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Many things were said of Wrangell Institute - many bad words, but not in my storied experience. In 1950, I was sent to the Wrangell Institute when I was 8 years old. Prior to Wrangell, I had gone to first grade in the villages of Kokrines, Galena and Nenana, but never completed a full year of school due to the family trapline and seasonal moving about as part of a nomadic lifestyle. Finally, my first year at the Wrangell Institute, I got through first grade. Lately, I have been seeing a lot of...
"It is with deepest sorrow that we announce the passing of Edward Franklin Teague, beloved father, grandfather and great grandfather who passed away in Bend, Oregon, surrounded by family, on June 6, 2021," his family wrote. "Anyone who ever met Frank knew he was a master storyteller. Frank was never happier than when he was holding court over morning coffee or during happy hour on the back of the boat entertaining everyone with his stories. Like all great storytellers the stories had a little...
“Last year, we went Bearfest Lite,” said Sylvia Ettefagh, organizer of Wrangell’s annual summer festival. “It is back to Bearfest Full,” she said of this year’s event, which is less three weeks away. Bearfest 2021 opens July 28 and runs through Aug. 1, with almost two dozen activities already listed on the website last week. “We’ll be adding more,” Ettefagh said. With the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, organizers hope to return to the 300 or so participants who joined in, signed up, listened, watched, learned, danced, ate and golfed in...
Legislative efforts to restore an Office of Children’s Services caseworker in Wrangell and fund a commercial fisheries staffer in town survived the governor’s budget vetoes. Wrangell lost its Department of Fish and Game position last year due to the governor’s budget cuts, and has been without a children’s services caseworker for several years. The borough and school district both had spoken in support of restoring the caseworker job in town, with the borough offering to provide free rent and help with the salary to entice state funding. Though...
Wrangell’s Fourth of July festivities kicked off last Friday with a 3-on-3 basketball tournament at the court by Evergreen Elementary school. The winners were: Girls’ champions Team Young: Taylor Young, Brynlee Young, Braidyn Young and Alivia Young. Middle school champions Panthers: Michael Cook, Devyn Young and Kyler Young. Men’s champions Team Fathom: Sean Thomas, Ian Gibbons and Curtis Hitchings....
Wrangell businesses did better than those in Skagway but worse than their counterparts in the larger and more diversified economies of Juneau and Sitka during the economic shutdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an online survey of business owners and managers throughout the region. “On average, reporting businesses in the region lost 42% of their revenue due to COVID-19, while Wrangell businesses were down 48% overall,” the third highest for any community in the area, said the report issued by the Southeast Conference, com...
June 30, 1921 A letter received from Col. Steese by Mayor Grant yesterday contains the necessary information about the road to the Standard Oil dock and reads as follows: Mr. J. G. Grant, Mayor, Wrangell, Alaska: As I wired you yesterday, we will proceed immediately with the construction of about 2,200 feet of road, connecting Wrangell with the Standard Oil Dock to the north. Mr. Joseph Ulmer, Territorial Divisional Commissioner, will come to Wrangell on the first boat after the Fourth of July to make the final location surveys and open bids....
Friday, July 2 3-on-3 Basketball: Start at 10 a.m. At the covered play area behind Evergreen Elementary School. Chairperson: Christie Good Art Clark Scrap Fish Derby: 11 a.m. City Dock Summer Float Two age categories: 6-9 and 10-13 Rules: No parents allowed on floats unless they are one of the volunteers. All children must wear a life jacket at all times. Hand lines only; no rods or reels. One hook per line; one line per person. Contestants must bait their own hook. Any kind of bait can be... 
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The federal government will investigate its past oversight of Native American boarding schools and work to “uncover the truth about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences” of policies that over the decades forced hundreds of thousands of children from their families and communities, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced June 22. The unprecedented work will include compiling and reviewing records to identify past boarding schools, locate known and possible burial sites at or near those schools, and uncover the names and tri...
Actually, the hot dogs will be cold dogs. A new event at this year’s Wrangell Fourth of July celebration will be a wiener toss, planned for 8:30 p.m. July 3 on Front Street. Sponsored by radio station KSTK, the toss will offer prizes for unusual tosses, not necessarily the longest toss or last to drop the dog, said Brittani Robbins, executive director of the chamber of commerce. “It’s throwing raw hot dogs at each other,”she said. While the long holiday weekend is just a week away and plans are set for most events, the chamber, which organizes...
"Since I was a kid, a 12-year-old kid, I just started hunting myself,"Trooper Chadd Yoder said. "My parents didn't hunt, so to start legally hunting I took my mom with me. I educated myself about hunting and got out there and did it. That started my love for the outdoors." Yoder, 33, said he is enjoying his dream job as Wrangell's new state wildlife trooper. He and his wife and three kids moved to Wrangell mid-April from Wasilla. He has been a trooper since 2019. Before that, he worked as a...
A fun tradition for Wrangell’s grown-ups is returning this Saturday, with the 2021 Adult Prom. The party will start at 8 p.m. at Muskeg Meadows Golf Course. The prom is an opportunity for locals to get out, dress up and dance the night away, said Lucy Moline-Robinson, with KSTK, which is sponsoring the event as a fundraiser for the radio station. “I felt there was a need for that, Wrangell doesn’t have a lot of adult-type dances,”she said. The prom was not held last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Robinson said. In 2019, it was held at the...
Wrangell should know by June 30 — maybe sooner — if Gov. Mike Dunleavy will veto funding to restore two state jobs in the community that were headed toward approval by lawmakers in the final days of the legislative session. The governor has 20 days, not counting Sundays, after legislators adjourn their session to sign or veto budget bills. But because the 20-day clock would extend past the start of the fiscal year on July 1, Dunleavy needs to decide on the budget by June 30 to avoid any potential shutdown of public services. Legislators thi...
June 17, 1921 The high school closed last Thursday after a very successful year. An increase in the number of instructors and the seating capacity enabled school authorities to care for the largest number of pupils ever enrolled at the Wrangell school during a school year. Even with the added room, some of the grades were crowded. A full four-year course has been given during the past two years by alternating certain subjects, and three pupils have graduated from the school. June 14, 1946 Vic C. Monahan, operator of the Cascade Pole Company of...
Gov. Mike Dunleavy must have learned how to manage state finances from the same people who guard the world’s biggest secret recipes: Col. Sanders’ fried chicken, Coca-Cola, Big Mac’s special sauce, Twinkies and Dr. Pepper. Keeping secrets from customers is smart marketing hype. Keeping secrets from the public is irresponsible. And, in the governor’s case, it’s dishonest. Dunleavy, who served on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough school board and later spent five years in the state Legislature, should know his arithmetic — if he had paid attention i...
Ashley Bates ran dribbling drills at a basketball camp for seventh through 12th graders at the high school gym on June 3. Bates, with Make Yourself, an athletic training operation in Anchorage, was in Wrangell for the camp June 2-3. Penny Allen, one of the volunteers for the camp, said it was free for participants - the costs were paid for by the Amateur Athletics Union. The two-day camp also included sessions on pre-season nutrition and conditioning, and how to lessen injuries when...
Community members, local organizations and mariners gathered together at the Wrangell Mariners' Memorial last Sunday afternoon for a blessing of the fleet. The blessing is a tradition in seaside towns around the world, praying for safety and bountiful harvests as fishing fleets begin heading out for the season. The blessing is a longstanding tradition for Wrangell, said Jenn Miller-Yancey, with the mariners' memorial board, but recent events have become more collaborative. "I don't know how...
It was 25 years ago last month that Wrangell received title to the former Institute property near Shoemaker Bay. The 134 acres have mostly been unused since the Bureau of Indian Affairs shut down the boarding school almost 50 years ago. There have been plans, proposals, wishes and dreams over the decades of turning the property into tourist lodging, senior citizen housing, a school or training center. And now the borough is moving closer to the latest plan - subdividing the land into lots for...
"I always enjoyed reading, I plundered the local library when I was a kid," said Max Florschutz. Florschutz, 35, lives in Utah but grew up in Wrangell. He moved away to attend college at Bringham Young University in Provo, Utah, in 2004, and later decided to stay in Utah, he said, but continues to make regular trips back to Wrangell to visit friends, family and the library. "I do come back and visit Wrangell, I was actually there a few weeks ago," he said. "I was absolutely thrilled during my...
Stephen Dale Urata, 69, died May 24 in Anchorage. Steve was born on Oct. 8, 1951, in Wrangell. He was the second son born to Jack Ichiro and Ann Haruco Urata. He is survived by his older brother Jack and younger sister Angela. He attended grades K-12 in Wrangell and excelled academically, graduating in 1969 as valedictorian. Steve was a young leader and attended the Alaska Boys State Program. A talented trumpet player, he toured nationwide with the National High School Honor Band. He attended th...
Upright pianos in Skagway bars dating from the Gold Rush. Grand pianos worth tens of thousands of dollars in Anchorage and Sitka. Bob Hope's piano while he was on a USO tour in Alaska. Plus private, church and school pianos in Wrangell. Virgel Hale has tuned them all in his 51-year career traveling around Alaska. But now, at age 81, he's retiring, and will be staying home with his wife, Patsy, who has health problems, in Mountain Grove, Missouri, closer to kids and grandkids. "I hate to call it...
A preliminary plat for the first phase of developing the former Wrangell Institute property into residential and commercial lots, known as Shoemaker Bay Subdivision II, was approved by the planning and zoning commission Tuesday afternoon. There is still a lot of work to do, but this is a significant step in the development process, said Wrangell Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore. It may be optimistic, she said, but site work could begin sometime next year. Final plat approval by the commission could be several months away, Rushmore...
June 9, 1921 The new school and community tennis court on the McCormack property received the attention of a large number of workers Monday evening from 6:30 to 9. A great deal was done. Wrangell autos helped the good work along and hauled sand and gravel from the beach to a spot near the school. Everybody interested, from little Lawrence Crawford and Herbert Bjorge with a tin cup and a small pail, respectively, to the mayor, worked. Boys from the primary grades mingled with those from the upper and high school classes. Before long, Wrangell...
Wrangell children need an OCS worker stationed here Because it often takes days for the state Office of Children's Services to send an investigator to Wrangell, I was forced to send a frightened kid to a home where she had recently experienced serious domestic violence. I cannot describe my anger and frustration. I cannot describe my anger and frustration at hearing a student say, "Why bother? They never do anything," when I told her I was referring her situation to OCS. I cannot describe the an...
Wrangell has several multimillion-dollar problems: Replacing the water reservoir dams and repairing the piping; rebuilding the water-damaged public safety building; and reusing or demolishing the old hospital building. Even with the highest sales tax rate in the state, even if tourist spending fully recovers next year and the economy grows, there wouldn't be enough sales tax receipts coming in to cover the costs of even one of the projects, let alone all three essential community needs. Sure,...