Digital Bob Archive

MARCH 1918 - PART 5:

The entire crew working on the Treadwell Gold Mining Company properties at Auke Bay was laid off in mid-March. The company had several different claims, most of them owned by local people, under bond and had been carrying on development and prospecting work for several months. A Treadwell company spokesman said the work was being shut down because of high costs but there was speculation that it was just not finding the values necessary for a paying mine.

Miss Lena White, daughter of \"Stroller\" and Mrs. White of Douglas, was working as a reporter for the Puyallup Valley Tribune. Her father was the editor and publisher of the Douglas Island News.

The effects of the mine cave-in on Douglas Island in 1917 were gradually eating away at the Douglas business community. Albin Baritello closed his hotel and pool room on March 20. He said that he had not sold the furniture and fixtures and might reopen at some future date, but that presently there was not enough business to pay the heat and light, let alone the rent.

\"The fishing business and kindred industries are of more importance to Juneau than most people realize,\" E.R. Jaeger told the Juneau Chamber of Commerce. Jaeger, the proprietor of the Juneau Steam Laundry and owner of several business properties, said that if Juneau is to thrive it must develop the fishing industries which in time, if properly tended to, might well outrank mining in importance.

In the Fire Department election, Sim Freiman was reelected chief with J.W. Bell as his assistant. Martin Lavenik was the secretary-treasurer; Frank Sargent and Cliff Gunning the drivers.

H. Sandvik was brought before the U.S. Commissioner and bound over to the grand jury on a charge of circulating seditious literature. He was found in possession of a pamphlet titled \"The Best Reasons Against War in Europe.\"

Miss Margaret Green, the public librarian, announced that the library had just received a copy of \"Diplomatic Correspondence Respecting the War,\" published by the French government. It was a review of both correspondence and verbal discussions between French and German diplomats prior to and during the Serbian trouble with Austria that led up to the war.

The Alaska Electric Light and Power Company applied for an injunction to prevent the Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Company from diverting water from Gold Creek and not returning it. The electric company claimed 5480 miners' inches of water and asserted that the Alaska Juneau was taking so much water from the stream that when the water was low during the winter months there was an insufficient amount to run the AEL&P generators.

More and more fishing boats were arriving in the harbor. On March 27 five boats sold 22,000 pounds of halibut to the National Independent Fish Company. They were the Avona, Rabbit, Ocean, Olsen and Dagney.