In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago.
September 16, 1915: Wrangell will soon have a large Standard Oil station from the appearances of things. Mr. E.M. James of Los Angeles, California, one of the representatives of the company, is at present in Wrangell for the purpose of looking over several sites for the company. While several options have been taken on different properties, no deal has as yet been made but it is expected before many days. It is hoped that the company will make satisfactory arrangements and speedily start work on the tanks, as the plans are to build three large tanks and a warehouse and dock, which will probably mean an expenditure of from fifty to seventy-five thousand dollars.
September 20, 1940: Democrats may win the election but the GOP gets the gravy. At any rate, substance for gravy - moose meat. In other words, those moose hunting demons of the Stikine who ply their tree-sitting trade from Paradise Camp, currently known as Fort Wilkie, have scored a bull’s eye and the carcass of one bull moose, weight around 700 pounds, is snug in cold storage, credited to the locally famous moose hunting quartet-Jack McBride, Frank Barnes, Grover Foster and Curly Thornquist. Just who fired the telling shot wasn’t revealed, but reports from the upper river said other residents of the district thought the Nazis were dropping bombs, so terrific was the barrage. It’s been confirmed that the animal died, either from bullet wounds or fright, approximately 40 yards from the cabin door. A few more steps and he would have laid down on the butchering block, but the weight of the lead was too heavy, according to the special Stikine Grapevine News Service.
September 24, 1965: Don House, local bar and tugboat owner voluntarily sank his political ship in the coming city election when he formally withdrew from the two-sided race for mayor. When queried concerning this decision, House stated he felt the demands of home and business required him to adopt this position. “I have served about six years on the city council in different terms,” he said. “And I feel that there are others, perhaps more qualified, who should take their turn.” House added that he would perhaps seek office in a later election. This leaves the incumbent mayor, Doris Barnes, unopposed for the office in the Oct. 5 election. Barnes has served as Wrangell’s mayor consecutively since 1960 and held public office prior to this time. Two three-year councilmen’s seats are up for grabs with four candidates declaring themselves. Edward P. Churchill, boat owner; Winston Davies, manager of the Thunderbird Hotel; Frank Murkowski, vice-president of N.B.A. Wrangell branch; and Richard Sykes of Sykes Logging Co. will be competing at the polls for those seats.
September 20, 1990: State environmental officials are standing firm on their demand Alaska Pulp Corp. pay more than $170,000 in fines still owing for a wood waste fill at 5.5 Mile Zimovia Highway. Ron Flinn of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s said the attorney general’s office has stepped into the picture, demanding payment of the $500 fines for each day the wood-waste fill nicknamed Mount Seley exceeds terms of its solid-waste permit. As of Sept. 30, a full year will have elapsed since the fines started, Flinn said. That means the total owed at the end of the month will amount to $182,500, he said. Rollo Pool, spokesman for Alaska Pulp, said the company has been busy the past six months developing long-term plans for dealing with the mill’s wood-waste disposal problems. “I’m not going to say we don’t owe the fine,” Pool said Tuesday. “I’m not going to say they’re wrong for fining us. If we don’t agree on that, it goes to somebody else to decide.” But Pool said Alaska Pulp officials believe the larger issue is recognizing the major strides the mill has taken to solve future wood-waste problems-as well as the dilemma of Mount Seley inherited by Alaska Pulp when it resumed ownership of the Wrangell sawmill earlier this year. “If we are going to just sit there not doing anything, I don’t think they (DEC) would have any other choice,” he said. “We have been actively working to solve not only the Mount Seley problem.”
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