Ketchikan's Community Risk Level Raised to LEVEL 4 VERY HIGH (Raised on MAY 11, 2021) Click Here For Most Current Active Status As of May 25th, there are currently THREE (3) individuals admitted in the COVID-19 unit at PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center.  Ketchikan's total cumulative case count on 5/25/21, including travelers, is 654. The number of positive cases of individuals residing or staying in Ketchikan is 633. Of the 633 cases, there are 63 active, 2 deceased, and 568 recovered. Ketchikan's Community Risk Level Raised to VERY HIGH (MAY 11, 2021) Ketchikan Vaccination Data Amount of COVID Funding Spent in Alaska & State-by-state (Click here) COVID-19 Vaccine Information for all Alaskans (Click here ) Alaska COVID-19 Daily Updates - Case Counts, etc. All Alaska Health Mandates: COVID-19 Health Mandates, Office of the Governor Ketchikan COVID-19 Daily Updates: Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center COVID-19 Dashboard, updates & alerts... Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Center for Disease Control (CDC) Situation Summary Updated Frequently Ketchikan: Public Meetings Ketchikan: Upcoming Events Ketchikan: Announcements Ketchikan: Classifieds CLASSIFIEDS Publish Your Ad Click Here Historical Ketchikan June Allen Dave Kiffer Louise B. Harrington Ketchikan Weather Ketchikan's Forecast March Daily Records 2021 Ketchikan Feb. 2021 Data Ketchikan Jan. 2021 Data Nat Weather Service KTN Ketchikan Tides & Currents Sunrise - Sunset Ketchikan Search the News Ketchikan Alaska U.S. Congress 2019-2020: Bills that have passed the House & Senate and become Law U.S. Congress 2019-2020: Bills Introduced

Ketchikan Historical: 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.

Ketchikan High School has operated for more than a century in two locations, Main School Hill and Fourth Avenue in the West End. White Cliff Elementary was open from 1927 to 2003 before it closed. It is now the Ketchikan Gateway Borough office building. Both Schoenbar Middle School and Houghtaling Elementary schools have been open since the early 1960s when Ketchikan was in rapid expansion after the opening of the Ketchikan Pulp Company Pulp Mill.

But one of the shortest-lived schools seems to have had enough notoriety that some 90 years after it closed, it lives on in the community memory.

From the beginning, Charcoal Point School was notorious.

It was located outside the northern Ketchikan city limits, which was Washington Street in the 1910s. As a result, it was run by the Territorial Government and not the local school district. Most of the children who attended the school were from working class fishing families that lived in the neighborhood surrounding Bar Harbor, north of town. Many didn't even speak English before going to school.

And most notably, it was in a building that, prior to Prohibition, was a "roadhouse."

"I went to Charcoal Point School, which used to be Dynamite Joe's old roadhouse,"" the late Ralph "Scooty" Homan said in the 1995 Ketchikan oral history book "Clams on the Beach, Deer in the Woods. "The government came in during Prohibition and took it away from him. Dynamite Joe was selling booze, ya know. That was quite a trade in those days and Dynamit Joe, ya know, he was the worst."

Dynamite Joe himself appears lost to Ketchikan history, with only the references to his "roadhouse" being used as a school remaining. There were several roadhouses located in Ketchikan as the Tongass Highway began snaking both directions along the Tongass Narrows away from the Downtown Ketchikan in the early 1910s. The roadhouses offered rooms, meals and alcohol, at least prior to the Alaska Bone Dry Act of 1917 taking effect. That was two years before the national Prohibition Law went into effect.

Interestingly enough most of the "roadhouses" were located near areas that rumrunners from Canada used to drop off the supplies they brought to Alaska, even before Prohibition. There were roadhouses near Mountain Point, the Homestead and Ward Cove, as well as Dynamite Joes, which was located where the Alaska Marine Highway Terminal is now.

Although the school opened in 1920, it was in February of 1916 that the "Charcoal Point People" officially petitioned the territorial government to provide for their children. According to Feb. 3, 2016 story in the Ketchikan Daily Progressive Miner,  44 "bona fide" residents of the Charcoal Point "school district" noted that there were 30 school age children in the area. It placed the area population at more than 350 people and noted that the education service was mandated based on a 1915 Act of Congress. The proposal was approved within a month, but it is unclear why it took four more years before the roadhouse was requisitioned for the purpose.

Newpaper stories from the time indicate that a lot of effort was going into finishing what was then called the "Charcoal Point" road which was connecting the area from Tongass and Washington Street to "Charcoal Point" which was near the current intersection of Carlanna Avenue and Tongass. It is possible that the officials waited until the road was complete to open the school.

According to information from the Tongass Historical Museum, the roadhouse had a dance floor and a player piano. The piano remained when the building was converted into a school in 1920.

"There was a central fireplace for heating, two classrooms downstairs and three upstairs," the museum document notes. "A fenced in back porch which jutted out over the water served as a playground. On a good high tide you could feel the logs thumping against the underside of the building."

Homan attended the school in the late 1920s toward the end of its lifespan.

"In Charcoal Point, we had three rooms and three teachers, all eight grades, each room had two or three grades and you had to hear the same stories over and over again for three years," Homan said in 1995. "They had wood stoves and we went and got the wood and kept the stoves going. Just an old platform outside to play on. We put up a basket and played basketball rain or shine. The beach between there and Sunny Point was tide flats and we took all the rocks off at low tide and played baseball at low tide. We only had one ball and if you knocked the ball into the bay, you had to go out and get it."

Maxine Robertson, who taught the school for one year, 1932 to 1933, before it was closed remembered it as "community school" according to the Museum records.

"Holidays were celebrated there," she said. "People in the neighborhood were proud of the school, it felt like a big happy family."

Many of the families were Norwegian immigrants to the community and the children had to learn English when they came to school, along with reading, writing and arithmetic. Censuses in the early 1920s estimated that nearly 500 people lived in the area between Washington Street and Carlanna Creek. Some of the area had been early mining claims, particularly around Carlanna and Hoadley creeks. In 1919, the Ketchikan Shingle Mill, originated by Ott Inman on Creek Street, moved to the Charcoal Point area, south of the school, further boosting the population in the area. There were also a handful of small ship building and repair businesses in the area. A foundry and a tannery were also located in the Charcoal Point area in the 1920s.

One business that apparently was not welcome in the area, according to a 1924 story in the Chronicle, was a fish meal fertilizer plant. The paper noted a petition by residents that opposed the plant because of the smell and the offal that it would generate "would cause irreparable injury to the residents and property of the neighborhood as well as to the general welfare of the entire city of Ketchikan." - More...
Wednesday PM - May 26, 2021

Their bill, which is strongly supported by Alaskans, provides cruise ships transporting passengers between the State of Washington and the State of Alaska a temporary fix under the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA). Due to the Canadian prohibition on passenger vessels traveling through Canadian waters, large cruise ships sailing to Alaska would not have been able to sail to Alaska this summer as the PVSA requires a stop in a foreign country. The return of large cruise ships to Alaska is critical to provide economic opportunity for communities who rely on tourism.

President Biden tweeted, "Today [Monday], I signed the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act into law. Tourism is vital to the state of Alaska — and this law will help revitalize the industry and support Alaskans by allowing large cruise ships to return to the state this summer."

U.S. Senator Murkowski said, “For over a year and a half many Alaskan communities who rely solely on tourism have been completely cut off from business due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Alaska Delegation has worked for months to try to find opportunities to provide a safe path forward for Alaskans—to help salvage what is left of the 2021 tourism season. Together, with the support of so many Alaskans, there is now a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.”

Murkowski said, “It was an honor to be at the White House today to witness the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act being signed into law by the President. As a result of this bill, multiple cruise lines have already resumed ticket sales and Alaskan stakeholders and business owners can officially plan for the remainder of the 2021 season with some level of confidence and certainty. The journey to this point has been a challenge, but knowing the opportunities this bill will provide Alaskans makes all our hard work well worth the fight. We’re ready to spread the word that it is full steam ahead for the Alaska tourism season.” 

“Hundreds of Alaska’s small business owners, who have put their savings, their hopes and their dreams into their businesses, were on the brink of ruin as a result of the pandemic and the fact that our short cruise ship season was about to be canceled again,” said U.S. Senator Sullivan. - More..
Wednesday PM - May 26, 2021

Fish Factor: New line of rugged casual wear from old fishing gear; Dutch Harbor again nation’s top fishing port By LAINE WELCH - Grundens is using recycled plastics from old fishing gear for a new line of rugged casual wear, and the first batch contains contributions from Cordova.

Grundens, whose motto is “We are fishing,” is the go-to brand for outer wear and foul-weather gear for mariners around the world. The company, which originated in Sweden in 1911, debuted its NetSource Collection this spring. The men’s shorts and women’s leggings use ECONYL, a regenerated nylon fabric that uses recycled fishing nets as the raw material.

The company connected with the Copper River Watershed Project  which collects the fishing nets and gets prepares them for shipping to Europe, where they are recycled into plastic pellets or, in this case, fibers.

“We believe it's really important to use our brand voice to help protect and maintain healthy marine environments and to lend a hand where we can,” said Mat Jackson, Grundens chief marketing officer.   At some point, you’ve got to just start doing it. And Cordova seemed like a tangible opportunity.”

“Cordova is moving full steam ahead,” said Nicole Baker of Net Your Problem  who helped make the Grundens connection. Baker, a former Bering Sea fisheries observer, has helped jumpstart fishing gear recycling programs in Alaska since 2017.

 “The gill net fleet is pretty dialed in and seines are made out of the same type of plastic, so those two gear types can be recycled together,” she added.

“Right now, it's just a small part of our overall collection, but we seek to expand it to other items, including foul-weather gear. It’s something we really believe in,” said Grundens spokesman Corey Lowe.

“We’re aware of the amount of ghost nets and plastics in the ocean so whether we're doing it or our competitors, we want more of it to end up in the recycling supply chain. We see it as a rising tide lifts all boats kind of thing and positive for the industry overall,” Lowe said.

He added, “Hopefully, when fishermen buy something from us later on, it’s kind of cool to think hey, my net is now hanging off my shoulders as a jacket or something.”

Grundéns also is now using 100% biodegradable packaging  called PLA whose raw material is glucose from corn starch. It fully decomposes in under one year. By June 2021 all products will be shipped in compostable Eco-packaging. “Grundéns encourages other brands to follow suit and increase the rate at which plastic poly bags are eliminated from the apparel supply chain,” a press report said. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 26, 2021

Fisheries: CDC and Coast Guard Called on to Change Mask Requirements for Commercial Fishing Industry - U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Coast Guard to change mask requirements for crews on commercial fishing vessels. 

In a May 25th letter to the CDC and Coast Guard, the Senators discuss the latest CDC mask guidance and write, “Many fishing vessel operators were therefore understandably dismayed to learn that the most recent CDC guidance does not loosen restrictions for fishing vessels that are staffed by fully vaccinated persons and are not passenger-carrying vessels as defined under 42 CFR 70.1.”

The Senators go on to discuss the concerns that they have heard from fishermen:“It is worth noting that wearing a mask on a fishing vessel may increase safety risks for operators and crew. Fishing vessels frequently use loud motors or machinery that can make it difficult for crew members to hear one another, so they may rely on lip-reading to improve communication and work together safely. Masks are also frequently wet from sea spray, which can make it more difficult to breathe. This is a condition that the CDC has generally recognized is problematic. Despite these facts, fishermen have continued to abide by the order and guidance to address the public health threat posed by COVID-19. We urge the CDC and the Coast Guard to work swiftly together to reconsider their guidance as it applies to commercial fishing vessels in order to promote the safe operation of fishing vessels and safety of the crew.”

Senators Hassan and Murkowski sent the letter after hearing from New Hampshire fishermen at the Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative and members of the Alaska fishing industry about the dangers of wearing a mask while they work. Senators Hassan and Murkowski raised these concerns directly with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky during a recent hearing on May 11th, and their letter further pushes for immediate action. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 26, 2021

Study: Salmon virus originally from the Atlantic, spread to B.C. wild salmon from farms
Dr Emiliano Di Cicco and Dr Andrew Bateman (co-authors of the study) sampling wild Pacific salmon.
Photo Credit: Amy Romer

Fisheries: Study: Salmon virus originally from the Atlantic, spread to B.C. wild salmon from farms - Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) – which is associated with kidney and liver damage in Chinook salmon – is continually being transmitted between open-net salmon farms and wild juvenile Chinook salmon in British Columbia waters, according to a new genomics analysis published today in Science Advances. 

The collaborative study from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative (SSHI) — a partnership between Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Genome BC and the Pacific Salmon Foundation — traces the origins of PRV to Atlantic salmon farms in Norway and finds that the virus is now almost ubiquitous in salmon farms in B.C. 

It also shows that wild Chinook salmon are more likely to be infected with PRV the closer they are to salmon farms, which suggests farms transfer the virus to wild salmon.

Genome sequencing of viruses from farms and wild fish further indicates that transmission occurs between farms and wild salmon.

“Both our genomic and epidemiological methods independently came to the same conclusion, that salmon farms act as a source and amplifier of PRV transmission,” said Dr. Gideon Mordecai, a viral ecologist and Liber Ero fellow with UBC Science and researcher with UBC Medicine, who led the study. “Because separate lines of independent evidence all point to the same answer, we’re confident in our finding.”

Sequencing of 86 PRV genomes helped researchers track the history of PRV emergence in British Columbia. They estimate that the lineage of PRV in the North East Pacific diverged from PRV in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 30 years ago. This suggests that the introduction of PRV to B.C. and infection of wild Pacific salmon is a relatively recent phenomenon, coincident with the growth of salmon aquaculture in the province – not dating back to early attempts to introduce Atlantic salmon to the region, starting in 1874.

“There is much confusion about where PRV is originally from, whether it is transmitted between farmed and wild salmon, and how different lineages of the virus cause different severities of disease,” said Dr. Mordecai. “This study’s genome sequencing clearly indicates PRV is not native to B.C. waters—it originated in the Atlantic Ocean and has been spread around the world through salmon aquaculture.” - More...
Wednesday PM - May 26, 2021

Bringing the world to a standstill
By NED ROZELL
Hikers traverse the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes on the Alaska Peninsula, walking on a sheet of ash and volcanic rock more than 500-feet thick.
Photo By NED ROZELL

Alaska: Bringing the world to a standstill By NED ROZELL - On a fine June day about 100 years ago, in a green mountain valley where the Aleutians stick to the rest of Alaska, the world fell apart.

Earthquakes swayed the alders and spruce. A mountain shook, groaned, and collapsed in on itself, its former summit swallowing rock and dust until it became a giant, steaming pit.

About six miles away, hot ash began spewing from the ground in a colossal geyser. During an eruption that lasted three days, one of the most vibrant landscapes in Alaska in 1912 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 the nearby Mount Katmai (the mountain that lost its top), Novarupta spewed an ash cloud 20 miles into the atmosphere, belching 100 times more ash than did Mount St. Helens. Though few people know its name, Novarupta was responsible for the largest eruption of the 20th century.

Rebecca Anne Welchman took a look at what might happen if Novarupta happened today. Welchman was a graduate student from Devon, England who became enchanted with volcanoes at the age of 13 when she traveled with her family to Hawaii. There, she saw the ocean quenching molten rock and the hook was set.

More recently, she hiked with volcanologist John Eichelberger on his annual summer filed trip to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes.

That trip inspired her to muse about the effects of a Novarupta eruption happening today, which is quite possible. She once presented a poster on the subject at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

“I think people in Europe and Asia don’t realize what Alaska could do,” she said in 2010, while standing in a cavernous poster hall amid hundreds of other scientists. “Another Novarupta would be bad news.” - More...
Wednesday PM - May 26, 2021

Alaska: Wolf-virus study shows the virtue of space By NED ROZELL - Wolves with adequate social distancing from humans tend to avoid nasty viruses, scientists have found.

In a study of more than 2,000 gray wolves from near Mexico to northern Canada, researchers found that the farther wolves were from people, the fewer viruses and parasites they encountered.

In the study, scientists used blood samples taken over several decades from wolves on the Alaska Peninsula, Denali National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Park and Preserve. They also used samples from wolves living as far east as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and as far south as Arizona.

The scientists checked the blood-serum samples for antibodies to certain canine viruses and a few parasites. Alaska and northern Canada wolves had fewer of those antibodies when compared to other populations studied in North America. This suggests the far-north animals have not been exposed to those viruses and parasites.

Wolf-virus study shows the virtue of space
By NED ROZELL
A wolf pauses in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Park and Preserve.
Photo courtesy Mathew Sorum

Mathew Sorum, a Yukon-Charley biologist, is a co-author on the study, along with Bridget Borg of Denali National Park and Preserve and Kimberlee Beckmen of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The 22 scientists who participated in the study wanted to see if viruses and parasites in wolves followed a noted trend: the farther a creature lives from the equator, the fewer pathogens it encounters.

Sorum, who studies wolves in Yukon-Charley — a park larger than Delaware near where the Yukon River enters Alaska — said that an advantage to living at a high latitude comes from the fact that there are fewer bodies here that can host harmful microorganisms.

“Near the equator there is the widest variety of species, with the greatest abundance,” Sorum said. “Fewer animals can live in extreme environments closer to the poles.” - More...
Wednesday PM - May 26, 2021

FINANCIAL FOCUS: 529 plans: More versatile than ever Provided By BEN EDWARDS, AAMS® - If you have children or grandchildren, you may already be somewhat familiar with the 529 plan, a popular education savings vehicle. But you may not have kept up with some recent changes in the plan’s capabilities and in the educational environment in which the plan might be used.

Let’s start with the learning environment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities switched to online classes, or at least to a hybrid of in-person and online. And even before the pandemic, many schools offered remote classes, though obviously not to the same extent. But after COVID-19 subsides, it’s likely that the online component will remain an important part of higher education. What does this “new world” mean for you, when you’re saving for college? Will a 529 plan still be relevant?

In a word, yes. First of all, a 529 plan can offer tax advantages. Earnings in a 529 plan are federally tax-free, provided the money is used for qualified educational expenses. And if you invest in your own state’s 529 plan, your contributions may be tax deductible. (Withdrawals used for expenses other than qualified education expenses may be subject to federal and state taxes as well as a 10% penalty.) Because tax issues for 529 plans can be complex, you’ll want to consult with your tax advisor before investing. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 26 2021

JOE GUZZARDI: ON MEMORIAL DAY, REMEMBERING AN ACE PITCHER AND WAR HERO - Whether Warren Spahn was on the mound or in World War II trenches, his opponents agreed that no one was tougher.

Spahn’s 363 career wins are the most of any left-hander (he won 75 games after his 40th birthday), and he dominated during the modern post-1920 era, an exceptional achievement since he didn’t win his first game until age 25. He is legitimately among the top ten pitchers in baseball history, and many of Spahn’s achievements and records will never be matched.

Spahn often joked with scribes about his pitching arsenal – fastball, curve, circle curve, slider, screwball, knuckleball and change-up which he delivered overhand, three-quarters motion or sidearm, and at speeds ranging from 75 MPH to 90 MPH. In all, Spahn could fool batters with an assortment of 40 different pitches. But Spahn said that despite his deep bag of tricks, he only needed two pitches – “the one they’re looking for and the one to cross them up.” - More...
Wednesday PM - May 26, 2021

DANNY TYREE: WOULD THE CLASS OF 2021 LIKE SOME UNSOLICITED ADVICE? - By the time most of you read this, my son Gideon will have marched across the gymnasium floor and received his high school diploma.

I have brainstormed some sage advice for Gideon’s next phase and hope that his fellow grads nationwide can benefit.

I’ll allow someone else to lecture 2021 graduates about following your dream, keeping a journal, subscribing to the local newspaper, formulating a career backup plan, paying it forward, starting retirement planning early, yada yada yada. I prefer to share tips you’re unlikely to hear anywhere else.

First, be patient with your elders when they emit trite expressions such as “Finishing high school already? Where does the time go?” Refrain from exclaiming, “When the baby takes its first step, you ask, ‘Where does the time go?’ When you unbox the Christmas decorations, you ask, ‘Where does the time go?’ Maybe if your generation wasn’t always asking where the time goes, we’d have a colony on Mars with a cure for the common cold by now! Buy a calendar!" - More...
Wednesday PM - May 26, 2021

Political Cartoon: Memorial Day May 31, 2021
by Dave Granlund©2021, PoliticalCartoons.com
Distributed to subscribers for publication for Cagle Cartoons, Inc.