Digital Bob Archive

Although a channel crossing on a summery day aboard one of the boats of the Juneau Ferry & Navigation Company was no doubt a pleasant experience, as was mentioned here a couple of weeks ago, the Gastineau Channel area does not have an abundance of such days. Southeasters and Taku winds are far more prevalent - the latter variety much more so in the early years of the century than they are today - and neither one gave much pleasure to ferry riders.

In crossing the channel, the boats were in the trough at least a part of the time, and seasickness was far from unknown among the passengers. It was the mid-1920s before the Alaska Juneau rock dump began to give much protection to Juneau's harbor and to the ferries headed to and from Douglas.

But riding the ferries was not the worst of the ordeal of the folk who depended on them. Getting aboard the boat and getting off again on the other side was frequently a real hazard. This news story from mid-January, 1909, paints the picture: \"A crew of five men has been kept busy at Douglas, trying to keep the ferry float free of ice. With the high winds and cold temperatures of recent days, the waves wash over the Douglas float and much of the water remains in the form of ice which builds to a depth of two feet or more if not constantly chopped away.\"

And not only the floats on both sides, but the gangways leading to them were often ice-coated. Dark mornings and evenings, frigid winds, slippery gangways and floats, plus boats that were running behind schedule no doubt created a great deal of enthusiastic support for a cross-channel bridge. But a bridge, unfortunately, depended upon appropriations by Congress and no Congressman was required to cross Gastineau Channel in mid-winter.

The cave-in at Treadwell in April, 1917, did some damage to the traffic of the ferry company, but perhaps not as much as might be expected. The population of Douglas Island did decrease rapidly as the big Treadwell payroll ceased. The United States had just entered World War I and industries all over the country were begging for men. But the Thane-Perseverance mining complex was rolling along in good shape, and the Alaska Juneau Mine was getting started, and many of the men who had homes and families in Douglas opted to stay and work in them. They continued to live in Douglas and to cross the channel by ferry.

As a news story of December, 1917, makes clear, that wasn't always much fun: \"The high winds and icing condition of the past two weeks have caused much trouble for the ferry company. Boats have been from half an hour to an hour late, and ice on the ferry floats cause them to be hazardous to patrons. The boats themselves are often coated with from three inches to a foot of ice. The conditions are especially bad for Douglas residents who work at the Alaska Juneau and Thane mines and who have to be on time to hold their jobs.\" Joy was unrestrained in Douglas in September, 1935, when the bridge was opened for traffic.