In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago.
October 8, 1914: Miss Durkey, president of the Alaska Garnet Mining & Manufacturing Company who are operating at the garnet ledge at the mouth of the Stikine, was a passenger up on the Mariposa the first of the week. Miss Durkey states that the Company will ship some twelve tons of garnets south on the Dolphin next trip. The company has secured a selling concession from the government to sell their garnets in the Manufacturer’s Building at the San Francisco Fair and this shipment will be the first bound for that place.
October 6, 1939: The Wrangell Highway Chichagof Point section will be opened to the public next Sunday, A.H. Cohn, engineer for the Bureau of Roads administration, said today. The grading and surfacing of the section was completed by the contractor the first part of the week. The location survey for this portion of the Wrangell Highway and the Pat’s Creek section was made in 1934. Two years later Custard, Meadows, Oja and Co. completed the clearing and grubbing of the seven miles compromising these two sections. Still another two years later bids were opened by the PRA at Juneau for the grading and surfacing of the first 3.4 mile section known as the Chichagof Point section. Wright & Stock, Inc. of Seattle were the low bidders and started work on Sept. 12, 1938.
October 9, 1964: In one of the largest city elections in years, Martin Nore, Dr. E.J. Wheeler and Harvey Hodge were elected to the City Council Tuesday and Jack Urata was elected to the school board. A total of 319 votes were cast, 294 at the polling places and 25 absentee ballots. Election judges said they estimated as many as 25 others had been turned away for failure to be properly registered. Dr. Wheeler as write-in candidate after declining his petition nomination, tallied 224 votes, leading the ticket for the three-year council term. He was given two votes for the two-year term and one vote for school board. Wheeler is a former mayor of Wrangell and served for years previously on the City Council. Hodge was runner-up for the three year term with 150 votes, well over other contestants. Nore led the two-year council field with 267, far outdistancing his opponent for that term. Urata unopposed was high man with a total of 281 votes for the school board.
October 5, 1989: Alaska’s 1989 commercial salmon harvest hit a new record with more than 150 million fish caught, weighing more than 660 million pounds. Fish and Game Department Commissioner Don Collinsworth said preliminary catch statistics show the 1989 harvest exceeds the previous record of 146.7 million fish taken in 1985. Preliminary value of fishermen is estimated at more than $491 million, he said. This figure is second only to the 1988 value of $742 million and record prices were paid.
“The state has come a long way in development of resources that support our fisheries,” Collinsworth said. “We’re seeing very different harvest levels from those of the early 1970s. The department has worked to achieve a program that identifies desirable escapement levels and maintains them by proper management.” In the early 1970s, state salmon harvest declined sharply, partly because of adverse weather conditions. It was during that time the department entered into an expanded enhancement and rehabilitation programs. The 1989 season was severely impacted by the March 24 Exxon Valdez oil spill, Collinsworth said. Commercial salmon fisheries in Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet, Kodiak and Chignik all were curtailed. “The 1989 catch would certainly have exceeded 155 million salmon if the oil spill had not occurred,” he said.
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