Digital Bob Archive

5 December 1980 issue

FEBRUARY 8, 1905-An engineer will be employed by the people of Atlin to investigate the feasibility of a road from their city to the mouth of the Taku River. A mass meeting was held last week and a committee was appointed to raise funds for the project. Juneau businessmen have long advocated such a road.

JUNE 24, 1922-The Douglas Island Women?s Club has raised $85 which will be used to provide more adequate fire escapes for the Douglas school building.

SEPTEMBER 20, 1923-The first shipment of coal from the Evan Jones mine in the Matanuska Valley arrived here today on the steamer Alameda. This shipment was 40 tons but 500 tons will arrive on the freighter Nabesna in a short time. The daily output of the mine is 250 tons.

NOVEMBER 17, 1923-One of the most powerful tugs of the Pacific Coast, the Daniel Kern, arrived from Seattle last night with the former sailing schooner Nottingham in tow. The Nottingham is now berthed at the Juneau Lumber Mill where it will be loaded with 400,000 feet of clear spruce. The tug will leave sometime for Cape Spencer, towing the five-masted barkentine Russell Haviside which is loaded with lumber for Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. The tug will return here for the Nottingham which will be towed to either Seattle or San Pedro.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1943-Dr. William M. Whitehead and his family returned last night from the south and he will resume practice here after an absence of a year and a half. He will rejoin his former colleagues, Dr. C. C. Carter, Dr. William P. Blanton and Dr. W. W. Council at the Juneau Medical & Surgical Clinic. The Whiteheads left Juneau immediately after the outbreak of the war in December, 1941, and have been in his home state of Virginia.

SEPTEMBER 23, 1943-Mr. and Mrs. Paul Bloedhorn, in the jewelry business in Alaska for the past 35 years, have sold their jewelry and curio shop on Franklin Street to Mr. and Mrs. George Osborne, also pioneers of Alaska. Mr. Bloedhorn opened his first jewelry store in 1908 in Douglas and continued there until 1917 when the Treadwell mine caved in. He and Mrs. Bloedhorn then moved to Cordova where they operated a jewelry store until 1931 when they moved to Juneau and opened the present store. Mr. Osborne was the first jeweler to land on the beach in Nome in 1899. Since then he has had jewelry stores in Cordova, Juneau and Anchorage.

JULY 17, 1944-The Senate Building on South Franklin Street, owned by W. D. Gross, is being extensively remodeled and a central heating system will be installed. L. F. Morris of the Morris Construction Company has the contract.

JULY 18, 1944-Bruce Kendall of Anchorage has purchased the Gastineau Hotel. The sale was announced by J. B. Warrack and Wilbur Wester, officers of the company which sold it. The Gastineau was completed in 1915 and until construction of the Baranof was Juneau?s leading hotel. Kendall has for several years operated small hotels in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

OCTOBER 28, 1944-A Juneau landmark, the 300-foot steel radio tower at the head of Twelfth Street, is to be removed and the Alaska Communications System has called for bids on the work. The tower was erected about 1920 by the Navy which at that time owned and operated the radio communication station. It was later turned over to the Army along with the Radio Apartments which were built as the same time as the tower.

MAY 2, 1947-The Juneau Fishing Vessel Owners Association, a non-profit corporation, has been formed by Daniel Twiet, Edmund J. Krause and Daniel Stanworth.

MAY 5, 1947-George W. Folta will be sworn in this week as U. S. District Judge for the First Division of Alaska. John Walmer, Clerk of the Court will administer the oath of office. Folta has been a resident of Juneau since 1913 and during his residence here has served as a clerk-stenographer in the Steamboat Inspection Service, clerk-secretary in the Office of the Governor, court reported in the District Court, assistant United States Attorney and in his present position as Counsel at Large for the Department of the Interior.

MARCH 31, 1948-In a special election yesterday the voters of Juneau, Auk Bay and Tee Harbor approved the creation of the Juneau Independent School District. The vote was 450 in favor and 80 against the proposal. Elected to the five member school board were Dr. Joseph O. Rude, Robert M. Akervick, Ruth M. Popejoy, Mrs. Daniel Livie and Douglas Babcock.

FEBRUARY 2, 1950-With the completion of a beautiful new building on Juneau Island-known to many as Mayflower Island-the 16 person staff of the U. S. Bureau of Mines today finished a two-day moving job. The move was from the Federal and Territorial Building in Juneau where the agency has been quartered for many years. Work on the new building began about a year ago and total cost was less than $300,000. The island was once reserved as a Navy coaling station which was never built and later it became a recreation park and zoo.