History, talent, and royalty at the Fourth of July talent show

Among the many events occurring the week of the Fourth of July in Wrangell is the annual talent show. The event is a great way for locals and visitors to show off their talents, whatever they may be, and to have a fun evening. There were a wide variety of acts for people to enjoy this year.

Bella Ritchie and her brother, Ryder, read poetry. Abby Gerald performed "Even If" by MercyMe on the piano. One particularly large act was done by the Young cousins: Braidyn, Taylor, Dvyn, Brynlee, Kelyn, Rilyn, and Keian. They performed a cheer routine of the old Wrangell High School spirit song.

Several people danced at the talent show, too. Cadence Williams danced to "How Far I'll Go" from Disney's Moana while her friend, Clara Waddington, sang. Taylor and Dylan Rathbun both danced as well.

Awards for the talent show were given out in several categories. The first place results are as follows: Kids: Dylan Rathburn, first place. Solo: Abby Gerald, first place. Duet: Clara Waddington and Cadence Williams.

This year's talent show had much more than just local performances, however. Between acts several volunteers were given the opportunity to speak about Wrangell's history.

The evening's history lesson began with members of Wrangell's Alaska Native population performing a traditional song and dance. The audience also got to learn a bit about Tlingit history in the Wrangell area. The Tlingit nation, or Kwaan, of the Wrangell area once consisted of about nine clans, long ago. The Tlingit nation of this area was also known as the Shtax'heen Kwaan. It means "The Bitter Water People," and refers to the Stikine River. The Shtax'heen Kwaan defended Wrangell Island from invaders at two points pre-contact with Russian explorers once from Canadian natives, and again from a group of Tlingits from further north up the coast.

Following the lesson and performance by the native dancers, guests of honor Frank Roppel and Mike Lockabey Sr. were invited onto the stage to talk about Wrangell's history in the logging industry. Roppel has a long history in the logging industry. According to a 2016 article in the Wrangell Sentinel, he began working for the Ketchikan Pulp Company in 1959. In 1980 he became the first president of Sealaska Timber, and was the executive vice president and general manager of Alaska Lumber and Pulp from 1984 until its closure. Wrangell has a very long history in the timber industry, he said. Its heyday was in the early 1950s, post-World War II, when Japan became heavily involved in the timber industry in Southeast Alaska. The industry declined and eventually fell apart in the 1990s, however. According to another 2016 article by the Wrangell Sentinel, the passage of the Tongass Timber Reform Act in 1990 hurt the local timber industry. Alaska Pulp Corporation sold their Wrangell mill in 1995, which continued to run intermittently until 2008. Despite the golden years of the industry being in the past, Roppel said that its influence on Wrangell can still be felt.

"Wrangell is a sawmill camp," Roppel said. "There was a sawmill here from 1889 until 2008."

Lockabey is a longtime resident of Wrangell, also with a history in the industry, who remembers well the town's logging days. Back before the industry declined in the area, there were lots of logging camps scattered across the region. At the center of all these different camps and people together, he said, was Wrangell. However, with the loss of the logging industry in the area, Lockabey said that a sense of community had left with it.

"The camps were communities," he said. "We had families that lived there, bunkhouse guys in the summertime. It was a brutal job. We had fatalities, we'd have memorial services. We'd actually have weddings in camp ... Like any other job in the woods it was a perilous job and you did it the best you could and try to stay in one piece."

Another fun bit of Wrangell's history came in the form of a skit put on by "Dawson Dale" and "Emerald Elle" (Dale Parkinson and Liz Buness). Wrangell was an important stop for prospectors in the gold rush days. With the prospectors came "shady ladies." Wrangell, back in the late 1800s, was a pretty rough-and-tumble town, according to the skit. A fun fact about that time period, according to Master of Ceremonies Bonnie Ritchie, is that Wyatt Earp came to Wrangell in those days and was sheriff of the town for a week and a half.

"Wrangell was too wild for him, so he went back to San Francisco," said Master of Ceremonies Abigail Bylow.

After the talent show and the history lessons, another important part of Wrangell's Fourth of July tradition took place: The queen coronation. The Fourth of July royalty contest is a tradition that dates back to 1950, Ritchie said. Contestants wanting to be named Queen or King would spend the month of June running food booths and selling drawing tickets. The funds raised by ticket sales go towards next year's Fourth of July events. Wrangell's first-ever queen was Pat Lewis Mork.

This year, Wrangell's Fourth of July Queen is Abby Gerald. While she was the sole candidate for the contest this year, she did not slack off the last month. For all of June she could be found selling food and tickets at the downtown pavilion, alongside her family, friends, and other volunteers. In all, she sold 57,648 tickets during the contest. While much of the money raised goes to the chamber of commerce, Gerald also gets to keep a portion for her college fund.

"What's on the stage is not what made this happen," Gerald said. "Everyone made this happen. This whole community is what made this happen."