I used to work in the canneries in Alaska during the summers off from college. They pay you minimum wage but the long hours means most of your work is at the OT rate. It's crap work, will put some stress on your body but clearing 10k for a couple months work was not impossible and you get to meet a lot of interesting characters. This was 20 years ago though - not sure what things are like now.
You can always get a job working in an Alaskan cannery. Most coastal towns will have one. It is not crap work -- it's fish guts work. They will probably pay minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour at the moment, but generally you can work as much OT as you like. Many canneries will pay your way from Seattle, and give you room and board as well -- for certain values of "room" and "board".
If you're lucky and social, you can find your way onto a fishing boat; deckhands will usually get a percentage of the catch ($$$), and the work is easier.
I've been through Yakima a time or two before. A gritty wind blew continually -- it seemed like the kind of place where not even the dust wanted to settle. My sympathies to the poster.
