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It appears that tour operators who bring visitors to Wrangell’s Petroglyph Beach will be required to pay a $350 annual fee to the state plus $6 per person starting next year. The fee for commercial use of a state park or historic site has been a provision in Alaska law since the 1980s but apparently never enforced for the Petroglyph Beach State Historic Site, which was designated in 2000. The fee structure was updated in 2021. The State Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation realized it had not issued any commercial-use permits or collected f...
Wrangell is one of 64 communities nationwide selected for the first year of a new federal program called Thriving Communities, intended to help towns get a better shot at federal funds. In Wrangell’s case, the two-year effort will focus on developing a plan for the former 6-Mile mill property. The borough purchased the property last year for $2.5 million in hopes of enticing private investment and spurring economic development for the community. The federal program will not provide any cash to the borough but will pay the bills for a team of c...
A former garnet seller was reunited with one of her customers last week after 34 years. In 1989, Eva Lee Henderson traveled to Wrangell from Chicago for a ferry trip with a friend. During her roughly 30-minute stop in town, she had just enough time to purchase two garnets from an 11-year-old girl at City Dock - Kristy Nore, now Kristy Woodbury. The garnets came with a handwritten note, explaining how they were formed and where they were excavated from. "I thought it was very interesting that...
Over 300 athletes, family members and volunteers showed up to the Wrangell Invitational cross-country meet Saturday, Sept. 9, for a race featuring teams from 10 schools around Southeast. The Sitka team won both the men's and women's races overall, putting three runners in the top five for each race. Sitka's Connor Hitchcock logged the fastest time of the day at 16:42 and Sitka's Clare Mullin, who competed in the men's race, logged the fastest women's time at 18:56.7. Wrangell runners had a...
Sept. 13, 1923 The pictorial section of a recent issue of The New York Times contains some excellent views taken at the time of President Harding’s visit to Wrangell. One exceptionally fine picture is that of Mrs. Harding, Junior Barnes and an Eskimo dog breed. There is also a good picture of Gertrude Goodrich shaking hands with the president. A picture of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover taken while speaking shows the president, Gov. Bone, George H. Harnes and Dr. Diven standing a couple of feet back of the speaker. There is also an e...
The borough this week went out to bid for a contractor to supply and install corrosion-preventing aluminum anodes on the steel pilings at Heritage Harbor. The job is estimated at $1.5 million. The plan is for the contractor to start work in February and finish by April 2024, Harbormaster Steve Miller said last week. Bids are due Oct. 2. The pilings for the harbor floats “are still in good shape,” Miller said, but are starting to corrode. Anodes were not included in the job specifications when Heritage was built. The harbor and its floats were c...
The Zarembo Island parking lot is free, as are the tags to put on the windshield. What’s changing is that the U.S. Forest Service now wants people to get a new tag each year so that the agency can keep better track of vehicles left at the Roosevelt Harbor parking lot on Zarembo Island. After it spent a couple hundred thousand dollars to improve the drainage and parking surface at the lot, and clear out abandoned vehicles, the agency would like to keep the area in better shape. “We’re hoping the public will help us self-police the site,...
Wrangell-Petersburg area hunters took 118 moose last year and a similar harvest is expected this year. Harvest levels have remained fairly constant in recent years, area game biologist Frank Robbins said last week. The season opens Friday, Sept. 15, and runs through Oct. 15. The annual harvest has averaged 120 moose over the past five years, Robbins said. That covers state Game Management Units 3, 1B and the southern portion of 1C, which includes Wrangell, Mitkof, Kupreanof, Kuiu, Zarembo, Woronkofski and Etolin islands, and the mainland....
Mariah Carney proudly displays a vegetable she picked at the annual harvest of the Evergreen Elementary School garden on Friday, Sept. 8. After planting and tending the garden, students gather the vegetables of their labor and serve them to families at an open house....
The community already does a good job of pitching in, helping out and coming up with money for school sports activities. But rather than just doing it one sport, one event at a time, there is a proposal to reestablish a booster club for all school sports. It’s been about 20 years since a booster club coordinated fundraising for youth athletics in Wrangell, and there are a lot of reasons why this is a good time to restart the effort. State funding for education in Alaska is inadequate, made even worse when Gov. Mike Dunleavy this year vetoed h...
When I was much younger, hallucinations were an affliction of college students who figured drug-assisted education was the answer to life — or at least worth a try. Not me (honest). I found it more entertaining to stay sober and watch everyone else act stupid, and then tell them the stories the next day and at reunions for years to come. I had figured that self-inflicted hallucinations were in the past, an unhealthy phase of life, much like eating four hot dogs, with fries, in one sitting. It was my favorite weekend meal with high school f...
A legal challenge by the state to the Biden administration’s reinstatement of the roadless rule, banning logging and road building on more than nine million acres in the Tongass National Forest, was filed Friday, Sept. 8, in federal court. The complaint continues more than two decades of battles over the roadless rule protections initially enacted in 2001 under a policy initiated by then-President Bill Clinton. In recent years then-President Donald Trump nullified the policy and opened the forest area to development, with the administration o...
About 20 years ago, a booster club helped raise money for the community’s youth athletics, but the organization has since shut down. Now, a new fundraising organization is about to step up to support student athletes — the Wrangell Athletic Club (WAC). The club will raise money for elementary, middle and high school sports and activities, independent of the school district, explained high school cross country coach Mason Villarma, who is leading the planning effort. Parents, coaches and community members who want to get involved can attend the...
The high school swim team competed in its first meet of the season, the Sitka Invitational, on Sept. 1 and 2. Though the Wrangell Wolves placed sixth overall, many swimmers logged personal bests in this early season event after the community's long pool closure. Senior Jack Roberts placed first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:54.13 and was among the top three finishers in all his events. He swam personal bests in two of his four events, with a 22.95 50-yard freestyle and a 1:04.91...
Community members have a couple of ways to participate in the Alaska Recreation & Parks Association conference that is coming to town Sept. 19-22. One way is to donate artwork and handmade crafts for a fundraising auction. Another is to sign up for a leadership training session for members of nonprofit boards and commissions. “We would love the opportunity to showcase Wrangell’s talented artists and makers through the silent auction,” Wrangell Parks and Recreation staff said in asking for donated items. “All proceeds raised from the auction...
A pair of Juneau teachers needed good news after they lost nearly all their possessions when their house collapsed last month into the Mendenhall River swollen by a glacial-outburst flood and their cat went missing. Elizabeth Wilkins was holding onto hope that if any animal would survive the house falling into the river on Aug. 5, it would be Leo, the couple's resilient big-eyed, black-and-white cat who shows no fear of bears. "I knew that he's pretty smart, and so I felt pretty confident that h...
Parks and Recreation is inviting people during the month of September to participate in something new — a BioBlitz community event — to create an online snapshot of the variety of pollinator wildlife that can be found in Wrangell. It’s part of Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz, a five-year-old nationwide campaign hosted by the National Recreation and Park Association that asks people to take photos of pollinators and upload them to the website or iNaturalist app. According to information on NRPA’s Parks for Pollinators website, the goal is to r...
More than half-a-million cruise ship tourists will have visited Sitka this summer — a record number — and slightly more are expected next year, Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal owner Chris McGraw told an audience at the online chamber of commerce meeting Sept. 6. He said it looks like the end-of-summer number will total 271 cruise ship stops in Sitka, which includes vessels that pull into his terminal and others that anchor offshore and lighter their passengers to city facilities. He estimates the year’s traffic will total 514,000 passengers at hi...
The family held a service for former Wrangell resident Robert "Bobby" George Stokes at the Harbor Light Church on Aug. 25. Burial followed at Sunset Gardens. Bobby passed away on July 23, 2020, at age 89, in Everett, Washington, due to natural causes. He was born at the Wrangell Bishop Rowe Hospital to Jack and Lillian Stokes on July 31, 1930. Jack was an Irishman from Revelstoke, British Columbia. Lillian was born in Douglas, across the channel from Juneau, and was a Tlingit of the Luknax.adi....
Monday, Sept. 4 Vehicle theft: Civil issue. Disturbance. Agency assist: Parks and Recreation. Traffic stop: Citation issued for speeding. Traffic stop: Citation issued for speeding. Tuesday, Sept. 5 Disturbance. Fraud. Agency assist: Adult probation. Driving revoked. Agency assist: Oregon State Police. Agency assist: Line crew. Suspicious circumstance. Wednesday, Sept. 6 Arrest: Attempted miscounduct of controlled substance. Agency assist: Ambulance. Citizen assist. Agency assist: Ambulance. Agency assist: Hospital. Theft. Thursday, Sept. 7...
RUMMAGE SALE First Presbyterian Church will hold a garage rummage sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 22 and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sept. 23 at the church. Accepting donations now. Call 907-874-3534 or text 907-660-7112 to coordinate donation pickup or drop-off. HELP WANTED Wrangell Public Schools is accepting applications for the following positions for the 2023-2024 school year: - Long-term Substitute Elementary School Teacher: This position is anticipated to begin on Jan. 4 and run through March 4, 2024. An Alaska Type A Teaching...
The Biden administration on Sept. 6 announced it is canceling the last remaining oil and gas leases in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Those seven leases, all held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and sold in a controversial auction held in the final days of former President Donald Trump’s administration, have been in limbo ever since President Joe Biden was sworn into office. On his first day, Biden issued an order requiring a hold on Arctic refuge development to allow for further scrutiny o...