Digital Bob Archive

OCTOBER 1918 - PART 2:

The war in Europe was continuing and war news pretty much filled the front pages of Juneau's two daily papers, but by October it was clear the Allies were winning. More and more American troops were in the front lines and the forces of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary) were being forced back. The collapse of the government of Austria-Hungary in October was hailed as an indication of an early end to the fighting.

But as the war was beginning to wind down, America had a new worry - the influenza epidemic that was sweeping the country. On October 16 word was received in Juneau of the death of Lorne McDonald at Camp Dodge, Iowa. He had enlisted from Juneau although he had lived here only a short while. But a number of other Juneau men were in training at Camp Dodge, and the entire town mourned when, on October 22, news was received of the death at Camp Dodge of Johnny Olds. He was 20 and had been born in Juneau, the son of one of the town's first settlers.

October 12, commonly known as Columbus Day, was proclaimed by President Wilson as Liberty Day. In Juneau all government offices, banks, most stores and the schools closed for the day. Alaska Day, the 51st anniversary of the raising of the American flag at Sitka, was not much observed except by the schools where there were programs in observance of the occasion. The Moonlight Dancing Club, made up of Juneau High School seniors, held a dance in the school gymnasium on the 17th, starting at 8 p.m. In Douglas the Douglas and Treadwell public schools together put on an Alaska Day program at the Lyric Theater.

October was the month of the great annual migration southward from Alaska and Yukon Territory. The placer mining season was at an end, and so was the canning season. Steamboats on the Yukon were loaded with passengers, going either downriver to the ocean port of St. Michael or upriver to Whitehorse where they could transfer to the White Pass railway for Skagway. That town was soon jammed to capacity with travelers waiting for steamboat passage. The Canadian steamer Prince Rupert made at least one special trip to Skagway to relieve the congestion. The American steamer Alaska, southbound from Cordova with a load of copper ore, made an unscheduled stop at Skagway and picked up 115 passengers there. When she called at Juneau 21 more passengers boarded her.

The Alaska, after leaving Alaska, ran on the rocks in Graham Reach, British Columbia. Her passengers were taken to the sawmill town of Swanson Bay, close by. The Alaska was pulled off the rocks by another steamer and as she had suffered minimal damage, the passengers were reloaded and she proceeded on her way to Seattle. The story made the Alaska newspapers, but without big headlines. Such strandings were fairly common and thus, when it was announced a couple of days later that the Princess Sophia had stranded north of Juneau, the news caused no great excitement in Juneau.