Digital Bob Archive

The One Eight fire call sounded from the raucous horn atop the City Hall at Fourth and Main at 12:25 a.m. on August 29, 1949. Most of those who were blasted awake by the sound knew that 1-8 was the alarm box nearest the sawmill on South Franklin Street, the mill of the Juneau Spruce Corporation. A second alarm followed the first within minutes, and all units of both the Juneau Volunteer Fire Department and Douglas Fire Department rushed to the scene, as did the Coast Guard vessels Citrus and Storis and the Alaska Juneau tugboat Trojan. They poured thousands of gallons of water, fresh and salt, on the fire and in two hours had it under control.

In those two hours, however, the sawmill, the planer mill and the fuel bin for the power plant were totally destroyed, the dry kiln had partly burned and the power plant was damaged. About 100,000 board feet of lumber had also gone up in smoke. Total loss was estimated at $600,000 by Freeman Schultz, the manager.

The Juneau Spruce Corporation had been plagued with labor troubles almost from the day in April, 1947, that it took over the property from Juneau Lumber Mills, Inc. It was now ready to call quits. Company president H.F. Chaney told the Juneau Chamber of Commerce that the best he could see would be a small mill within five or six years. He suggested purchase of the property by an Alaska group at about one-third its value. The suggestion bore fruit.

The buyer, in January, 1950, was the Juneau Lumber Company which was incorporated by Brendell C. Canoles, J.A. Murphy and Robert Boochever, Juneau attorney. Canoles and Murphy had been operating a small sawmill, the Duck Creek Lumber Company, at Lemon Creek. The new company put up a building on the south end of the property and installed machinery to cut 30,000 to 40,000 board feet of lumber a day.

The mill got into production in mid-April and ran until December, employing about 45 men. In July there was a meeting of stockholders and new officers were elected: Allen Shattuck, president; A.J. Summers, vice president; J.S. MacKinnon, Sr., secretary-treasurer; Minard Mill and Keith Wildes, directors; Canoles remained as manager with Murphy as his assistant. The City of Juneau bought a piece of the company property, adjoining the City Dock, for $40,000.

The mill reopened in April, 1951, by which time Canoles was president of the company with Minard Mill as vice president. Other directors were L.A. Hogins, Tom Morgan and Roy C. Avrit, all of whom were associated with the Columbia Lumber Company. In January, 1952, Canoles resigned as president and manager and sold his interest in the company. The buyer was not disclosed in the news stories but undoubtedly was one or more of the Columbia Lumber people.
Freeman Butler, who had been mill superintendent under Canoles, was elected to the board of directors and made plant manager. Although the Juneau Lumber Company name was retained for some time, the Columbia Lumber Company appears to have been a large factor in the operation.