The Way We Were

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

April 23, 1914: The Fire Department was called out early Monday to answer an alarm sounded from the fire bell in the Red Men’s Hall. The fire was in the shack occupied by E.W. Stewart and his partner in back of Chas. Shun Grocery Store. The fire had started from an un-jointed stove pipe in the garret from which a spark had lodged in the underside of the roof. Mr. Stewart was eating breakfast when someone yelled fire and, on going outside, he discovered that it was his own home. The fire was extinguished with little loss.

April 21, 1939: Considerable activity has been seen in the past three or four days in the salmon and halibut lines. Trollers are icing up and taking on bait. Quite a few salmon have been coming in the last day or so and a few are being caught in the harbor in front of town. The salmon are all of a large size, although there are quite a few white ones. Work on the new fish house at the Wrangell Cold Storage is being rushed and in another 48 hours will be ready to receive fish and deliver ice over the new chute.

April 17, 1964: Chamber of Commerce ,at its luncheon meeting yesterday, authorized purchase of 50 copies of the special earthquake edition of the Fairbanks News-Miner for sale at a dollar a piece. All proceeds to go to disaster relief. The News-Miner’s edition is an excellent story in color pictures of the great quake, which devastated vast areas of Westward Alaska March 27. Publisher Bill Snedden has advised that every dollar from the sale of the paper go to the relief area.

April 20, 1989: Seven vocational-education students at Wrangell Junior-Senior High School are finishing work on an aluminum river scow and wooden skiff in hopes of auctioning off the boats early next month. The boats will be offered for sale to the public after nine months of hard work sketching, welding, cutting and fiberglassing. And teacher Dave Brown says the students hope the auction will net them back the $5,000 seed money the district has spent to start the entrepreneurial program. “With the selling of these two boats, the fund will always become greater and we will have a self-sufficient program,” Brown said. The 17-foot aluminum river scow – built with help from local boat-builders – required nearly $2,000 in supplies in addition to many hours of student effort.

 

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