The Way We Were

August 12, 1920

Many people in the States seem to have in some way gotten the very erroneous impression that it does nothing but rain in Alaska during the summer. If our friends in the States would simply study the official weather reports for Alaska it would be a means of disabusing their minds of such utterly false ideas. The official records of Ed F. Grigwire, U.S. weather observer at Wrangell, for July, show so little moisture that one might think Wrangell was located in the Sahara desert instead of Alaska. Report for July Temperature; Mean Maximum: 71, Mean minimum: 49, Mean: 60, Maximum: 81, Minimum: 44. Precipitation total: 1 ¾ inches. Greatest in 24 hour: .81. Clear days: 23; partly cloudy: 3; cloudy: 5.

August 17, 1945

The War is over. Wrangell celebrated the surrender with appropriate joyousness and business houses closed that all might participate. Wrangell’s men we hope soon will be coming home. We owe them a debt which can never be fully paid any more than can they recapture and relive again the months and years they took out of their lives to serve their town and their country. Those months and years were not pleasant. Probably they would rather have remained home to hunt and fish and play rather than submit to the regimented, rugged training which Uncle Sam found necessary to put them through. But they took it like men—and they will return, not boys, but men.

August 13, 1970

Jamie Bryson, editor of the Sentinel, and P.C. McCormack, of the Wrangell Wharf and Etolin Transfer and Storage, returned to Wrangell Monday afternoon aboard a light aircraft they flew from San Diego. The plane, a 115-horsepower Champion Citabria, belongs to Bryson. He formerly used it for flight instructing purposes in Carlsbad, Calif., near San Diego. The 2,000-mile trip north took the Wrangell residents up the center of California and Oregon, through Seattle and British Columbia via the Fraser River, Prince George and Prince Rupert. Bryson, 35, and McCormack, 27, flew to San Diego by jet Wednesday and picked up the two-place, 100-mile-an-hour Citabria in Carlsbad Thursday morning. Overnight stops were made in Sutter Creek, Calif., Seattle, Prince George and Terrace, B.C. A total of 30 flying hours was required to make the trip.

August 17, 1995

Since Wrangell’s golf course is still a way from being ready to play through, supporters of the sport can practice their putter grip by grabbing hold of a fishing rod and competing in the first annual Wrangell Golf Club 50/50 Coho Derby. Beginning 8 a.m. Saturday and running through Labor Day weekend, the event offers three cash prizes, with amount depending on the number of anglers paying the $20 entry fees. Largest fish will earn 50 percent of the prize money; second largest fish gets 30 percent and third largest fish wins 20 percent of the prize money. Wrangell Golf Club will receive 50 percent of all entry monies. Wrangell King Salmon Derby rules and boundaries apply.