In the Sentinel 75, 50 and 25 years ago.
July 21, 1941: A lively blaze in the basement of Wrangell hotel last Saturday at dinner time caused a flurry of excitement among guests and did damage estimated at $20,000. But for the prompt work of Wrangell’s Volunteer fire department the fire might have been far more serious with even greater loss. The fire started from a short circuit, it was said, back of the boiler in the basement and had charred the girders badly under the floor of the dining room and kitchen before the flames were brought under control. Upper floors of the hotel were filled with smoke and lack of gas masks by the department made the work of the fire fighters extremely hazardous. They fought their way through the dense smoke to arouse guests and carry out their effects as long and they were able. After the source of the fire was discovered, between the kitchen and dining room, a hole was chopped in the floor and the fire hose turned on the flames, but not before the boiler, meat house and refrigeration plant in the basement were entirely destroyed.
July 29, 1966: Two Alaska firms beat out two veneer plant operators from the south for timber put up for sale this week in the Ketchikan area by the forest service. On Monday, 126.6 million board feet in the Tuxekan area went to Panhandle Logging Co. for an average price of $7.80 per thousand board feet. This scaled out to $30.03 per thousand for spruce and $3.10 for hemlock. Only other oral bidder was Astoria Plywood of Portland, Oregon. Incorporators of Panhandle Logging are two Ketchikan attorneys, R.L. Jernberg and C.L. Cloudy, and two Ketchikan accountants, Walter Shuham and Murray Simpson. Don Meurs, Inc. was the high bidder for 47.3 million board feet of timber sold in the Hecata Island area Tuesday. Meurs is already operating in the area.
August 1, 1991: Forty miles east of Wrangell, just across the Canadian border, activity underground has been increasing in the past six months, causing worry among many government officials and environmental groups. The subject of the shake-up is the Snip Gold Mine. Cominco unveiled its newest mine at Bronson Creek last week, touting it as “environmentally sensitive.” It had better be, considering the company just completed $11 million in renovations at their Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska because potentially harmful metals from the mine were flowing into a nearby creek. Levels of zinc and other metals in Red Dog Creek near Kotzebue had skyrocketed last summer to levels many times those recommended by the federal government, causing worry among state biologists who felt the contaminants threatened one of northwest Alaska’s richest char fisheries. Cominco again got its chance in the spotlight last week, but this time it was more favorable and certainly the work of several well-trained public relations employees. Approximately 100 guests, most of them from Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, were flown into the mine site and treated to a full day’s events after the company had wined and dined them.
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