The Way We Were

Dec. 1, 1921

The Alaska School Bulletin gives the following records of attendance and punctuality for the first month of school in the incorporated towns of Alaska. Among the five schools having the best records, Wrangell High School stands fourth with an attendance of 98.91 percent, and our elementary school stands first with an attendance of 99.28 percent. Last year, Wrangell was seventh in size among Alaska schools. The cost of maintaining the schools of Alaska last year was $373,192. This represents an expenditure of $2,108 per day. Viewed even from a financial standpoint, the regularity in attendance is an important matter. The total loss of funding from irregular attendance in Alaska schools last winter amounted to $10,021. In the Wrangell school there were 391 days of absence, meaning a financial loss of $223.

Dec. 6, 1946

The Board of Control of the Bishop Rowe General Hospital mailed to every citizen in Wrangell a status of the hospital operations for the first 10 months of 1946: “We wish to say in explanation of our figures that with the increased cost of living, difficulties in obtaining nurses, all of whose traveling expenses have been paid by the board, our operating expenses have been practically doubled. Since so many of our patients have been slow in meeting their obligations, it costs at the present time $8.30 per patient per day. With the increased cost of operating the hospital, we still have not increased our rates. At the present time, our rates are compatible with rates in other Alaska hospitals. The average citizen thinks nothing of paying $5 for a hotel room, where one receives no service nor meals.”

Dec. 3, 1971

Since April 1 of this year, 11 large lumber cargo ships have departed port with approximately 50 million board feet of spruce and hemlock, most of it exported to Japanese ports, according to figures made available by the Wrangell Lumber Co. which operates the big mill in town and the Alaska Wood Products hemlock plant, six miles south of the city on Zimovia Highway. Operation of the two plants, largely on a two-shift-a-day basis, brings an annual payroll return to the community of $4 million, including longshoring of the big carriers. An average of 86 workers are employed with Alaska Wood Products and around 129 at WLC. With the old year grinding toward its end, production records at the two plants may set new records, according to Vice President C.R. Neil, who has been with the WLC enterprise here since its inception more than 10years ago.

Dec 5, 1996

The city’s purchase of the old Alaska Pulp Co. sawmill property downtown is almost a reality. At a special meeting Dec. 2, the city council authorized City Manager Scott Seabury to proceed with final details of the agreement to allow the city to acquire the site for $2.7 million. The 14-acre property, owned by the Alaska Wrangell Lumber Co. of Seattle, includes a 5,600-square-foot office building, three warehouses totaling 14,000 square feet, a deepwater dock with 1,300 feet of water frontage, and a barge loading dock. The city’s port development consulting firms believe that $1 million to $1.5 million of repairs are needed at the dock, far less than the cost of construction of a new dock. Estimates are that the property could bring the city $150,000 to $200,00 in annual revenues.