The Way We Were

Sept. 28, 1922

A party of prospectors came into town last week with an extensive collection of samples of various kinds of ore taken on the Iskoot in British Columbia. Some of the metals were gold, silver, lead and copper. The samples were forwarded to the government assay office at Victoria, and there is no doubt that the returns will show high values. While the samples brought in from the Iskoot attracted some attention, they caused no great surprise locally. There is little doubt that the Iskoot district is as highly mineralized as the Portland Canal region. It is hoped that a beginning is now being made which at no distant date will result in the opening bonanza which will attract as much attention to the Iskoot and make it of as great importance as the Portland Canal. Wrangell is the port of entry for the Iskoot district and the opening up of that region would mean that as it increased in importance, Wrangell would benefit proportionately.

Sept. 26, 1947

Wrangell Public Schools have an enrollment this year of 247 pupils, 20 over the number last year. Last year the grades had 179 students and the high school 48. This year the grades have 191 pupils and the high school 56. Numbers of students in the various classes so far this year are: First grade, 38; second, 27; third, 31; fourth, 20; fifth, 21; sixth, 17; seventh 17; and eighth, 20. In the high school there are 15 pupils in the freshman class, 17 sophomores, 15 juniors and nine seniors. Supt. George Fabricius said the large enrollment in the lower grades has made it necessary to put some of the first and a few second students under another teacher in City Hall.

Sept. 29, 1972

A 10-bed nursing home addition costing nearly a half-million dollars is proposed at Wrangell General Hospital. Voters will be asked on Tuesday to approve $200,000 in general obligation bonds as the community’s share in the cost. State and federal grants would finance the balance. Preliminary plans for the structure, which will adjoin the 16-bed general hospital to the west, have been drafted by the architectural firm of Sands & Ackley, of Juneau. Mrs. Emma Ivy, hospital administrator, said the nursing home addition would be of concrete construction, one story with a daylight basement suitable for conversion to doctors offices, storage and other uses. Mrs. Ivy estimated five additional hospital employees – aides and nurses, plus a part-time physical therapist – would be required to staff the new wing.

Sept. 25, 1997

There’s no X marking the spot, says state geophysicist Laurel Burns, but the fault lines and rock formations shown in Wrangell’s latest geophysical survey are “interesting.” Looking over the data released Monday, Chamber of Commerce President Mark Robinson said one section along the Duncan Canal resembles the formations that mark the Greens Creek mine near Juneau. The survey, which began last March, was funded with $200,000 from the city of Wrangell and additional funds from the federal Bureau of Land Management. Dighem Power, of Canada, was contracted to fly an instrument-equipped helicopter over 1,180 square miles around Wrangell, producing data that now has been incorporated into five maps: north Duncan Canal, south Duncan Canal, Zarembo Island and east Prince of Wales, western Etolin Island and Groundhog Basin on the mainland. The maps show various properties of subsurface rocks, including natural magnetism such as found in iron and magnesium, and electromagnetic resistance or conductivity.