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Sitnews - Stories In The News - Historical Ketchikan... Historical Alaska Feature Stories by Dave Kiffer Sitnews - Stories In The News - Historical Ketchikan... Historical Alaska Feature Stories by Dave Kiffer
Historical Ketchikan... Historical Alaska
Feature Stories By Dave Kiffer
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254: The Day Ketchikan Tried to Quarantine Wrangell; First City Mayor claimed that northern neighbor had smallpox outbreak - People are often surprised by how much "competition" there is between the communities in Southeast Alaska. Even though some of the towns are hundreds of miles apart, they are still highly competitive when it comes to industries, quality of life issues, and even sports. - More...
Sunday - May 21, 2023
253: Ketchikan Fire Boat Newell for sale; Community has had fireboats since the late 1920s By DAVE KIFFER - If you have ever wanted to own a fireboat, now is your chance. The City of Ketchikan is taking sealed bids for its 36-year-old fireboat, the Harry Newell. - More...
Thursday - May 11, 2023
252: When The First City was 'no town at all'; Dalton first came to Ketchikan in 1889 By DAVE KIFFER - Likely, the earliest recorded memories of what Ketchikan was like at or near the beginning of its history comes from one of the original founders of Metlakatla, Simon Dalton, who first saw Ketchikan in 1889. - More...
Wednesday - April 26, 2023
251: 'Ketchikan' still has two buildings from the 1800s By DAVE KIFFER - It is a commonly asked question. - More....
Saturday - April 15, 2023
250: The Future Moved South in the late 1890s; Early Ketchikan was boosted when several prominent Wrangell business people relocated By DAVE KIFFER - For recent generations, Wrangell has been Ketchikan's smaller neighbor to the north, even though "The Gateway to the Stikine" has a much longer history, having been a Russian outpost and a Hudson's Bay Company settlement going back to the 1830s. - More...
Thursday - April 06, 2023
249: 'The example we want to follow'; Legendary bush pilot Herman Ludwigsen dies at 95 By DAVE KIFFER - Herman Nels Ludwigsen packed a lot of action into his nine decade life. He was a bush pilot, a commercial fisherman and an Alaskan Hall of Fame trapper. - More...
Monday - March 27, 2023
248: Ketchikan State Rep is still youngest in state's history; Terry Gardiner was also the youngest to be Speaker of the House By DAVE KIFFER - Fifty years ago, Ketchikan's Terry Gardiner became the youngest person ever elected to the Alaska State Legislature. Gardiner, who would later go to co-found Silver Lining Seafoods, would spend a decade in the state legislature and would also become the youngest person to serve as Speaker of the House, the top post in the State House of Representatives. - More...
Wednesday - February 15, 2023
247: Remembering Hyder; Hyder, British Columbia, that is! By DAVE KIFFER - Everyone knows about the twin towns at the head of Portland Canal, Hyder, Alaska and Stewart, British Columbia. - More...
Monday - February 06, 2023
246: Fifty years ago, a great novel took shape in Ketchikan; Silko's 'Ceremony' was created in a vacant law office on Ketchikan Creek; I was so homesick, I tried to remake the homeland that I missed so much.' By DAVE KIFFER - What is likely the most famous novel ever written in the First City was neither about Ketchikan nor even Alaska. - More...
Monday - January 09, 2023
245: 2022 Year in Review By DAVE KIFFER - Ketchikan finally began to move out of the COVID era in 2022. - More...
Sunday - January 01, 2023
244: Southern Southeast Alaska has Often Been the 'Gateway' to Gold By DAVE KIFFER - It always surprises some people that the most famous "Alaskan" gold rush, the Klondike Rush of 1897-98, was not really in Alaska at all. - More...
Monday - December 12, 2022
243: Seeking the Right to Vote; A century ago, Native Leaders Charlie Jones and Tillie Paul were charged with a crime By DAVE KIFFER - November 7, 1922 was a lovely day in Wrangell. We know that because Judge James WIckersham, then living in Wrangell, noted it in his diary the "fine weather." - More...
Sunday - November 20, 2022
242: Begich plane disappeared 50 years ago; Two US Congressmen disappeared on ill-fated flight By DAVE KIFFER - Even after half a century, it remains the most famous missing plane in Alaskan history. - More...
Thursday - November 03, 2022
241: Historic Totem To Return to Kasaan; 130 year old totem was in Los Angeles, Colorado for 116 years By DAVE KIFFER - More than a half century ago a Haida totem that was carved in the 1800s was laying forgotten in a lumber yard in Los Angeles. It was going to be turned to sawdust, but then fate intervened and it spent the rest of the 20 th century in the courtyard of a Colorado museum. - More...
Monday - October 17, 2022
240: Reconciliations took decades to come; Native churches in Ketchikan, Juneau closed in 1962 By DAVE KIFFER - Last summer, the national branch of the Presbyterian Church issued a formal apology to the Native community of Juneau over the closure of a primarily Native church in the 1960s. - More...
Sunday - Octobe r09, 2022
239: The steamship era lasted a century; If you wanted to come to Alaska, Alaska Steamship was the way By DAVE KIFFER ) - On September 29, 1922, the SS Ketchikan left the dock at the Port Althorp Cannery on Chichagof Island west of Juneau near the mouth of Glacier Bay with a load of more than 3,000 tons of salmon and herring. - More...
Wednesday - September 28, 2022
238: 60 years later, 'Ernie's frogs' are still croaking; Local man flew a bucket of frogs north from Seattle By DAVE KIFFER - Alaskans have been known to occasionally try to improve upon the nature around them. - More...
Tuesday - September 13, 2022
237: Amylon led Ketchikan city government for more than a quarter century; Looking back at a long reign By DAVE KIFFER - In the world of municipal management former longtime Ketchikan city manager Karl Amylon was a unicorn. - More...
Sunday - August 28, 2022
236: Doctor Mustard or Major Mustard? Pioneering doctor was a big name in 1920s Ketchikan By DAVE KIFFER - Ketchikan has had many interesting medical professionals in the past century, but one of the most accomplished was Dr. John Mustard. Mustard traveled the world, studying in London and Vienna. He was the mayor of Nome during the Gold Rush. He was also a gentleman fox farmer. But he spent much of his medical career serving the residents of Ketchikan. - More...
Thursday - August 18, 2022
235: Aviation came to Ketchikan a century ago; Roy Jones started first commercial aviation company in Alaska By DAVE KIFFER - A century ago, Roy F. Jones flew the first airplane into Ketchikan and brought the modern transportation world to Alaska. - MORE...
Sunday - July 17, 2022
234 Ziegler was dean of the Ketchikan legal community By DAVE KIFFER - Fifty years ago this month, the dean of the Ketchikan legal profession died while on a vacation trip to Seattle. - More...
Thursday - June 02, 2022
233: M/V Malaspina Officially Retiring to Ketchikan, Alaska; Former 'Queen of the Fleet' will stay in Alaska, become centerpiece of historic park. By DAVE KIFFER - It's official. The state of Alaska is selling the retired state ferry Malaspina to the developers of Ward Cove for $128.500. - More...
Thursday - June 02, 2022
232: Craig, IFA celebrate anniversaries By DAVE KIFFER - The Spring of 2022 has featured two significant historical anniversaries for Prince of Wales Island: The 20th Anniversary of Inter-Island Ferry Authority and the 100th Birthday of City of Craig. - More...
Saturday PM - May 14, 2022
231: 80 years ago local Japanese families were sent to internment camps; Ohashis were one family that came back By DAVE KIFFER - Eighty years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the imprisonment of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. - More...
Monday PM - March 07, 2022
230: When "54-40 or Fight" Was the Presidential Cry By DAVE KIFFER - In the 1844 United States Presidential election, all eyes were towards Southeast Alaska. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 12, 2022
229: 2021 Year in Review: COVID keeps its 'grippe' on Ketchikan tourism By DAVE KIFFER - Forget Groundhog Day, 2021 was Groundhog Year with a second successive cancellation of the majority of the cruise ship season because of COVID 19 concerns and the Canadian extension of a ban of cruise ship operations in its waters. - More...
Saturday PM - January 01, 2022
228: A Deadly December; Two shipwrecks in 1979 took 40 lives, Caused largest oil spill before Exxon Valdez By DAVE KIFFER - It is not unusual for large storms to rage in Dixon Entrance every winter. But two storms that hit the boundary waters between Southeast Alaska and British Columbia in December of 1979 were unusually large and unusually deadly. - More...
Thursday PM - December 16, 2021
227: Winn Brindle's national exposure; Legendary Ketchikan cannery owner once appeared in baby food ad By DAVE KIFFER - Ketchikan was barely three years old as an incorporated town when one of its youngest residents became nationally famous. - More...
Friday PM - November 26, 2021
226: The First City in 1898, before it was a city; Visitor from Tacoma wrote it was his idea to move the customs house to Ketchikan By DAVE KIFFER - In 1898, Ketchikan was collection of shacks on the edge of becoming a city. By 1900, it would incorporate and eventually go on to become - briefly - the largest city in the territory of Alaska. - More...
Sunday PM - October 14, 2021
225: The Drs. Dickinson; Husband and Wife Team Served Ketchikan for Half a Century - George Dickinson, who practiced for 50 years in the First City, may not have been Ketchikan's first doctor, but he was Ketchikan's "first Medicine Man" according to those that knew him. - More...
Sunday PM - October 03, 2021
224: When Fur Farming was Alaska's third biggest industry; Hundreds of farms dotted islands in Southeast By DAVE KIFFER - Every so often, when exploring a remote island in the Alexander Archipelago, one can come upon aset of puzzling remains. - More...
Sunday PM - September 12, 2021
223: 'People still have to eat'; A history of grocery stores in the First City By DAVE KIFFER - With the announcement, ealier this year, that Tatsuda's Supermarket would not reopen after a landslide destroyed its Stedman Street store last year, it not only marked the end of a century old local business, it also marked the first time in 130 years that Downtown Ketchikan would be without a grocery store. - More..
Thursday PM - September 02, 2021
222: They called him "Six Shooter"; Grant was town's first 'official' lawman; And once "bought" Ketchikan for $1By DAVE KIFFER - Any "frontier town," as Ketchikan was in the first two decades of the 20th Century, is bound to have characters. - More...
Monday PM - August 23, 2021
221: Gravina: A Tale of Two Islands By DAVE KIFFER - Considering that Ketchikan residents spend a lot of time staring across Tongass Narrows at Gravina Island, there is a lot that most people don't know about it. - More...
Saturday PM - August 14, 2021
220: 93 Years in The First City! By DAVE KIFFER - Merta Smith Kiffer, my mother, would have turned 100 on July 26. - More...
Monday AM - July 26, 2021
219: The Death of a Snitch; Who or what killed Tiny Walker In Ketchikan's Prohibition Days? By DAVE KIFFER - Ketchikan sometimes glamourizes the local scene during Prohibition. While the rest of the country was allegedly "bone dry" from 1919 to 1933, Ketchikan's booming salmon canning economy and its proximity to ready alcohol in Prince Rupert meant that the First City was anything but "tee-totaling" despite the best efforts of the territorial prohibition agents. - More...
Sunday PM - July 18, 2021
218: Bill Mitchell's last blaze was 60 years ago; Firefighter responsible for at least 5 local arsons in 50s and 60s By DAVE KIFFER - - On July 3, 1961, Ketchikan was ramping up for another Fourth of July celebration. Loggers and fishermen were flooding the town, Dock Street was closed off to vehicle traffic and residents were flocking to the food and game booths. It seemed like all 6,750 residents were in the downtown prepping for the next day's parade, logging show and fireworks. - More...
Sunday PM - July 11, 2021
217: The Goose was everyone's favorite 'bird'; Grumman amphibian defined SE air travel for 30 years By DAVE KIFFER - There have been many types of airplanes that have flown in Southeast Alaska in the last century, but there is little question that the most fondly remembered is the Grumman Goose. - More...
Sunday PM - June 13, 2021
216: Early SE cruise ship had a long sea life; Spirit of London became the Sun Princess; Ship visited Ketchikan for 'sled dog race' By DAVE KIFFER - Even in the relentlessly peripatetic world of the cruise ship industry, the ship that was once called the Spirit of London had a remarkable run. - More...
Saturday PM - June 05, 2021
215: Charcoal Point: From One R to the Three Rs; Pre-Prohibition roadhouse became school For children of Ketchikan's north suburbs By DAVE KIFFER - There have been several long-time schools in Ketchikan. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 26, 2021
214: The Aussie who loved Ketchikan; For 40 years, Len Laurance was The Ketchikan Visitor Industry By DAVE KIFFER - It is likely the most famous story in the history of the Ketchikan visitor industry. - More...
Tuesday PM - April 20, 2021
213: Homeporting the Fairweather, a decades long quest By DAVE KIFFER - A nearly two-decade quest to build a "homeport" dock for the NOAA research and survey vessel came to fruition last week, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency announced it had awarded an $18 million contract to Anchorage-based Ahtna Infrastructure and Technologies LLC. - More...
Tuesday PM - April 13, 2021
212: Ketchikan's rainfall notoriety goes way back; In 1916 Visiting Writer Dubbed First City 'The Rainiest Town' By DAVE KIFFER - Perception is often reality, so although there may be some wetter places in America than Ketchikan (Little Port Walter, Kauai Island in Hawaii, the coast north of Yakutat) Ketchikan is generally considered the rainiest "town" in America. - More....
Monday PM - April 05, 2021
211: Coast Guard Award Honors Man Who Died On Gravina In 1964; Five died when Albatross crashed after searching for sinking boat By DAVE KIFFER - Twice each year at United States Coast Guard air wings across the country, there is a chance for special recognition for service men and women with the awarding of the Lt. Robert A. Perchard Memorial Trophy. - More...
Monday PM - March 29, 2021
210: A Tale of Two Totems; Campbell poles graced downtown Ketchikan - For two decades, ended up in Switzerland By DAVE KIFFER - For more than two decades, a pair of non "traditional" full-sized totem poles stood on Mission Street in front of a local jewelry store in downtown Ketchikan. They were as much a part of the downtown as the Welcome Arch and are still remembered by people who lived in Ketchikan between the 1930s and the 1950s. - More...
Monday AM - March 15, 2021
209: Connecting Ketchikan to the Outside world; Recent KPU submarine cable latest in a century of 'cables' By DAVE KIFFER - In today's world where a few simple keystrokes can connect you with nearly anyone in the world, it is hard to imagine a time when such a thing was not possible. Yet, it was only a century ago when Ketchikan and much of Alaska was "cut off" from the rest of the world and communication was anything but instantaneous. - More...
February 28, 2021
208: Drency, Lillian Dudley were pioneers for Civil Rights; Local couple faced racism, but were community leaders By DAVE KIFFER - One of the primary sports fields in Ketchikan is the Drency Dudley Field. More precisely, it is the Drency Dudley Bicentennial Field. - More...
February 14, 2021
207: Seeking a Road to Somewhere; For nearly a century, Ketchikan has Yearned for a way to drive off the island By DAVE KIFFER - With future ferry service up in the air and the price of both barge shipping and air travel on the rise, you could certainly forgive Ketchikan residents for wistfully wondering how life would be different in Southern Southeast if a road connected Ketchikan to the rest of the continent. - More...
Saturday - January 23, 2021
206: The time the Arctic Bar went 'in the drink'; Fishermen went "dipnetting" for floating bottles in Thomas Basin By DAVE KIFFER - Just about every time there is a high tide in Ketchikan Creek or a storm swells the runoff from Granite Basin, someone mentions the time the Arctic Bar literally "went into the drink." - More...
Friday PM - January 08, 2021
205: Ketchikan 2020 Year in Review:COVID cancels entire cruise ship season; International pandemic affects all residents, even those that remained healthy By DAVE KIFFER - Like the rest of the world, the biggest news story in Ketchikan was the quarantine caused by the Corona Virus or COVID 19. Most of Ketchikan was shut down from mid-March through the end of April harkening back to the month- long closure of the Ketchikan economy and social world for a month during the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918. - More...
Saturday PM - January 02, 2020
204: A Prince of Wales Canal?; A train was also considered to bridge SE's biggest island By DAVE KIFFER - At more than 130 miles in length, it takes a long time for a boat to get around Prince of Wales Island when it travels from Ketchikan or Wrangell to communities on the western side of the island. - MORE...
Sunday AM - November 15, 2020
203: The Short Life of Fort Tongass; Military base was on the border barely two years - One hundred and fifty years ago, the United States' government attempt to militarize the border in Southern Southeast Alaska ended. - More...
Tuesday AM - November 03, 2020
202: A real "Schooner of Beer"; Ketchikan's floating brewery operated for nearly a decade By DAVE KIFFER - For a town that loves its alcohol as much as Ketchikan does, it is somewhat surprising that there have been only a few efforts to commercially brew alcohol in Ketchikan. A decade ago, a brewery operated briefly in the Downtown area on Mission Street and in the past couple of years, two brewing operations have either opened or announced plans to. - More...
Friday AM - October 30, 2020
201: When JFK Came to Ketchikan; Future president was most likely laying the groundwork for his eventual campaign By DAVE KIFFER - Among Ketchikan residents of a certain age there is a strong memory of John F. Kennedy coming to Ketchikan in 1960 and speaking to a packed audience at the Coliseum Theater shortly before he became President. - More...
Friday AM - October 30, 2020
200: Not All Die in Combat; Ketchikan man was killed in huge munitions explosion in World War II By DAVE KIFFER - Not all the people who die in wartime are killed in combat. Traditionally, one quarter of the war deaths that Americans have suffered since the Civil War have been either during in training or in accidents unrelated to battle itself. - More...
Wednesday AM - August 26, 2020
199: World War II in Ketchikan; War years were ones of uncertainty, change in the First City By DAVE KIFFER - Seventy-five years ago this month, the defining event of the 20th Century, World War II, came to an end. - More...
Sunday PM - August 16, 2020
198: Back when doctors made house calls! Members of the Wilson family served Ketchikan for more than 60 years - For more than 60 years, health care in Ketchikan was spelled with a "W," as in Wilson. - More...
Saturday PM - July 25, 2020
197: Museum documents trace the 'ownership' of the First City; Downtown Ketchikan changed hands for $1 in 1899 By DAVE KIFFER - For generations, Tlingit natives came to what was later called Ketchikan Creek every summer and fall to harvest some of the more than one million salmon that returned every year. It was one of the largest salmon streams in the region. - More...
Monday PM - July 13, 2020
196: The Hygiene sailed Southeast waters looking for TB; State focused on stopping 20th Century plague By DAVE KIFFER - In the first half of the 20th Century, tuberculosis was rampant in Alaska. - More...
Tuesday PM - July 07, 2020
195: Not all came back; Local man was on Navy sub that disappeared in WW II By DAVE KIFFER - Some 850 men and women from Ketchikan took part in military service in World War II. Six died in the war and five were buried with honors, either in Ketchikan or at military cemeteries elsewhere. But one "local" man who died in World War II, Jerome Richard Rice, isn't buried anywhere. - More...
Friday PM - June 26, 2020
194: A South Tongass Airport? Not really, but a local pilot did land there once By DAVE KIFFER - Before the middle part of the 20th Century, Southeast Alaska was a generally unhospitable place for land planes. - More...
Monday PM - June 22, 2020
193: A Jumbo Mine and a jumbo political impeachment; Sulzer brothers both served in Congress, promoted Alaska statehood By DAVE KIFFER - What does an old ghost town on Prince of Wales Island have to do with the only New York Governor to be impeached? Nothing. And everything. - More...
Sunday PM - May 24, 2020
192: The Rustanius sisters; Ketchikan women were early 'heroines of the horizon' By DAVE KIFFER - When one thinks of the Southeast Alaska bush pilot, the image of the cowboy often comes to mind. The lone individual - in this case the pilot - struggling against nature to safely navigate the weather and the terrain and tie together the distinct and isolated communities of the Panhandle. - More...
Sunday PM - May 17, 2020
191: Ott Inman: One of the builders of Ketchikan; Boat builder, sawmiller, cooper, undertaker By DAVE KIFFER - A young city requires entrepreneurs if it wants to grow and survive. Austin "Ott" Inman was one of the first Ketchikan entrepreneurs, there at the beginning as Ketchikan began its 130-year march from a collection of shacks by Ketchikan Creek into one of the Alaska's primary cities. - More...
Tuesday PM - April 21, 2020
190: Planes aren't the only kind of 'otters' that have flown in Southeast; Local pilots helped transplant Aleutian otters in late 1960s. By DAVE KIFFER - Bush pilots are often required to carry interesting things, but one of the most interesting cargos ever flown into Southeast Alaska was several dozen sea otters that were being used to boost local stocks that had been in decline ever since the Russians moved to Sitka in the early 1800s and decimated the native otters. - More...
Monday PM - April 13, 2020
189: The 'King of Cruising' and the Princess Patricia; Stanley McDonald got the idea for Pacific cruising at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair By DAVE KIFFER - It isn't often that an entire industry can be pegged to the creative drive of one person. But while there were "cruise ships" before Stanley McDonald took a small Canadian steam ship and began making runs between Los Angeles and Mexico in 1965, there is a reasonable argument that the $134 billion cruise industry would not be where it is today without him. - More....
Wednesday PM - April 01, 2020
188: Ketchikan pilot found millionaire's plane crash in Boca de Quadra in early 1950s; Herman Ludwigsen had a long career of finding downed planes, flyers By DAVE KIFFER - Most area residents are familiar with the plane crash of legendary pilot Harold Gillam in Boca de Quadra back in 1943. But almost exactly a decade later there was another crash in Boca de Quadra, barely a mile away from where Gillam's plane when down. - More...
Wednesday PM - March 25, 2020
187: (ANALYSIS) Marine HIghway facing rough waters; Costs spiral as the state reduced funding leading to layups and service cutbacks. By DAVE KIFFER - MORE...
Monday PM - February 10, 2020
186: The 20-year anniversary of Flight 261; Maintenance error led to the death of 88 By DAVE KIFFER - Twenty years ago this week, an Alaska Airlines MD- 83 crashed in the ocean near Los Angeles on a flight from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco and Seattle. It was the second deadliest crash in Alaska Airlines history and shined a light on what investigators determined was a lax maintenance regime in the airline. - More...
Thursday PM - January 30, 2020
185 2019 YEAR IN REVIEW; Plane crash tragedies strike Ketchikan By DAVE KIFFER - The biggest story of 2019 was also the biggest tragedy. Eight people died in two plane crashes barely a week apart in May. - More...
Tuesday PM - January 07, 2020
184 Malaspina Once Rescued Passengers, Crewmembers From Burning Cruise Ship By DAVE KIFFER - The state ferry Malaspina, which was taken out of service after nearly 60 years earlier this month, was involved in one of the most dramatic rescues on the Canadian Pacific Coast more than 40 years ago. - More..
Thursday PM - December 19, 2019
183 Ward Cove has been Ketchikan economic engine for 100 years; Cruise ship port would redevelop pulp mill site By DAVE KIFFER - This summer's announcement that a multi-ship cruise terminal is planned for the old Ketchikan Pulp Mill site in Ward Cove is a reminder of the important economic role the cove has played in the community over the years. - More...
Saturday PM - NOvember 29, 2019
182 A Famous Photographer Visits Southeast Alaska; A century and half ago, Muybridge took the first photos of Alaska. By DAVE KIFFER - Each year several million photographs are taken of Alaska. Granted many, these days, are selfies in which the photographer's face is more prominent than the Alaska scenery, but parts of the Last Frontier are remain among the most photographed places on Earth. - More...
Saturday PM - November 23, 2019
181 An American forester who spent much of his career supporting the development of the Alaska Territory By DAVE KIFFER - B. Frank Heintzleman's place in Alaskan history primarily comes from his stint as one of Alaska's final territorial governors in the 1950s. - More...
Monday PM - November 04, 2019
180 75 Hours at Sea on the Columbia; End to end in Southeast Alaska, Possibly for the last time - When the State Ferry workers went on strike this summer, one of my friends - who obviously needs to get out more - was surprised. - More...
Sunday PM - October 20, 2019
179 Did Klondike Ship Go Down With Half Ton of Gold? Iceberg claimed SS Islander in 1901 By DAVE KIFFER - Just about everyone knows the story of the Titanic, the luxury liner that struck an iceberg and sank, taking 1,500 passengers to the bottom of the North Atlantic in 1912. - More...
Saturday PM - October 05, 2019
178 A historic boat works struggles to hang on; Property dispute threatens 80-year old boat shop By DAVE KIFFER - Once upon a time, there were dozens of small, independent boat builders in Southeast Alaska. Ingenuity and a seemingly endless supply of wood meant that it was usually cheaper to meet the regional need by building locally. - More...
Monday PM - September 30, 2019
177 The King of Ketchikan, Circa 1940; Salmon industry lobbyist one of the most powerful men in Alaska By DAVE KIFFER - From the 1930s to the 1950s, Winton C. Arnold was the most powerful man in Ketchikan. By some accounts, he was one of the most powerful men in Alaska. - More...
Monday PM - September 16, 2019
176 Alaska for Greenland? The US considered it after WW II By DAVE KIFFER - Even 80 years after the United States purchased Alaska from Russia it still wasn't sure what to do with The Last Frontier. - More...
Tuesday PM - August 20, 2019
175 Alaskan pardons are rare; Gov. Knowles once pardoned a man over a racial attack in Wartime Wrangell By DAVE KIFFER - Gubernatorial pardons are a very rare thing in Alaska. In fact, there hasn't been one since the early 2000s and there have been barely 100 pardons issues in Alaska's 60 years of statehood. - More...
Tuesday PM - August 20, 2019
174 Tragic laundry fire killed three during WWII ; Coast Guardsmen were staying in building that had been taken from Japanese internee By DAVE KIFFER - Hundreds of stories of servicemen and woman dying in combat in World War II have been passed down in the past 75 years.- More...
Monday PM - June 24, 2019
173 New book celebrates Southeast Canneries; Pat Roppel's friends publish her last book By DAVE KIFFER - When longtime Southeast resident and historian Pat Roppel died in 2015, it was the end of the career of the person most responsible for putting Southeast history into print over the last four decades. - More...
Thursday PM - June 20, 2019
172 A Blast From The Past - Thank goodness Ketchikan never needed its fallout shelters By DAVE KIFFER - A half century ago, Ketchikan - like most of the rest of the country - was gripped in the Cold War between the United States and the USSR. - More...
Tuesday AM - June 11, 2019
171 A late night visit to Creek Street; Old memo details a 'meeting' between police chief, Dolly Arthur By DAVE KIFFER - History and time have a way of rubbing the rough edges off a person. - More...
Monday PM - April 29, 2019
170 A snapshot of Ketchikan in 1910; Local pamphlet was developed to boost mining industry By DAVE KIFFER - We often forget that Ketchikan was, in its infancy, a mining town. - More...
Friday PM - April 19, 2019
169 Famous steamer captain remembered in local landmark; Carroll Inlet named after early ship captain By DAVE KIFFER - When you live in an area for any length of time, you usually begin to ignore the place names. If the names have a particular significance, their meaning may linger awhile in the consciousness, but usually they become just part of the generally forgotten background to the community. - More...
Monday AM - February 25, 2019
168 Prohibition attempted to ban alcohol a century ago; Alaska enacted a ban two years earlier, neither one worked By DAVE KIFFER - It is hard imagine a time when the authorities tried to ban alcohol in Alaska. - More...
Saturday AM - January 26, 2019
167 2018 Year in Review By DAVE KIFFER - The youth of Ketchikan figured into several of the most prominent stories in 2018. - More...
Tuesday AM - January 08, 2019
166 The original "Salmon Capital of the World";Karluk was Alaska's original salmon boom town long before Ketchikan By DAVE KIFFER - Long before Ketchikan "appropriated" the title of Salmon Capital of the World in the 1920s, another Alaskan community was indeed the salmon capital of the world. - More...
Tuesday PM - December 18, 2018
165 Prince Rupert Cherry Blossom Gift Remembered with Plaque; Historic gift came to light when trees were accidentally cut down By DAVE KIFFER - It was a simple act of re-landscaping some government property in Prince Rupert earlier this year, but it brought to light the story of a pioneering Japanese family in the community and the tragic historical event that affected such families up and down the coast seven decades ago. - More...
Wednesday PM - December 05, 2018
164 An 'Unremarkable Storm'; But Ketchikan residents remember Thanksgiving Day Storm of 1968 By DAVE KIFFER - According to the National Weather Service it wasn't even that unusual of a storm. - More...
Friday PM - November 23, 2018
163 Historic plane to be NY hotel lounge; 60 year old Constellation flew in Alaska, made drug runs elsewhere By DAVE KIFFER - A Lockheed Constellation prop plane with a lengthy history in Alaska in the 1960s and 70s including at the Annette Island Airfield, is getting a second life. As a lounge at a new hotel at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. - More...
Wednesday PM - November 07, 2018
162 Princess Sophia Sank 100 Years Ago; 350 passengers, crew died in the waters near Juneau By DAVE KIFFER - It has been one hundred years since the worst marine disaster to ever strike the Inside Passage occurred. But even in communities that were directly affected by the disaster, there has been little to remember the sinking of the Canadian steamship Princess Sophia and the loss of her 350 passengers and crew. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 23, 2018
161 Remembering a local legend ; 40 years after his death, Ed Todd remains fresh in the mind of the minds of those that flew with him By DAVE KIFFER - It has been 40 years since legendary Ketchikan pilot Ed Todd made his final flight. But the Ketchikan-based "Cowboy of the Skies" who called everyone "partner" remains very alive in the memories of the people who knew him. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 09, 2018
160 Remembering the 'Queens' of the Alaska and BC Ferry Systems; Sister ferries went from Europe to the Northwest Coast By DAVE KIFFER - Fifty years ago, the Stena Danica and the Stena Brittanica were the newest ships in the Swedish ferry giant Stena Lines fleet. But both proved to have short lives in that busy fleet and both eventually would make their way to the Alaska/Canada northwest coast, where under different names they would make their marks. - More...
Monday PM - September 17, 2018
159 Father Duncan died 100 years ago; 'Apostle of Alaska' was 86 By DAVE KIFFER - A century ago, an 86-year-old man passed away in Metlakatla. He had been in ill health for some time, after falling several months previously. The official cause was "apoplexy" which was then what strokes and heart attacks were thought to cause. - More...
Monday PM - September 03, 2018
158 1978 Lab Bay Goose Crash was most deadly on record; After 40 years, still no explanation for crash that killed 12 By DAVE KIFFER - Forty years ago this week, one of the last Grumman Goose amphibians operating commercially in Southeast crashed just off the northern tip of Prince of Wales Island. Twelve people died in the crash, making it one of the worst aviation accidents in the history of Southeast Alaska. At the time, it was the highest loss of life in a Grumman Goose crash. - More...
Thursday PM - August 30, 2018
157 Gravina airport is 45 years old; Jet age came to Tongass Narrows in 1973, a promised bridge did not By DAVE KIFFER - Forty five years ago this weekend, the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina opened. - More...
Friday PM - August 03, 2018
156 REMEMBERING SOUTHEAST ALASKA RESIDENTS WHO DIED IN VIETNAM; 10 area residents killed 50 years ago in conflict By DAVE KIFFER - A half century ago, Alaskans were beginning to take notice of the Vietnam War, primarily because the number of local men and women serving in Southeast Asia was increasing and Alaskans were dying in the fight. A total of 58 Alaskans would die in Vietnam, more than twice the combined number of Alaskan combat deaths in World War II and Korea. - More...
Tuesday PM - July 17, 2018
155 For 30 years, Ellis and Alaska Coastal were the only way to fly In Southeast; Half a century ago, regional airlines merged in AK AirBy DAVE KIFFER - Fifty years ago this spring, Southeast Alaska's most prominent home-grown airline ceased to exist. - More...
Wednesday PM - June 20, 2018
154 Effort to retake Attu and Kiska was 75 years ago; Ellis, Bartholomew, other locals, fought in the Aleutians By DAVE KIFFER - Seventy five years ago this month, the only World War II battle on incorporated American territory took place on Attu Island in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. - More...
Monday PM - May 21, 2018
153 Back When Cruising Was Real Luxury; Morgan family yacht brought well heeled visitors to Alaska in late 40s By DAVE KIFFER - Each year more than one million cruise ship passengers visit Alaska. All arrive in a manner vastly different from the thousands of people who once sailed the Inside Passage to Alaska. - More..
Thursday PM - May 03, 2018
152 Over Here: When the Canadians came to Annette to help defend Alaska during World War II By DAVE KIFFER - Visitors to Annette Island are often fascinated by the remains of what once was one of the largest airfields along the Alaskan coast. - More...
Sunday PM - March 11, 2018
151 Gillam Crash transfixed Ketchikan; Dramatic rescue of survivors occurred 75 years ago By DAVE KIFFER - Seventy five years ago this month, while most Americans were transfixed by news reports of the World War II battles at Stalingrad and Guadalcanal, Ketchikan residents were following a dramatic local story: The crash and subsequent rescue of the survivors of the crash of famed pilot Harold Gillam's Lockheed Electra in what it now called Misty Fjords. - More....
Tuesday PM - February 20, 2018
150 E.B. White sailed to Alaska in 1923; Famed writer visited Ketchikan as a 'callow' youth. By DAVE KIFFER - Alaskans are very familiar with the famous authors who have come to Alaska and used it as their literary canvas. Jack London, James Michener, John Muir, and many others have written of the north, carrying our stories - and sometimes our myths - to a broader public. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 17, 2018
149 2017 Year in Review - Wet Summer Set Local Tongues Wagging in 2017 By DAVE KIFFER - Another year in Ketchikan where "weather" was the big story. At least that's what everyone was talking about. The summer weather that is. - More...
Tuesday PM - January 02, 2018
148 Japanese immigrant was an early Alaskan casualty of World War II; Kayamori was the "Picture Man" in Yakutat By DAVE KIFFER - Many people know the name of the first Alaskan casualty of World War II. - More...
Friday PM - December 22, 2017
147 Alaska Marine Highway Tested Jet Foils in the 1980s ; Hundreds of residents took rides during demonstrations By DAVE KIFFER - Over the past four decades the Alaska Marine Highway System has looked at a variety of ways to efficiently move passengers and vehicles over Alaska's watery expanses. - More...
Saturday PM - November 18, 2017
146 Deadly plane crash led to creation of Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad; 1947 Pan Am crash on Tamgas Mountain killed 18 By DAVE KIFFER - Seventy years ago this week (Thursday), the worst Alaskan aviation accident up to that time occurred on Annette Island when a Pan American Airways DC-4 slammed into the top of Tamgas Mountain killing all 18 passengers and crew. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 24, 2017
145 Redford movie was based on former Ketchikan resident; Tom Murton was first probation officer and Ketchikan jail manager By DAVE KIFFER - In 1980. Robert Redford starred in a movie called "Brubaker" about a crusading prison warden in Arkansas who tried to eliminate prison corruption and improve conditions for prisoners. - More...
Friday PM - October 06, 2017
144 'The 'Alaska Flag Line' served Ketchikan for two decades; Pacific Northern Airlines was a primary carrier for Southeast Alaska By DAVE KIFFER - It may seem like Alaska Airlines has been Ketchikan's main air connection to the rest of the world forever. But a little more than half a century ago, Alaska Airlines barely served the First City. The primary airlines that brought passengers to the Annette airport were Pan Am and Pacific Northern Airlines. - More...
Wednesday PM - September 13, 2017
143 Ketchikan: A town of few 'highrises'; In the First City, buildings grew outward rather than upward - Ketchikan is not a city of high rises, few Alaskan towns are. - More...
Monday PM - September 04, 2017
142 WHEN DID KETCHIKAN BECOME THE RAINFALL CAPITAL? National magazine article extolled First City Rain in 1947 By DAVE KIFFER - Ketchikan has been known in the national consciousness for a few things. - More...
Thursday PM - August 17, 2017
141 Russel Merrill's excellent Southeast Alaska Adventure; Pioneer Aviator brought the second plane into Ketchikan in 1925 - Many people know that Roy Jones brought the first airplane to Ketchikan in 1922 and that he briefly operated Alaska's first commercial aviation company with his single plane, the "Northbird." - More...
Tuesday PM - August 01, 2017
140 Alaskan cruise industry began transforming 50 years ago; Italia, Spirit of London, Island Princess were among the first of the bigger cruise ships - By 1967, visitors had been coming to southern Southeast Alaska for more than 80 years, but compared to the visitor industry of 2017, tourism was still in its infancy. - More...
Saturday PM - July 01, 2017
139 USCG CUTTER CAPE ROMAIN STILL ON PATROL; Longtime Ketchikan ship still sailing for CA Sea Scouts By DAVE KIFFER - While Ketchikan is all abuzz with the arrival this spring and summer of two brand new 154-foot United States Coast Guard cutters, there are still many local residents who remember the long history of an earlier Cutter, the Cape Romain, which spent more than two decades patrolling the Alexander Archipelago. - More...
Thursday AM - June 08, 2017
138 Coast Guard has been in Ketchikan nearly 115 years By DAVE KIFFER - This summer a major change is taking place at the Ketchikan Coast Guard base as two new 154-foot fast response Coast Guard cutters join the Alaskan fleet. - More...
Sunday PM - May 21, 2017
137 The Day that Margaret Bell saved two plane crash victims; Local author, who wrote about 'heroes', 'heroines,' was also one in real life By DAVE KIFFER - The most successful author to have called the Ketchikan area home was Margaret Bell, who published a dozen novels in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Focusing on their younger protagonists, Bell's novels - published by major companies like Morrow - are what would now be called "young adult" novels and featured many stories that she had lived in her decades in Alaska. - More...
analysis of article text
incarceration/prison mentioned? yes .
propaganda analysis
| concept | evidence | hits | links |
|---|
| | drug of abuse implied / mentioned
drug related 75%
[news] [concept] | prohibitionist | | |
 | propaganda
drugwar propaganda 80%
[news] [concept] | propaganda theme1 propaganda theme2 propaganda theme3 propaganda theme5 propaganda theme6 propaganda theme4 | | •Why Are Americans So Easy to Manipulate? (Bruce E Levine, 2012)
•Classic Modern Drug Propaganda
•Themes in Chemical Prohibition
•Drug War Propaganda (kindle edition)
|
 | hated group
propaganda theme1 50%
[news] [concept] | "racial" "immigrant" | 2 | •Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1)
•drugwarfacts.org/druguse.htm
•drugwarfacts.org/racepris.htm
•America's Racist Drug laws
•narcoterror.org/
•Labeling theory
•Transfer (propaganda)
|
 | madness, violence, illness
propaganda theme2 80%
[news] [concept] | "crime" "disaster" "Deadly" "threatens" "Death" "deaths" "heart attacks" "destroyed" "strokes" "Perception" "accidents" "accidentally" "accident" | 21 | •Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2)
•drugwarfacts.org/crime.htm
•drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm
•Distortion 18: Cannabis and Mental Illness
•No, marijuana use doesn't lower your IQ (10/2014)
|
 | survival of society
propaganda theme3 65%
[news] [concept] | "Americans" "America" "American" "homeland" "Community" "communities" "the country" | 24 | •Survival of Society (propaganda theme 3)
•The "Nation" as a Device To Create a Psychological Crowd
|
| | gateway
gateway 60%
[news] [concept] | "Gateway" | 2 | •Use is Abuse, Gateway (propaganda theme 4)
•drugwarfacts.org/gatewayt.htm
•Distortion 7: Gateway
|
 | gateway, use is abuse
propaganda theme4 60%
[news] [concept] | gateway | | •Use is Abuse, Gateway (propaganda theme 4)
|
 | children
propaganda theme5 60%
[news] [concept] | "children" "baby" "youth" | 4 | •Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5)
•drugwarfacts.org/adolesce.htm
•Think of the children
|
 | demonize, war, epidemic
propaganda theme6 65%
[news] [concept] | "pandemic" "plague" "battle" "battles" "Combat" "struggles" "the fight" | 12 | •Demonize, War (propaganda theme 6)
•List of Wars on Concepts
•Perpetual war
•The Failed War on Drugs (2012)
|
| | drugs 90%
[news] [concept] | various drugs | | |
| | prohibitionist 75%
[news] [concept] | government prohib | | •Prohibition
•Prohibitionism
•Cognitive liberty
•Lobbyists Getting Rich Off Drug War (2012)
•Calvina Fay halts interview, 8/2013
|
| | infamous prohibitionist (government hireling)
government prohib 75%
[news] [concept] | "prison warden" | 1 | •A Drug War Carol, page 22
•Prohibition era political cartoons
|
| | oft-mentioned government prohibitionist
govt prohib other 50%
[news] [concept] | "police chief" | 1 | •A Drug War Carol, page 18
|
| | psychoactive chemical
chemicals 50%
[news] [concept] | alcohol | | •erowid.org/chemicals/chemicals.s...
|
| | depressant intoxicant 50%
[news] [concept] | alcohol | | |
| | alcohol 50%
[news] [concept] | "alcohol" "Beer" | 6 | •Stanton Peele Addiction Web Site
•drugwarfacts.org/alcohol.htm
•Pot Threatens Booze Profits
|
| | various drugs 90%
[news] [concept] | "drug" | 1 | |
| | incarceration
[news] [concept] | "jail" "prison" "prisoners" "imprisonment" | 5 | •Prison Hell in America (Stephen Lendman, Oct. 2011)
•Understanding the U.S. Torture State
•this is what a police state looks like
•Torture and the United States
•drugwarfacts.org/cms/Prisons and...
•aclu.org/combating-mass-incarcer...
•november.org
•mapinc.org/prison.htm
•hermes-press.com/prisons drugs.htm
•US Official Prison Policy: Encourage Men's Rape (2014)
•Profit Driven Prison Industrial Complex (2012)
•The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal
•Sing a Little Louder
•Prison Rape Widely Ignored by Authorities
•thedailysheeple.com/prisons-are-...
•Push Back Against Drug War Profiteering with Jury Nullification
|
| | youth 60%
[news] [concept] | propaganda theme5 | | •ssdp.org/
•mapinc.org/youth.htm
|
| | school
[news] [concept] | "school" "schools" | 2 | •ssdp.org/
|
| | aggrandizing government
aggrandizement
[news] [concept] | "Officially" "official" "authorities" "Authority" | 6 | •Statism: the Most Dangerous Religion (2014 video)
•What is Statism?
•Conservapedia: Statism
•Wikipedia: Statolatry
•lewrockwell.com/2014/07/thomas-d...
•Bought Priesthood
•Worship of the U. S. Government (2011)
•Bureaucratic Thrust
•Tyranny of Experts
•The Threat of Authority (2012)
•The Media As Enablers of Government Lies
•The Statist Mindset (Jacob Hornberger, 2011)
•Thinking Critically about Experts and Authority
•'Scientific' evidence for FDA-approved drugs isn't so scientific, it turns out (2014)
•The Intellectual Gravy Train (2015)
|
| st:0.05 fo:0 s:0.02 d:2.12 c:0.07 db:0.201 a:3.35 m:1.12 t:7.34 (f) |
text of article used for CRITICAL ANALYSIS, under FAIR USE provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107, et al.
| 
(video)
EXP - explicit prohibition propaganda (explicit_propaganda)
GRP - hated group (propaganda_theme1)
MAD - madness, violence, illness (propaganda_theme2)
SOC - survival of society (propaganda_theme3)
USE - gateway, use is abuse (propaganda_theme4)
KID - children (propaganda_theme5)
WAR - demonize, war, epidemic (propaganda_theme6)
TOT - total prohibition (propaganda_theme7)
DIS - dissent opposed (propaganda_theme8)
