The Way We Were

Aug. 2, 1923

Ed Grigwire Sr. and Ed Grigwire Jr. came in Monday from Anita Bay where they spent Sunday fishing. They brought back a boatload of trout, which was one of the largest catches of freshwater fish ever seen in Wrangell. It hardly seems possible that two people could have had the energy to have taken out so many fish in one day. Wrangell is surely a fisherman’s paradise and the Grigwires are the town’s two most enthusiastic piscatorial artists.

July 30, 1948

“Here comes Charlie,” a local talent play put on last Sunday afternoon and Monday evening by a group of Emblem Club and Elks members, met with enthusiastic approval of the audience of the George Washington passengers in port at the time and with local citizens. Many requests have been received for a repeat performance, and Virgil Neyman, who directed the play, said it was possible the show would be repeated after the fishing season. The cast wishes to thank all local folks who helped make the show the success it was. Sunday’s performance can be credited to Mr. A.R. Brueger of Wrangell-Farwest Cannery. When one member of the cast became storm-bound on a tow boat at Douglas Bay and it looked as though the play would have to be postponed, Mr. Brueger sent his plane and pilot, Stuart Adams, to bring the actor in.

Aug. 3, 1973

Closure of Wrangell’s two sawmills for maintenance has been postponed indefinitely and the mills’ two shifts have been put on six-day weeks to produce lumber for two extra ships due to dock here. Mills Manager Lance Ingle said the Wrangell Maru and the Sitka Maru are due to take on lumber cargos instead of the pulp they were originally scheduled to load in Sitka. The change is due to a worker’s strike at Sitka Pulp, Ingle said. The ships were diverted to Wrangell following development of the strike, Ingle said. It will be the Sitka Maru’s first visit to Wrangell. The Wrangell Maru calls regularly. The mills were to have closed next week for maintenance work, including razing of the scrap burner in town at Wrangell Lumber Co.

Aug. 6, 1998

Fires up the Stikine River became active again this past weekend, raising concern with local residents and Canadian firefighing units. According to Al McDonald with the Canadian Northwest Fire Center, due to the warm, dry weather for the past few days, combined with very gusty afternoon winds, two large fires near Telegraph Creek made significant runs on Friday and again on Saturday. Since the beginning of August there have been 149 new fires, 129 caused by lightning in British Columbia. The smoke from two of those fires have been drifting toward Wrangell since the weekend. According to McDonald, this is created when there is very little wind movement. The smoke lays in the area, then like a river will follow the valleys out, and in this case it is moving down the Stikine to the Wrangell area. Cooler weather has been forecast for the remainder of the week, with possible showers. If so, the fire danger ratings will stabilize.