In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago.
January 1, 1914: Talk about your masquerades, you should have been at the Red Men's masquerade last night, everyone in town was there but you, and costumes, never such a variety before, it was the biggest masquerade ever held in Wrangell, and the music, say, it was great, not the cost of it, just the music. Everybody and his brother turned out, it was a variety show as well as a dance. The rink was crammed and everyone was just bubbling over with mirth. That 15 lb. ham was a great magnet, worst looking characters galore and fancy steppers to a fare-you-well Stikine Tribe No. 5 I.O.R.M. can do it up brown in the masquerade line, all the rest are imitators.
January 6, 1939: What's the obligation of parents in respect to the curfew law, City Clerk L.B. Chisholm was asked last night by the City Council in the discussion which followed the reading of a letter from the Wrangell Women's Civic Club. Mr. Chisholm in answering the question as to the responsibility of the parents “whether they give a whoop or not,” as one councilman put it, referred to ordinance No. 103, passed and approved by the Council on Nov. 12, 1936. This provides for the keeping of boys and girls under the age of 16 years off the streets after the hour of 10 o'clock p.m. from April 1 to October 1 and after 9 o'clock p.m. during the remainder of the year.
January 3, 1964: J. Dar “Santa Claus” Smith, who has made calls at various homes where there are children on Christmas Eve, made 72 such calls this year, as well as serving at school and other Christmas programs. Santa Claus Smith says he gets such a big kick out of seeing the youngsters on Christmas Eve and hei-ing them off to bed so he can “deliver his toys.” Dar, who is the ferry agent here and was for many years with Standard Oil, does his Santa act as his own personal contribution toward the festivities of the Christmas season.
January 5, 1989: Officials with the Four-Dam Pool say an avalanche just before Christmas along the Richardson Highway could boost power rates for all members of the utility pool. Dick Southworth, chairman of the Four-Dam Pool's Project Management Committee and head of Ketchikan Public Utilities, says the repair expenses will impact wholesale power rates for all member utilities. The Four-Dam Pool is made up of utilities in Wrangell, Petersburg, Ketchikan, Glennallen, Valdez and Kodiak. The avalanche occurred in the area served by the Copper Valley Electric Association along the highway between Glennallen and Valdez. The avalanche took out seven electric transmission line towers. Ten others were damaged. Officials with the Alaska Power Authority estimated it would cost $1.5 million to repair the damage. Added fuel and labor costs will run about $250,000, the Copper Valley Electric Association said, while electricity sales should decline about 39 percent for the utility. City Manager Joyce Rasler, Wrangell's representative to the PMC, said recent correspondence from the association indicated repairs could not be completed until July or August. In addition, she said, the association estimated its power sales would be about 3.8 million kilowatt hours under budget, and that assumed water levels at Solomon Gulch power project remained sufficient during the summer to keep providing hydro power to the community of Valdez. If diesel generators are needed to supplement power to Valdez, costs will rise even more.
Reader Comments(0)