The Way We Were

In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago.

October 1, 1912: It was not a foppish yet an entirely self-satisfied bunch of firemen that dribbled back from the scene of the sawmill fire at cock crow this morning after successfully fighting one of the most stubborn although not very hot blazes yet found by the company. They were wet and weak and covered with grime and sawdust accumulated during the progress of the battle, but the victory was well worth the price. The shriek of the siren at 2 o'clock called out the force and the carts were quickly manned by the firemen and citizens who happened to be up late. The blaze although small, on account of its location under the shavings and sawdust bins and in an edging pile, required much water and was literally flooded, by the three streams, two from the city water system and one from the mill supply, which was played upon for the better part of two hours. At 4 o'clock one city team was released and only one stream kept up the wetting down until daylight, but fire still smolders in the refuse, which is being rapidly cleared away by worker men. The origin of the fire is not known and from the indications and the location of the blaze in the sawdust beneath the mill and in the fuel bins it may have been smoldering for some time.

October 1, 1937: Dredging operations to provide a small boat harbor at Wrangell got under way Thursday with L.L. Meadows of Custard, Meadows, Oja. and Company in charge. The dredging is being done by use of the slack line method with a three-yard Crescent heavy duty scrapper. Boat owners are warned to look over the harbor at low tide in order to see the position of the anchors and cables stretched for dredging boundaries. These are submerged at high tide and can damage a boat running into them at certain water stages. The area to be dredged is approximately 150 by 400 feet to 9 feet in depth at mean low tide. It runs parallel to Shakes Island. By agreement with the town, the contractors will dump the dredged material in a stock pile on the mud flats at the island.

September 28, 1962: Wrangell Assembly of Rainbow Girls will hold initiation ceremonies tomorrow night in the Elks hall. The ceremony will start at 7:30 and members of the Order of Eastern Star will act as installing officers. New Rainbow officers to be installed are Worthy Advisor, Alta Neyman; Worthy Associate Advisor, Darlynne Smith; Charity, Elaine Schwab; Hope, Karen Campbell; Faith, Madelyn Stella; Love, Bernice Davey; Religion, Linda Goodrich; Nature, Mae Kuykendal; Fidelity, Sherri Wilson; Patriotism, Carolyn Campbell; Service, Patsy Martin; Immortality, Tanya Oskolkoff; Drill leader, Irish Ruks; Choir Director, Elaine Rilatos; Musician, Becky Stokes; Outer Observer, vacant; Confidential Observer, Trudy Maxand; Recorder and Acting Treasurer, Dinah Martin; Chaplain, Roselyn Chase.

October 1, 1987: Holli O'Neil of Petersburg was one proud 4-year old on Sept. 3 when she found a very special message on the beach. While picking huckleberries with her mother, Heather, near Wrangell Narrows at the mouth of Blind Slough, Holli discovered a brightly colored stick almost hidden under a tree bough at the high water mark. “When she pointed it out to me at first I thought it was just a stake,” Heather said in describing the experience. “But then I knew it was something different, with those spokes on it. And I saw a cork.” Holli pulled the cork out of the hollowed-out piece of wood - and found a special message. It was written by Rod Brown's marine biology class on Jan. 14, 1986, when the students in Wrangell tossed the wooden object off a ferry near Point Alexander at the mouth of Wrangell Narrows. During the spring and summer of 1986, Brown received many responses from those who hauled in the floating messages. For nearly a year, however, he hasn't heard from anyone about finding one of the fluorescent orange, wooden tubes equipped with bicycle spokes as tiny flag poles with fluorescent flags on the end.