The Way We Were In the Sentinel

Aug. 25, 1921

The Wrangell Pulp and Paper Co., composed of local people with eastern connections, is busy with plans for the establishment of a pulp and paper mill in the Wrangell District. This company has made application to the Federal Power Commission for a preliminary permit for power development on certain unnamed streams and lakes discharging into the head of McHenry Inlet on Etolin Island. The Wrangell Pulp and Paper Co. has had reports made on the multiple water power sites by Donald G Campbell of the well known engineering firm of Campbell, Wells & Elmdorf, of Seattle. Representatives of the U.S. Forest Service, under the direction of the Federal Power Commission, are now surveying the sites. As soon as permits are received from the Federal Power Commission the company will be in a position to go ahead with the project.

Aug. 23, 1946

Wrangell this week had its first freight boat in 23 days. The North Sea arrived Tuesday evening with 200 tons of freight, which was more than the normal load, but for weeks before its arrival stores had been short of merchandise and fresh meat, along with other commodities. It had been something only to dream about. The lack of boat service for Wrangell was discussed thoroughly yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce noon meeting. President James Nolan pointed out the tremendous loss to merchants when articles which they could sell, and which people need and want, are lying on the dock in Seattle instead of being on the shelves. As he emphasized, it is not a scarcity of items which causes the loss, it is the inability of getting them shipped up. The Wrangell chamber is going to put up a fight for better boat service. It is going to wire the War Shipping Administration, Alaska Line and Northland Line to ask for a boat a week, at least during the busy summer season. A town cannot build up and flourish without steady trade.

Aug. 20, 1971

Members of the Wrangell Civic Women’s Club will begin going door to door next week to sell listings on their 1972 scholarship birthday calendar. The project works like this: A Wrangell calendar is prepared with Wrangellites’ birthdays and anniversaries noted. A listing will cost 25 cents. Proceeds to help Wrangell students attend college at the rate of $100 per semester. Students receiving help currently are Gil Urata, Larry Beebe, Mike Massin and Steve Urata.

Aug. 22, 1996

Dr. Ell Sorenson, Wrangell’s schools superintendent, is in the inevitable position of trying to manage a district with declining enrollment. Last year there were approximately 550 students, and the school district is, odd as it may sound, hoping to lose at least 10 percent of its student body so that the state’s “hold harmless” funding provision kicks in. That provision, designed to protect school districts from any drastic cuts in funding, specifies that if a school loses 10 percent of its students, it will still be given 75 percent of the funding for those students. This allows a shrinking school district to “deflate” gently rather than causing teacher layoffs or drastic cuts in programs. If the enrollment drop is less than 10 percent, there is no assistance. Sorenson has nothing but praise for Wrangell’s teachers, and their knowledge of the “real world” outside the walls of academia. He notes that about 70 percent of Wrangell’s graduates go on to college or vocational education.