The Way We Were

April 30, 1925

Gold seekers have been arriving on every boat during the past few days and are impatiently awaiting the opening of navigation on the Stikine River when they will leave for the new diggings in the Cassiar. The first fleet of boats will leave Wrangell for Telegraph Creek, B.C., as soon after the first of May as river conditions permit. Every year in the past there have been a few people in Wrangell who were anxious for the early opening of navigation on the Stikine, but this year there is intense impatience on the part of the many strangers in town who are headed for the new diggings and want to get there with as little delay as possible.

April 28, 1950

The Fish and Wildlife Service is currently engaged in an experimental program, which local official Dan Bates hopes will lead to a clearer picture of the living habits of shrimp. The only way you can learn anything about where and when a shrimp travels is to tag it the same way you do salmon. In order to tag a shrimp, you must stick a pin clear through the muscle of the shrimp with a numbered disc on one side and a red tag on the other. The next step is to tag thousands of shrimp, Bates said, so more can be learned of their travels. A few were tagged and freed at Duncan Canal some time ago and one or two were picked up several miles away. However, nothing definite can be established until a program is undertaken on a large scale. This will entail the work of a sizable crew, as the tagging is a tedious job.

April 30, 1975

Wrangell was chosen as the first of 22 cities in Alaska to present a 1975 Alaska Host Training Session. Attended by 35 business people and other interested Wrangellites, the meeting was held at the Fireside Room of the Stikine Inn on April 21. Wrangell’s Alaska Host Coordinator, Linda Downs, opened the session with the introduction of Mildred Matthews from the Division of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at the University of Alaska. Matthews said tourism has attained the status of second-biggest industry in Alaska, behind oil and gas. Realizing the potential that the tourist industry will have on Alaska’s future, the University of Alaska has gone so far as to offer courses and a degree in travel industry management.

April 27, 2000

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced that effective April 24, marine boat anglers returning to Shoemaker Bay and downtown harbors in Wrangell will be prohibited from filleting or heading sport-caught king and coho salmon until the fish have been brought to shore and offloaded, unless the fish have been consumed or preserved onboard. However, anglers will still be allowed to gut and gill king and coho salmon before returning to port, and anglers will be allowed to fillet and head their king and coho salmon on their boats once they have returned to a docking facility and have tied their boat up to a float. This regulation will be in effect in Wrangell as long as local creel sampling programs is in operation through Sept. 10, and only pertains to king and coho salmon.