March 19,1917: C.G. Burnett, A.B Pennycook, and E.P Clarke returned Saturday afternoon on the gasboat Peggy from a 300 mile cruise through Frederick sound, Chatham strait, and Summer strait. They report that all bays along Baronof Island are still frozen up. The following additional items of news were gleaned form a conversation with one of the members of the party. The Wakefield Company is putting in a one-line cannery in addition to its kippered herring plant. The company now has about 5,000 barrels of herring corralled in seine which will be used for halibut bait when the cannery begins operating. The steamer Curacao came into Port Walter recently with a pile driver and crew to begin work on the salmon cannery and kippered herring plant for the Pacific Mild Curing Company. It is reported that another salmon cannery is to be built at Red bluff bay. Captain Morgan formally of Wrangell, arrived in Port Walter recently after seven years’ absence from Alaska. Captain Morgan was married last year to a lady of the Lone Star state and expects to have her join him soon. He plans to come to Wrangell to live in a few months. The Peggy got froze in at Port Walter, it being necessary for the crew to chop a way for her to get out. The cruise lasted nine days. The weather was disagreeably rough all the time, and the trip would not have been a very pleasant one had it not been for the cheering influence of Mr. Pennycook lived up to the sentiment of favorite: “It’s nice to get up in the morning, but it’s never to lie in your bed.”
March 20, 1942: Wrangell Chamber of Commerce rallied to the support of civil defense in the community at its luncheon meeting Monday in the Civic Center, naming a committee of George Fabricius and Ernest Anderson to cooperate with Civilian Defense Director James L. Dolan in obtaining sand which is to be placed in various homes and business houses about town to be used in an emergency against incendiary bombs.
There’s need of a port captain here, particularly with the fishing season approaching, so that boats can clear promptly without having to report at Ketchikan or Petersburg, was brought up by James Nolan and the Chamber voted to immediately get in touch with Commander F.A. Zeusler of the Coast Guard in Ketchikan and urge such an official be stationed here as soon as possible.
March 17, 1967: Activation of preliminary work on the new Wrangell airport on the back channel near the north end of the island was reported at the luncheon meeting of the Chamber of Commerce yesterday at Winnie’s Café. Stanley W. Pseiser, appraiser for the state department of highways, said he was in town to make an appraisal of the old Alaska Packers site, part of the program to extend the road to the new facility, City Administrator Clayton Schmitt reported the Division of Aviation had requested the city acquire 50,000 cubic feet of rock from the Point Highfield quarry to be used in the airport construction. He reported also that only two properties on the Church Street improvement right of way remained to be cleared and action on those was expected to go to the attorney general’s office late this week.
March 19,1992: Gov. Walter Hickel may have intentionally delayed releasing his capital budget until Friday the 13th. The $300 million budget for proposed public works projects might well face the ax this year. Not from the movie character Jason, but from the Legislature. Included in the budget is nearly $5 million earmarked for Wrangell, including $4.3 million for extensions of the Zimovia Highway water and sewer system and $443,000 for snow removal equipment at the airport. The plan was delivered as lawmakers debated what cuts needed to be made in Hickel’s proposed $2.48 billion operating budget.
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