Digital Bob Archive

The Polaris-Taku mine was not the only Taku Valley business that was shut down when the United States was forced into World War II. Taku Lodge, at the mouth of the Taku River, was a summer business, operated since 1935 by Mary Joyce. Mary was a trained nurse and she worked at St. Ann's Hospital in Juneau during the winters. The winter of 1939-40 was spent at Sun Valley, Idaho, driving dog teams. She also participated in dog team races at the St. Paul, Minn., Winter Carnival several times. At that time airline stewardesses were required to be trained nurses and starting in 1940 Mary flew between Seattle and Alaska with Northwest Airlines.

In the summer following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Mary reopened the lodge but her business was greatly diminished. At the end of the summer she closed the lodge for the duration. She continued flying as a stewardess and in 1944 worked at the Kodiak Navy Base. In January 1945 she sold the lodge to Mr. and Mrs. Royal O'Reilly of Juneau who reopened it as a tourist facility the following June. Mary subsequently operated a bar in Juneau where she died in July 1976.

The war in Europe came to an end in May 1945 and by August it became obvious that it would soon be over in the Pacific. Frank MacPherson was superintendent for the Polaris-Taku mine on the Tulsequah River. The mine had been closed since April 1942 and during the closure Canadian interests had purchased the property from the Congdons of Duluth, Minn., who had developed it. In July 1945 MacPherson sent a crew of sixteen men to Tulsequah to begin general repair work in preparation for the reopening of the mine in the spring of 1946. The road from the landing at the mouth of the Tulsequah, the bridges and the landing field had all deteriorated while the mine was closed.

The Taku Vessel Company, which handled water transportation for the mining company, ordered a new tug from a Seattle builder to replace the Taku Chief. The new boat was a twin of her predecessor: 59.1 feet in registered length, with 21.5 feet of beam and a 360 horsepower engine. The new vessel was christened Taku Chief II. Also ordered were five steel barges from a Bellingham firm. Some of these were 75 feet in length, the others 85 feet, and all were 21 feet wide. The barges were all named Polaris with designating numbers.

One of the first jobs undertaken in 1946, after navigation opened, was to deepen the mine itself by 300 feet, creating two more levels of 150 feet each. A start was also made that summer to enlarge the mill to a capacity of 500 tons of ore a day. As a result of that year's work it was reported that there were more than 30,000 tons of broken ore reserves in the mine, most of it above the main haulage level.

Aviation played an important part in the reopening and operation of the Polaris-Taku mine. An Alaska Coastal Airlines Kingbird from Juneau used the runway near the mine the year around and in summer float planes docked at Tulsequah Landing at the junction of the two rivers.