The Way We Were

April 26, 1923

The Wrangell Commercial Club recently undertook to offer better advantages to fishermen, and arrangements have been made for keeping on hand a constant supply of bait and ice on the dock. Glacial ice is being brought in by Harry Coulter, who at the instance of the club is undertaking to keep a supply of ice on the dock that will be adequate to the needs of all fishermen who may come to this port. An ice room is furnished by the McCormack Dock Co. C.C. Mundy is handling the bait. During the few days since the ice and bait have been on hand, numerous fishermen have availed themselves of the advantages offered, and there is every indication that the demand will be greatly increased as soon as it is generally known among the fishermen that Wrangell proposes to keep on hand a permanent supply of ice and bait.

April 26, 1948

Over 300 spectators watched the Stikine Stampede basketball team defeat the Wrangell All-Stars of 1922 in an 8-5 victory last Friday night in the school gym. As a last resort, in the final quarter All-Stars manager Harry Coulter threw in seven men against the rugged “gold rushers” five, but the All-Stars failed to score. Elton Engstrom, who flew down from Juneau to play with the team he had been a member of in high school 26 years ago, scored a beautiful long shot for the team’s first basket and Laurie Broad later sank another ball. Marion Goodrich connected with a foul shot to bring the score to five. This game will probably go down in history as the only game in which one referee, Bill Grant, called a foul on the other referee, Lou Dvorak “for playing on the wrong side.”

April 27, 1973

The U.S. Forest Service has selected Sitka and Petersburg as the sites for area headquarters for the North Tongass National Forest when the forest is separated into two administrative areas. Both Wrangell and Petersburg had conducted campaigns to win the designation of area headquarters for the southern part of the divided national forest. An estimated 25 to 30 employees will staff each area headquarters. Alaska Regional Forester Charles Yates said the primary objective of reorganizing the North Tongass National Forest was to develop a more dynamic organization that will meet public demands for quality resource management and public service.

April 23, 1998

Last Thursday afternoon small groups of community members gathered in shifts at the Wrangell airport to meet the owner of Taquan Air Service as he introduced his company’s newest plane, the Jetstream 32 EP. Jerry Scudero, owner of the airline, flew into Wrangell with two of his pilots to take groups on short flights across the Stikine delta and the mouth of LeConte Bay, and to answer questions concerning the new turbo jet. The Jetstream 32 twin turboprop, which seats 19 passengers, has plenty of head room and is designed for the feeling of an airliner. According to Scudero, the plane can cruise at 306 mph, at altitudes of up 25,000 feet and is IFR (instrument flight rules) capable.