The Way We Were

March 6, 1924

The leap year edition of the Stikine Messenger, published on the 29th of February by the girls of the high school, was a splendid six-page paper and reflected much credit on the girls and their adviser, Miss Alice Carlson, teacher of English and history, and could be shown with pride by any school. When it is considered that the total enrollment of the high school is only 25, the achievement of the girls is even more remarkable. The high school boys will issue the March edition of the Messenger and they make no secret of the fact that they expect to put out some paper.

March 4, 1949

Ben Engdal and Harry Sundberg this week announced virtual completion of their new shrimp cannery here and said they would begin operation May 1 for the opening of the shrimping season. Their building on which construction was started just a year ago, is 30- by 40-feet in size, in addition to a 20-by-30 boiler room. The entire construction is of aluminum. The two partners said they will employ about 25 pickers, a sizable and steady payroll increase to Wrangell’s economy. Both men are experienced fishermen, having been engaged in the industry for many years. George Sumption, with his new boat, the Suki, will fish shrimp for the new company, which has been named Harbor Sea Foods.

March 6, 1974

“If you take a ceremonial knife and commit suicide with it, the act is called hari-kari. In Alaska, if you see a man poaching a moose or salmon or a bear, and you don't report it, you are doing the same thing with your renewable natural resources.” Those were the words recently of state Department of Public Safety Commissioner Pat Wellington in a hard-hitting statement calling for Alaskans to help enforce their own game laws. “We have 59 Fish and Wildlife Protection Officers in this state. This means we have one officer for every 10,000 square miles of land, not excluding the sea. Our men cannot do this job of protecting the fish and game laws of Alaska without the help of the public,” Wellington said.

March 4, 1999

The hide and skull of a large mountain lion were turned into the Wrangell Fish and Game office last week by a trapper who found the animal in one of his snares. The unusual find was discovered by trapper Rusty Lukinich, in one of his snares in Totem Bay on the south end of Kupreanof Island. “Finding the lion answered a lot of questions I had these past few years,” says Lukinich. He said last September he and some friends had gotten a deer and found that it already had claw marks all the way through the hide, from the middle of the back all the way back on both sides of the animal. The snared mountain lion measured seven feet, five inches from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. He was a young adult male, weighing between 150 and 170 pounds.