The Way We Were

August 29, 1912: Two accidents on the waterfront, which but for the fortunate discovery and prompt assistance by citizens would have resulted in the drowning of two boys, occurred on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Monday forenoon, Neil Grant, son of J.G. Grant, undertook to sail his father's rowboat with a sackcloth sail and uncertain rigging. In some way while busy with the boat he fell overboard. When discovered by Dr. Dawes the boat was drifting out with the crew holding to the side, but unable to get aboard. Tuesday afternoon as the City of Seattle was steaming in from the north, Georgie Anderson, aged 3, fell off the St. Michael Trading Co. wharf and would probably have drowned but for the quick action of T.H. Cunningham, who jumped off the dock after him.

August 27, 1937: Fire, believed by the Wrangell Fire Department Committee to be of incendiary origin, early this morning caused damage estimated at $2,000 in the boys' dormitory of Wrangell Institute, vocational boarding school under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, situated five miles from Wrangell. The dormitory has been unoccupied since the close of school last May. But for a fortunate circumstance the dormitory would have been destroyed and probably other buildings in the group, estimated in all worth about $250,000.

August 24, 1962: The Wrangell Lumber Company export sawmill will resume operations Monday morning, the management announced this week. The mill has been closed for two months while undergoing renovation and installation of equipment. A sprinkling system has been installed, machinery replaced and repaired and the outside of the main plant painted an attractive green with white trimming. The mill has a limited supply of logs at this time, the statement said, but it is hopeful that further supply can be obtained to continue operations throughout the winter.

August 27, 1987: Another elk in the herd transplanted to Etolin Island earlier this year was discovered dead this week. It was the 15th of 28 elk equipped with radio collars to have died since the transplant from Oregon was completed last winter. Butch Young, biologist with the state Fish and Game Department, said officials now believed about 55 percent of the total elk herd of 51 to have died. They base the percentage assumption on the percentage rate of dead elk among those equipped with radio collars. Young said a flight over Etolin Island on Monday revealed the most recent death. He said he did not know what caused the animal to die because he had been unable earlier this week to get onto the ground to investigate. The transplant was accomplished with a $450,000 legislative appropriation, the result of a bill sponsored in 1984 by then-newly elected Rep. Robin Taylor, R-Wrangell. The Forest Service chipped in $40,000 to purchase radio collars for about half the animals.