies use them, or only certain ones? How long were they around? Why were they discontinued? Were they ‘gas cans’ in the sense of jerrycans or the five gallon round gas cans you get at the hardware store? Or were they intended only to be used one time to transport the fuel?

The ones I remeber seeing were much like the jerrycan. Like this.

When I first read ‘gas cans’ in the first book I assumed jerrycans, but the context indicated they were of much thinner metal. I saw a can in the film made from the first book, and they are not like jerrycans. They are square, and taller than their square dimensions. They’re white metal that appeared to be about the thickness of your typical Coleman fuel can.

I know! I know! Johnny Look here at the picture in the lower left.
Square 5 gallon can with a large (4"?) screw top. Used quite often for paint thinner, Acetone and other solvents. I have seen pictures from WWII showing planes in the Pacific being refueled from these cans.
They had several nice features. First off they were cheap (I bought 30 of them once for a refueling stop for a boat record run) secondly they stacked easily. Lastly the large opening made pouring easy.
Looking at the link the neck is 2.5", but I have seen larger.

That appears to be exactly what Proenneke was talking about.

When did you buy the 30? (As I mentioned, the book said they were discontinued in 1977.) Any idea why they stopped selling gas in these cans? (Lack of demand when more gas stations were installed in remote areas?)

Sounds like he was talking about the most verstile building material used by Alaskan homesteaders, pre-statehood: the Blazo Can, a five gallon tin like the one in **Rick’s ** cite. Many a cabin was shingled in flattened Blazo cans.

That sounds like the exact thing. ISTR Proenneke mentioning Blazo at least once. This site has an article on using Blazo cans and 30- and 55-gallon drums in Alaska. Also mentioned are the ‘gas can boxes’ Proenneke writes about.

The article was written in 1973 though, so there’s nothing (in my very quick scan) about why they were discontinued.

It was 1984 and my boss was trying to set a non-stop record for time to travel the gulf of California. The boat was going to require refueling part way.
We were scratching our head trying to come up with a way to haul and transfer 150 gallon of gas. Then I thought of square cans.
I got the yellow pages, and let my finger do the walking. Sure enough here in LA was a can manufacturing company. IIRC they were less than $2 each.

Speaking of other uses, when I was a boy scout we cut the side off of one of these cans and made a reflector oven. It weighed almost nothing, and we stuffed our sleeping bag in it for hike in camps. Set it next to the fire, with a wire rack inside, and we could bake a cake.

I have no idea about them being discontinued. I bought mine after 1977.