The Way We Were

Oct. 11, 1923

Wrangell’s John Hanson has received letters of patent on two inventions that will greatly facilitate the business of trolling. One of Mr. Hanson’s inventions is a gaff hook, and the other a trolling swivel. The swivel relates to an apparatus used by fishermen on a line for catching fish of any kind. The invention includes the provision of a spring within the body of the swivel, thereby permitting a certain degree of resilience when a fish strikes so that the line may give and so that danger of losing the fish will be greatly reduced. The gaff hook has for its chief object a construction design whereby the hook is normally maintained in a fixed position relative to the handle but allows a rotary motion with a view of keeping the fish on the hook, so that the hook can turn and twist with the movements of the fish as it tries to separate itself from the hook.

Oct. 8, 1948

Two Davis-type rafts of logs and poles, totaling nearly two and one-half million board feet, left McDonald’s Harbor on Sokolof Island, seven miles from Wrangell, on Wednesday for Puget Sound ports. One raft, bound for the Nettleton Lumber Co. at Bellingham, had over a million board feet of spruce, hemlock and cedar logs. The second raft contained about 1,500 cedar poles and about 500,000 board feet of spruce which enclosed the poles to prevent chaffing by the rafting chains. This raft will go to the Cascade Pole Co. of Tacoma, and is an experimental shipment of poles to determine the feasibility of Davis-rafting poles instead of shipping them aboard freighters, which is a more costly method. If the new method of rafting proves satisfactory, pole cutting operations will probably be forthcoming for Wrangell again this winter.

Oct. 12, 1973

Alaska Airlines will continue service as usual from Wrangell airport this winter, an airline spokesman told the Sentinel. Warren C. Metzger, vice president of operations and chief pilot for the airline, said the 2,000-foot-long strip the state will leave open at the airport during a massive construction project will be adequate for de Havilland Otter aircraft. “With an Otter, it will be no problem,” said Metzger from Seattle. He said a plan to use amphibious aircraft or air taxi floatplanes to shuttle Wrangell passengers to and from main-line airliners at Petersburg has been scrapped.

Oct. 8, 1998

Fire destroyed a portion of Frank and Doug Age’s sawmill at 13-Mile Zimovia Highway during the night Monday. According to Wrangell Police Chief Jim Hasenohrl, the police department was called by an employee reporting to work at the site Tuesday morning who reported that the main saw building had burned to the ground. Officers responded to the call, and because the mill is located outside the city’s jurisdiction the investigation was referred to Alaska State Troopers. Other buildings on the site were undamaged. Hasenohrl said the cause of the fire is unknown at present time, but it appears that it started in a center section of the site, in the luncheon area. There is no evidence of foul play at this time.