Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 142
June 14, 1926 – While delving for precious metal at their claim, John Bremer and George Kerr recently had the good fortune of finding a little treasure package of nature which netted the gold seekers more in one lump sum than would a bevy of gold nuggets. The miners chanced to notice a sharp bony projection jutting through the roof of their drift. Both fortune hunters concentrated upon the new discovery, with the result that after a few hours work a fine, large mammoth tusk weighing some two hundred and fifty pounds was picked from the top o...
Over 200 people, many wearing regalia, gathered on a sunny afternoon at Auke Recreation Area, the former site of a Tlingit village. Ten canoes floating near the shore took turns for traditional protocols before landing on the beach. Among them was Petersburg's killer whale canoe, or kéet yaakw in Lingít. "My name is ShaaL'aanee, my English name is Brandon Ware," Ware, the skipper, shouted from the water. "Gunalchéesh for having us. We are so grateful to be here. Forgive me if I miss protocol -... Full story
Alaska needs change. That’s why I’m running for governor: to bring new energy and a new generation of leadership to the governor’s office. For thirteen years in a row, more Alaskans have left our great state than have moved here. Prices are rising, schools are closing, and Alaskans are getting left behind. This year, those planning to leave Alaska include Ben and Catherine Walker, both recipients of Alaska’s Teacher of the Year Award. They can’t justify staying in the place they grew up in and love because of our failure to invest in the funda...
The Petersburg Public Library and the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program are offering two youth programs this summer, backed by a new grant that will help cover the cost of both — part of a broader menu of learning and outdoor opportunities available to Petersburg kids in the coming months. The library’s annual reading program is returning in a new form this summer, rebranded as the Great Summer Challenge and running from June 5 through July 19. Program Coordinator Kari Petersen said the six-week initiative is open to children ages zer...
On a Friday afternoon in Jill Lenhard's class, the sound of crying babies filled the room – crying robot babies, that is. The babies were new, and the class, including Lenhard, was still figuring out how to use them. "I took one baby home to see how it all worked, and I took it home in a grocery sack because I didn't want to walk down the street carrying a baby," Lenhard told the class. "But then when I got home and I laid it on the counter my husband was like, 'What is this?!'" These robot b... Full story
Annette Carol Samuelson was born on October 27, 1944, to Mildred (Israelson) and Gainhart Samuelson in Petersburg, Alaska, where she would live her entire life. The second of six children, Annette was a born mama's helper. She loved her family deeply and her desire to do whatever she could for them informed her entire life. Her father, a fisherman, was rarely home. Even at a young age Annette recognized how hard Mildred worked to keep food on the table and to fill her family's childhood with... Full story
18 – There are no issues in the archive until May 19, 1926. Thank you for your patience. March 16, 1951 – A parade of hats such as has never been seen in the Easter Parade marked the style show at the Emblem Club social meeting on Tuesday evening. There were hats of every description, made of everything from kitchen utensils to baby bottles, created by club members. In addition there was a style show in which spring suits, dresses, coats and hats from the Lillian Shop were displayed by the same models who took part in the style show Sat...
Leo Juel Kernin made his arrival on January 5 at 1:53 p.m., claiming the title of Petersburg's first baby of 2026 and earning his family a bounty of gifts from local businesses. Each year, Petersburg businesses donate gifts to be collected by the family of the first baby born to local parents. This year's gifts were published as the centerspread in the Jan. 8 edition of the Pilot. Sam Kernin said she got a kick out of how the community kept tabs on the pending arrival. "I had [a friend] at the...
January 2025 The Petersburg Borough Assembly agreed to transfer seven parcels of borough-owned land in the Airport Addition Subdivision to Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority (THRHA) in exchange for the developing road and utilities for 11 residential lots. The snowpack at the Raven's Ridge snow survey site at 1,650 ft elevation measured zero inches. One of only two years on record without snowpack in January. Rock-N-Road Construction was awarded the contract for the borough's Pump Station...
When a young Sealaska intern walking a beach in July 2022 found the first evidence of European green crab presence in Alaska – a discarded shell on a beach on Annette Island in the state's far southeast corner – it was an ominous sign about the invasive species' northward spread. Since then, the Metlakatla Indian Community, the tribe based on Annette Island, and its partners, which include Alaska Sea Grant, have found not just more shells, but live invasive crabs. Discoveries numbered just a h... Full story
Back in May, National Marine Fisheries Enforcement Officer Jerod Cook responded to a call from Petersburg's police department about a stranded baby seal at the Libby Straits south of town. "He was just hanging on to the beach there," Cook said. "We never did see a mother for it." He moved the seal to a safer location, then came back to check on it the next day. "It was obvious that something, a decision, needed to be made," Cook said. After several months of treatment at the Alaska SeaLife... Full story
Search and rescue efforts continue in the Kuskokwim River delta in the aftermath of devastating storm surge and hurricane-force winds brought by the remnants of Typhoon Halong. The storm tore homes from their foundations and sent them floating away. One woman was found dead in Kwigillingok on Monday, according to Alaska State Troopers. The search for two more people unaccounted for in that community will continue, by boat and air, the state troopers said on a Facebook post. Search and rescue is... Full story
Petersburg Medical Center is launching a new cohort of its on-the-job training Certified Nursing Assistant program next Monday, offering people in Petersburg a valuable opportunity to get paid while earning a professional healthcare certification in just five weeks. "We hire people who say they want to become a CNA, and then we pay them while they're taking the class," explained Chief Nursing Officer Jennifer Bryner. "At the end of the class, if it's a good match, then we would offer a... Full story
For Petersburg families wondering what their children will do this summer, Petersburg Medical Center's Youth Programs are offering more activities, more accessibility, and more options than ever before. After a six-month effort to secure critical funding streams, the programs have achieved a milestone that will help ensure more families can participate, regardless of financial circumstances. PMC Youth Program administrators have spent months advocating for access to state child care assistance...
April 3, 1925 – Earnest Kirberger, the merchant at Kake and fur farmer, was in town the forepart of the week with some choice blue fox pelts to be shipped to the New York auction sales. Mr. Kiberger says Kake is unusually lively this season with boats supplying clams from there to Mountain Point Packing Company below Scow Bay, and with three different logging camps operating in that section. He said Charles Knutson of the powerboat Katie and Arthur Johnson of the Woodrow are making regular trips to Mountain Point with clams. Mr. Kirberger s...
The bell jingles as the door to Kinder Komfort opens, and a customer slips in with a hopeful smile. "Did you find it?" he asks Jenny Cisney, who lights up behind the counter. "I did!" she cheers, retrieving a copy of Code Names, a board game the customer had hoped to special order but couldn't quite remember the name of days earlier. Jenny had put together the clues and figured out the name, found the game and even had her visiting mother bring it from Washington with her luggage rather than... Full story
Petersburg's first baby of 2025 arrived on her own schedule, surprising her parents with a slightly early appearance on January 16 at 3:07 a.m. in Anchorage. Haley June Torrez, weighing 8 pounds, 3 ounces and measuring 20 inches long, was born to Petersburg residents Tori Shay and Aidan Torrez, marking a joyous beginning to the new year for this hometown family. The couple are both 2014 Petersburg High School graduates. Tori, a lifelong Petersburg resident, works at SEARHC handling medical...
When Ashley Corl moved to Petersburg, she found herself running alone a lot. "I've been a runner for most of my life, and I've always run with friends or with groups that I was training with for races, mountain runs, marathons. I always had people to run with, and when I moved here, I ran alone a lot, and I saw a lot of people running alone, and I think I just started to really crave more community around running," Corl told the Pilot. "I knew that there were other runners out there. I just...
After 11 straight years with more residents leaving Alaska than arriving, the state for the first time projects a long-term population decline, according to a report released Monday from the state’s demographer. And as Alaskans keep getting older, the number of deaths will rise while births keep falling, adding to the population decline looking out to 2050, according to David Howell, state demographer, writing in the state’s latest Alaska Economic Trends magazine. The projections, if they hold, could have important consequences, he said in an...
Josie Sylvan breaks off a piece of a beached iceberg for baby Cannon to teeth on, as Iris helps herself, amidst the first flurry of snow this season at Sandy Beach — Oct. 22, 2024....
The EMS branch of Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department is trying out a new response system that no longer holds EMS responders to a fixed schedule. Emergency Services Director Aaron Hankins told the Pilot that it was difficult to get volunteers to commit and sign up for consistent 12-hour shifts; he said there was conversation about changing the shift schedule to more than two shifts in a day, but there was not a consensus among the group to agree on a change. Ultimately, Hankins said EMS...
Shig Kaino was born on September 9, 1929, in Vista, California, joining her older brother and sister. She grew up in the San Diego area on vegetable and strawberry farms. Shig had a love affair with the open fields and with the strawberries her family grew. When she was 12 years old, American policy during World War II changed her life. She was taken from the farm and incarcerated in an internment camp, facing a new life behind barbed wire that would keep her separated from her brother for... Full story
At the height of the food stamp backlog last November, pro bono attorneys and other volunteers at Alaska Legal Services got more than 600 requests in one month from Alaskans seeking a fair hearing to get their overdue food benefits. So the 97 requests that came in this July didn’t feel like anything the group couldn’t handle, said Leigh Dickey, the nonprofit’s advocacy director. But the number is still alarming, she said, and it’s double last month’s requests. Dickey said the state’s Division of Public Assistance is still dogged by the same pr... Full story
When Dan Trail took his dogs to play fetch on June 20 at Petroglyph Beach, the last thing he expected was to find himself involved in a statewide baby seal rescue mission. But when he reached for his tennis ball and noticed it lying on the tail of a 1-week-old lost seal pup, he sprang into action. The seal - now called Rocky by her rescue team - was extremely dehydrated when Trail found her. Wedged in between two rocks, high above the receding tide, she was sucking in air on a warm June day....
Petersburg's Rebecca Fisher, a 17-year old competitor in Native Youth Olympics, brought home a gold medal this month from the 2024 Indigenous Summer Games in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. In addition to winning gold, Fisher also claimed two silver and two bronze medals. To qualify for the Summer Games in Canada, Fisher first competed at the Traditional Games in Juneau, Alaska. When Fisher found out she qualified, she thought she was being pranked. "I was getting ready for my...
