Photo of the Month Klawock, Alaska: Alaska meth distributor arrested, end to “significant trafficking” operation - Marking the end of a drug bust that was months in the making, Bradley Grasser, 62, is being accused of possessing methamphetamine “with the intent to distribute.” By Leroy Polk, KTUU - Read this KTUU article... www.ktuu.com Wednesday - January 18, 2017 PFD: Online filing for the 2017 PFD began at 9:00 am on January 1, 2017 and ends March 31,2017. https://pfd.alaska.gov Ketchikan: Public Meetings Ketchikan: Upcoming Events Historical Ketchikan June Allen Dave Kiffer Louise B. Harrington Ketchikan Weather Ketchikan's Forecast Ketchikan's Historic Weather Nat Weather Service KTN Ketchikan Tides & Currents Search the News Ketchikan Alaska Sitnews RSS widget

Ketchikan: Offbeat stories, a 2016 highlight; No major local stories dominated year By DAVE KIFFER - It was a year, in which no major story dominated the news in Ketchikan, but as usual there were several smaller, offbeat, bits of news that reminded us what a unique place Ketchikan is.

First, of all local wildlife made the national news twice in May. First, a marten dragging a chicken across North Tongass Highway caused a two-car accident on the road.

Then, the same weekend, humpback whales bubble feeding a few feet from the docks at Knudsen Cove were featured on national television shows and websites.

Later in the year, Ketchikan also made regional and national news when a Prince of Wales resident making his “last rounds” was reported to the police. It turned out that the gentleman’s wife had been driving his remains around Ketchikan in a traveling “wake” to several places he had frequented during his lifetime. Police suggested that the woman cut the tour short and take the remains to the mortuary.

In early January, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled against Ketchikan’s efforts to change how education is funded in Alaska. The Ketchikan Borough had filed suit against the mandatory local contribution and won a decision in superior court, but the Alaska Supreme Court reversed that ruling and held for the state. Two of the four justices noted that the Borough might have prevailed with a different approach.

The high water mark of the Ketchikan High School boy's basketball season was January 8, 2016. The first statewide basketball poll showed Ketchikan second, behind Dimond in the state rankings and Ketchikan defeated visiting West Anchorage, the defending state champions, 81-57. Later in the season, the Ketchikan girl's team was ranked first until it was defeated by second ranked Dimond. The girls won the southeast region title for the third straight year, while the boys finished third but both teams advanced to state because of their statewide rankings. The girl's team finished third statewide while the boy's team finished fifth.

Former Ketchikan resident Forrest Goodluck was featured in the Oscar winning movie, “The Revenant.” Goodluck, who is of Tsimpshian heritage, played Hawk, the son of Hugh Glass who was played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Goodluck lived in the area when he was a young child. Goodluck won the 2016 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film (Supporting Young Actor, Ages 14-21).

Tobias Elijah Burnette was Ketchikan’s first baby of 2016, arriving on the afternoon of Jan. 1. His parents are Leanna Booth and Jack Burnette.

After several months of grumbling by local residents, Facebook, finally changed its system so that posts from Ketchikan were no longer tagged as Ketchikan, WA. Now there is no state attached to Ketchikan postings, leading some to wonder if Nowhere, 99901 is now truly stateless, at least as far as the internet is concerned.

Local businessman Randy Johnson, the president of Tyler Rental and the former owner Alaska Ship and Drydock, purchased a 10 percent stake in Ucore Rare Metals for $5 million. Ucore is hoping to develop a rare earth minerals mine at Bokan Mountain on south Prince of Wales Island.

Ketchikan enjoyed yet another January “hurricane” as a storm blew through the area on Jan. 26, packing winds greater than 80 mph.

Former Borough Mayor Mike Salazar was named the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year. The 2015 business of the year was Timber and Marine Supply, the entrepreneurs of the year were Debi Hanas and Shirley Solaas of Sweet Mermaids, Kelly Johnson of the Ketchikan Public Library was the youth leader of the year and the Linda and Johnny Gilson won the outstanding community service award for their work with the First City Council on Cancer. Ketchikan also received its official recognition as a Coast Guard city, joining Kodiak and Sitka as the only Coast Guard cities in Alaska. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 18, 2017

Alaska: Volcano study examines relationship between seismic signals, sound waves By SUE MITCHELL - A study of relationships between seismic signals and sound waves from an erupting volcano in Alaska may someday help scientists infer the height of an ash plume and the status of an eruption they can’t see.

Pavlof volcano erupts on March 28, 2016. The photo was taken looking northeast from a Coast Guard Hercules aircraft at 20,000 feet.
Photo by U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Nahshon Almandmoss

The study, published recently in the journal Science, examined multiple data sources from the well-documented March 2016 eruption of Pavlof volcano on the Alaska Peninsula.

“Volcano scientists regularly use seismic and low-frequency acoustic, or infrasound, data to monitor and study explosive volcanic eruptions. However, the precise relationship between seismic and infrasound data and the size of the eruption is still unclear,” said lead author David Fee of the Alaska Volcano Observatory at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and AVO.

Fee and his colleagues analyzed data from seismic and infrasound stations spread across Alaska, including six seismic stations on the slopes of Pavlof and some of the 45 EarthScope Transportable Array stations that were recently deployed across Alaska. The scientists compared the data to satellite images and pictures of the eruption plume transmitted from a webcam about 37 miles southwest of Pavlof at the airport in Cold Bay, Alaska. The eruption began March 27 and lasted about 40 hours, resulting in a sustained ash plume that grew from 3 to 5 miles in height and extended more than 372 miles to the northeast and eventually to Canada. More than 100 commercial airline flights were canceled and minor ashfall was observed in communities downwind up to 280 miles away.

As they examined the different data sources for the course of the eruption, Fee and his colleagues noticed some surprising relationships. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 18, 2017

Alaska Science: Bogoslof’s reminder: Alaska is volcano country By NED ROZELL - On a June day 105 years ago, in a green valley where the Aleutians merge with the mainland, the world fell apart.

Hikers walk through the Valley of 10,000 Smokes on a trip with volcanologist John Eichelberger in 2001.
Photo by Ned Rozell

Earthquakes swayed the alders and spruce. A mountain shook, groaned and collapsed into itself, its summit disappearing. About six miles away, hot ash began spewing from the ground in a colossal geyser.

During an eruption that lasted three days in 1912, a vibrant landscape became the gray badlands known as the Valley of 10,000 Smokes.

The great eruption that created the valley came from a smallish clump of rocks called Novarupta. Nowhere near as grand as Mount Katmai (the mountain that lost its top six miles away), Novarupta spewed an ash cloud 20 miles into the sky, belching 100 times more ash than did Mount St. Helens. Though few people know its name, Novarupta was the largest eruption of the 20th century.

British graduate student Rebecca Anne Welchman once took a look at what would happen if Novarupta happened today.

From Devon, England, Welchman became enchanted with volcanoes at the age of 13 when she traveled with her family to Hawaii. There, she saw the ocean quenching orange molten rock. Years later, she hiked with volcanologist John Eichelberger on a summer field trip to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes.

That trip inspired her to muse about the effects of Novarupta if it happened today, which is quite possible due to the unpredictable nature of Alaska volcanoes (as we see now with the eruption of Bogoslof Island).

“I think people in Europe and Asia don’t realize what Alaska could do,” she once said in a cavernous San Francisco poster hall amid hundreds of other scientists as she attended the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. “Another Novarupta would be bad news.” - More...
Wednesday PM - January 18, 2017

Ketchikan: Local artist leads Friday Night Insight lecture on a trip through Ketchikan’s past - Mary Ida Henrikson, one of Ketchikan’s renowned artists, will lead a journey through the history of Ketchikan at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center’s Friday Night Insight lecture, starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20.

Her program, “Images from Memory,” explores how Alaska’s First City has grown and changed during her lifelong residency, featuring dozens of rare photographs providing an intimate look at Ketchikan as seen through Henrikson’s camera lens. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 18, 2017