The Way We Were

June 29, 1922

The Fourth of July sports committee has arranged for a boxing match on the Fourth between Armie Allison, of Wrangell, and Joe Hill, of Petersburg. Both men are experienced boxers who have splendid records, and there is every reason to expect that they will give one of the best if not the best boxing exhibition ever seen in Wrangell. In connection with the main boxing match there will be a battle royal and two preliminaries.

June 27, 1947

The Grommet Reefer arrived in Tacoma last Wednesday with a cargo of 1,600 cedar poles for the Cascade Pole Co. Included in the cargo of poles were 2,000 feet of yellow cedar lumber, the first to reach the Northwest from Alaska. This wood is valuable in making plates for wet-cell batteries and is highly regarded in furniture manufacture. Shipment of the poles and yellow cedar is the culmination of a dream and years of effort on the part of F.G. Hanford, who in 1941 recognized the value of export of the cedar poles for use as telephone poles in the states. This first shipment of 1,600 poles is only the first in what is hoped will be a steady trade between Wrangell and the Tacoma plant. Mr. Hanford also has worked extensively on promoting cottonwood and birch markets. He has visioned a thriving plywood industry from the cottonwood on the Stikine, and test samples Mr. Hanford has prepared show a plywood of unusual strength and durability. Vic Monahan, of the Cascade Pole Co., who was in Wrangell while the cedar poles were being loaded aboard the Grommet Reefer, has ordered an almost unlimited supply and it is expected the Alaska Transportation Co. ships will make regular calls here to pick up the cargoes.

June 30, 1972

A total of 305 Rainbow Girls were registered for their 10th annual Grand Assembly which concluded its activities here Wednesday night after three days of business, fun and frolic that brought visitors from all over Alaska and Pacific Coast states, one of the largest fraternal invasions in Wrangell history. Chairman Harry Sundberg and assistant Verdeine Zenger, members of the Grand Executive Board, in charge of hosting the affair, reported the visitors were deeply impressed with historic Wrangell and expressed pleasure with the community reception. “I love it, even in the rain,” remarked one woman visitor with a smile as she skipped blighly over a sidewalk puddle.

June 26, 1997

There has been an agreement between Silver Bay Logging’s owner/operator Dick Buhler and the Alaska Pulp Corp. president George Ishiyama for purchase of the 6 Mile mill site. The agreement was made at 3 p.m. Wednesday, June 18, with participation from Mayor Douglas Roberts, according to a Monday press release from City Hall. Silver Bay agreed to purchase the 6 Mile mill site for an undisclosed sum, and APC agreed to sell. Mayor Roberts warned that there are ongoing negotiations over several unresolved issues, but said he expected a memorandum of understanding to be signed by the parties by mid-week. The sawmill has stood idle since APC closed in December 1994, putting more than 300 employees out of work. Roberts has said previously that Silver Bay is interested in developing a chipping facility at the site and probably won’t need much of APC’s old equipment. Liability for potential environmental cleanup of the mill property has been a sticking point for several prospective buyers in the past.