Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 383
June 25, 1926 – About 20 onlookers were present at an informal boat launching this afternoon. Neil MacGregor tried out his new speed boat starting at the Trading Union float. The new boat is about 15 feet long and has a Universal four cylinder engine. She was built by Carl Johnson. The hull is nicely fixed up with cushioned seats around the sides and an awning over the top. No, they didn’t break a champagne bottle over the bow. July 13, 1951 – A species of fish rarely found in the Pacific waters along the Canadian or Alaskan coasts was broug...
June 25 , 1926 – At Wednesday’s Commercial Club meeting strong opposition to taking any action toward making Sandy Beach a city park was expressed. Some of the members felt that the place was spoiled for picnics or outings now on account of the number of private houses going up out there. Although the city had staked the beach out for a park, it was said that those building houses out there were entitled to the property they improved, by squatter’s rights. June 29, 1951 – Despite all the publicity Alaska has had in recent months, there are appa...
Petersburg's Fourth of July weekend schedule has been released for an eventful three days in the town–the traditional two-day local holiday celebration on the 3rd and the 4th and with an additional third day celebration on Sunday, July 5th featuring a community potluck to celebrate America's 250th birthday. Parks and Rec facility supervisor Julie Anderson, Chamber of Commerce Director Kelli Slaven, and Robyn Cardenas took the lead on planning this year's celebrations. July 3 It all begins w...
June 5, 1926 – Petersburg had its expressed wish fulfilled last Monday when Neil C. MacGregor was re-appointed U.S. Deputy Marshall for the district. The new U.S. Marshall of the First Division, Albert White, received so many letters, telegrams and other messages from representative Petersburg citizens that he could not mistake very well the nature of Petersburg’s wishes. Mayor Ed Locken, Ex-Mayor Ted Elsemore and U.S. Commissioner Carol Clausen were among those sending letters or wires of endorsement for MacGregor. Practically all the lea...
At the Petersburg Community Foundation annual award reception Saturday, Desi Burrell was named 2026 Volunteer of the Year. Representing PCF, Glorianne Wollen, said the board's decision was unanimous and easy, citing Burrell's lifetime of community service. "She sees things that need doing, then she does them," Wollen said. Wollen described how the previous Saturday, Burrell was spotted at Sandy Beach with a shovel and a five-gallon bucket, cleaning up after other people's dogs to prepare the...
The 68th year of Little Norway Festival opens Thursday, May 14, for four days of parades, smørbrød, live music, competitive herring-tossing and all manner of communal revelry that could only happen in this town. The celebration runs through Sunday, May 17. "I love that everybody comes to town," said Kelli Slaven, who coordinates the festival schedule for the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce. "I love seeing all the people downtown - the kids running, familiar faces and new ones. It just kind of mak...
18 – There are no issues in the archive until May 19, 1926. Thank you for your patience. April 20, 1951 – One of the most disastrous fires to hit Petersburg in many years occurred early Wednesday when the interior of Ted Reynolds’ Harbor Bar and Liquor Store and of Winnie’s Cafe were gutted by fire. Heavy smoke damage was suffered by Helen’s Shop and there was slight smoke damage to the city office. The alarm was turned in at 5:25 a.m. by Mrs. J.L. MacKechnie who saw smoke drifting by her window in the Coliseum apartments, adjacent to and ov...
When Dave and Nancy Berg sold Viking Travel at the start of 2023, they said they were handing the keys to the right people. Three years later, the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce resoundingly agreed. The chamber named Viking Travel the 2025 Business of the Year at its annual banquet Saturday, citing the business - co-owned by James and Madeleine Valentine - for their community involvement, their contribution to the Petersburg economy, and their commitment to keeping Petersburg a vibrant place to...
Cora Campbell, president and CEO of Silver Bay Seafoods, returned to her hometown of Petersburg as guest speaker Saturday evening at the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet. Over the course of about 20 minutes, she drew a through-line from the town's 1897 founding to the hard lessons of the 2023 salmon crisis - and outlined an optimistic slate of value-added products she said will soon be flowing through the Petersburg plant. "As pink salmon goes, so goes the economy," Campbell told...
18 – There are no issues in the archive until May 19, 1926. Thank you for your patience. April 6, 1951 – With the coming of spring rains the snow is fast disappearing in the woods and ice has gone out of most of the creeks. This has meant an upswing in activity among those men concerned with predator control. Hosea Sarber, wildlife agent, and Doyle Cisney, skipper of the Black Bear, returned late last week from a field trip on wolf control. They found wolves very scarce along the Narrows, so scarce “there don’t seem to be any on Mitkof,...
18 – There are no issues in the archive until May 19, 1926. Thank you for your patience. March 16, 1951 – It’s nothing but the best for the Glen Reid family when something happens to one of their little folk. On Thursday morning Sandy Reid, small son of Mr. and Mrs. Glen Reid, was trying to help his brother grind up some clams for the family lunch. But he tried too hard and poked his tiny finger too far into the chopper, taking it off at the first joint. The family frantically rushed him to the hospital where they learned that three prominent...
June 1 will be the golden anniversary of Alaska Airlines jet service to Wrangell and Petersburg, marking when the first scheduled Boeing 727 passenger flight touched down in the communities in 1976. Before the arrival of the 104-passenger jets, which provided daily same-plane service to and from Seattle, travelers had to take a plane with one-fifth the passenger capacity and catch a connecting flight in Ketchikan or Juneau. "It would be nice to get on a jet at Wrangell and relax all the way to...
January 8, 1926 – Mrs. Grover Cleary, whose husband is a fox farmer in Southeastern Alaska, has sworn to a warrant for the arrest of Robert Bryant, radio expert. Mrs. Cleary is well known in Petersburg, where she has visited many times. She said three of her rings disappeared with Bryant while a guest of the Cleary’s on Thanksgiving day. He reported he found them in an ice machine but one slipped away. Mrs. Cleary found the ring in a Seattle pawn shop and declared Bryant held the ticket. She valued the ring at $1,500. It is a platinum set...
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...
Petersburg’s borough assembly is taking up U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan’s offer to talk about H.R. 1, also called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). H.R. 1 is a wide-ranging spending and tax bill that was signed into law in July. The bill includes much of President Trump’s domestic policy agenda, including changes to Medicaid, tax cuts, and phasing out clean energy tax incentives. In Alaska, the bill directs more oil and gas leases in Southcentral’s Cook Inlet, and offers tax cuts for whaling captains. Many impacts of the bill in Alaska...
October 2, 1925 – The tidal wave of so-called economy now sweeping over the country is liable to wreck the present system of transporting mail to and from Alaska and outside points, if steps reported as being in contemplation are taken – that of returning to the system in vogue during the late war, when mail to and from Alaska was carried as freight instead of under special contract as at present, when mail clerks were being carried aboard the steamers and the mail handled the same as on trains. Three or four weeks ago special agents of the...
September 25, 1925 – “While many herring are running in the vicinity of Latouche this season, it is said that quantities of them are too small to pack, and many are being used for fertilizer and oil. It is said about 250 pounds of fish will produce five gallons of oil. The outlook for herring is said to be better this year than last.” The foregoing paragraph, clipped from a paper to the westward, suggests to us whether herring is more valuable for oil and fertilizer than for human consumption. September 29, 1950 – Warren Averill, assista...
September 11, 1925 – The Petersburg schools show a large increase in enrollment this year. The elementary school’s enrollment has grown by 27 per cent and the high school will be the largest Petersburg has ever had with an increased enrollment of nearly 100 per cent. A great many of the additional pupils are children of people who have moved to Petersburg during the summer, demonstrating that the town is growing from without. Petersburg is now one of the largest Territorial schools, surpassed in numbers only by Ketchikan, Juneau, Anchorage and...
August 28, 1925 – The Alaska Fisherman in its August number makes some very serious charges about the waste of herring that should be investigated. It mentions the names of several persons and alleges that these dumped large quantities of herring into the bay. Herring as a food fish is as valuable, if not more so, than salmon. Its fine qualities are becoming known. It is being put up for the market in increasing quantities each year. Over $12,000 was this season expended in Petersburg by one firm alone for herring for the middle western m...
A deteriorating baseball dugout that had been gathering moss and rot at Petersburg's ball field has found new life as a much-needed weather shelter at the Banana Point boat launch. Back in March, Public Works employee Martin Odegaard was dropping his child off at Banana Point to catch the boat to Wrangell for a wrestling trip on a typically miserable late-winter day. "It was pissing rain, as it always is this time of year," Odegaard recalled. "And so all these kids are getting soaking wet. I'm...
August 14, 1925 – Petersburg needs a cold storage plant. There is enough money here to build a $50,000 plant through cooperative work. The general opinion is that it would pay from the start. To build a bigger plant it would be necessary to get outside money. Outside money wants local people to put up 40 to 60 per cent of the money and assume all the risks with whatever profits there are to going to them. A large plant, moreover, would mean a high-priced expert from outside and a much heavier overhead. A smaller plant could be managed in c...
July 24, 1925 – Fishing banks now visited by vessels of Canada and the United States give promise of little increased production. The depletion of these banks is recognized by the two governments in their halibut treaty of May 31, 1924, providing for an annual closed season on the Pacific coast banks from November 15 to February 15. Halibut fishing is a joint enterprise between the vessel owner and his crew of fishermen. Certain items of cost are paid jointly while others are paid by one or the other according to agreement. The Pacific coast m...
This Saturday marks a historic milestone for Petersburg as the community celebrates the first-ever Amy Hallingstad Day, honoring the Tlingit civil rights pioneer who transformed education and social justice for Alaska Natives. "This is the first year we are having Amy Hallingstad Day. We had it formally proclaimed by the borough as an annual holiday now, and it's to commemorate Amy Hallingstad, who lived in Petersburg most of her life and was a huge proponent in a lot of civil rights matters,...
June 12, 1925 – Miss Mary Wolverton has returned from the Cassiar mining district and says: “Three experienced miners who went to Gold Pan Creek diverted a stream at their own expense, after two months’ labor, and took out $1.60 in gold. Very little gold has been found. Many Alaskan and Yukon sourdoughs who went in with dog teams are coming out and are on their way to other fields. The only real money made is in selling claims for hundreds of dollars. One school teacher put her savings of $600 into a claim and sent in two men with supplies. The...
