In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago.
November 19, 1914: On the last steamer from the south comes the news that Canadian authorities are in fear of a German attack on the cities along the coast and have mined a section of the well-beaten path of the steamships plying the inside passage to Alaska. The section closed is known as Broughton Straits and means that vessels coming up the inside passage will have to bear off to starboard from Ella Point and pass to the north of Malcolm Island instead of to the south and take what is known as the Wheynton Passage and go by way of Black Fish Sound. Most of the vessels plying this run are able to make the Wheynton Passage, which is very narrow and dangerous, by passing through in the daylight.
November 17, 1939: Bids on the new Federal building to be erected here next year are to be called about the first of the year, according to word received here. M.S. Whittier, Assistant Collector of Customs, who passed through the first of the week en route to his home in Juneau after a trip Outside, reported it was his understanding after contacting officials in Seattle that everything would be ready for the bid calling by that time. The two-story structure will be erected on the present Federal grounds and will house the Department of Justice, including Commissioner’s court and Marshal’s office and Federal jail; Post Office, the Customs office; Signal Corps; Indian office; Weather Bureau and perhaps one or two other offices if space is available.
November 20, 1964: A public hearing will be held in Juneau, probably in January, on the proposed dredging of Dry Strait and further improvement of Wrangell Narrows, it was revealed here this week by a representative of the Army Corps of Engineers who met briefly with the City Council Tuesday before going on to Petersburg where a similar meeting was held. Juneau was chosen for the hearing on the grounds of being ‘neutral’ territory, not involved in the controversy which arose over the proposed bridging of Dry Strait by the Department of Highways in its plan for the extension of the Mitkof Highway to the mainland and thence to the Canadian border linking with Wrangell. Local interests objected to the bridge as proposed on grounds it would not provide sufficient clearance for vessels operating in the area.
November 16, 1989: Harriet Schirmer was no novice to practicing medicine in Alaska when she moved to Wrangell on Aug. 13, 1970. After a five-year stint in New York, Dr. Schirmer, her husband, Don, and son, Jack, longed to return to Alaska. They toured the communications of Kodiak, Palmer, Valdez, Kenai, Skagway and Wrangell – but decided to make their new home in Wrangell. “We just liked Wrangell best.“ Schirmer said in a recent interview with the Sentinel. “There was a neat, nice, beautiful hospital that needed a doctor.“ For two years, Wrangellites had been served by visiting physicians, but none had selected the community as the site of a permanent practice. Wrangell residents were thankful, then, when Schirmer, an 11-year veteran of medical service in Bethel, selected Wrangell as her new home. Schirmer retired last spring after 19 years running her medical practice in Wrangell. She and Don toured the Lower 48 during the last several months, and returned to Wrangell recently to settle in for the winter before heading out once again on another tour or project.
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