October 4, 1917: War was declared on Wrangell Saturday night by Oscar Weston, who, after mixing drinks too freely, became enraged over imaginary offenses. Weston went aboard a gas boat tied to the slip of the Columbia and Northern dock and opened fire on the town with a 280 Ross high power rifle. Fortunately he aimed a little too high to do any harm, but the whistling of bullets overhead was not very welcome music. The officers, knowing that Weston was insane for the time being, and wishing to take him alive, permitted Charlie Olesen, who knew Weston pretty well, to undertake his arrest. Through a clever subterfuge Olesen succeeded in getting aboard the boat and disarming the madman. Monday morning Weston was arraigned before U.S. Commissioner Weber on a complaint sworn to by H.J. Wallace, charging him with firing into the populated section of Wrangell. At the trial Weston appeared sober and contrite, and freely pleaded guilty to the charge. The Commissioner gave Weston the light sentence of six months.
October 2, 1942: Although the regular flight birds have only started to show, duck and goose hunters are returning to town these days with good bags. Waterfowl thus far, they report, are mostly local although some flight birds are showing on the Stikine flats. White geese will be along about October 7 and usually reach their peak after part of November. Deer hunters also report success, with the supply of bucks apparently plentiful. U.S. Commissioner R. J. Suratt reported that 242 licenses have been issued thus far, 88 hunting and trapping permits and 154 straight residents hunting licenses.
September 29, 1967: A campaign has started to get the Wrangell airport paved. The airport, which is under construction will be a 5,000 feet gravel runway in the first phase. City Administrator Clayton Schmitt told City Council members this week that the second phase of the state’s plan for the field would include lengthening it to 6,500 feet and its paving. He said a group of Chamber of Commerce members were planning to seek paving the airport immediately. Originally, Schmidtt said, the state had allotted $2.4 million for the project. The contractor’s fee and engineering costs are expected to be $1.6 million, he said. Proponents of the paving project are expected to ask the state to put the $800,000 saving back into the fund to pay for the surfacing the administrator explained.
October 8, 1992: The Stikine River moose hunt is proceeding slowly, with only 12 bulls shot as of Tuesday morning. With just a week left in the season, the count is only half of last year’s total harvest of 24 moose. The 1991 total was the lowest since 1977. A report from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Petersburg said, “The river has been raging over the past few days keeping hunters at a minimum.”
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