Photo of the Month Alaska: Zinke: ‘Laughable’ to suggest he threatened Alaska senators - Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said it is “laughable” to suggest he threatened Alaska’s U.S. senators over a vote by one of them involving health care. - Read this Seattle Times article. www.seattletimes.com Ketchikan: 2017 Cruise Ship Calendar (PDF) - Calendar Courtesy Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska Ketchikan: Public Meetings Ketchikan: Upcoming Events Historical Ketchikan June Allen Dave Kiffer Louise B. Harrington Ketchikan Weather Ketchikan's Forecast Weather History for August 2017 Ketchikan's Historic Weather Nat Weather Service KTN Ketchikan Tides & Currents Search the News Ketchikan Alaska Sitnews   RSS widget

Southeast Alaska: Russel Merrill's excellent Southeast Alaska Adventure; Pioneer Aviator brought the second plane into Ketchikan in 1925 By DAVE KIFFER - 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."

After Jones wrecked his flying boat crash landing on Heckman Lake in 1923, it would be two years before another plane arrived in Ketchikan. This one would be piloted by Russel Merrill, a pioneering Anchorage bush pilot who would be credited with helping establish air transporation in Anchorage before disappearing on a flight to Bethel in 1929. Merrill Field in Anchorage would be named after him.

Russel Hyde Merrill was born in Iowa in 1894. His family was well to do and he eventually attended Cornell University. World War I interrupted his college studies and he enlisted in the Navy, eventually joining the new Naval Aviation Service. He became a Naval aviator in March of 1918, specializing in float planes and flying boats. He served as a training pilot and also flew survelliance missions off New York, unsuccessfully bombing a German U-Boat off Cape May at one point, according to "Flying Cold: The Adventures of Russel Merrill, Pioneer Alaskan Aviator," a book written by his son Robert Merrill MacLean in 1994.

Merrill didn't end up going to Europe before the end of the war. Retiring from active duty in December of 1918, he returned to Iowa, and eventually finished his studies at Cornell. Smitten with the flying life, he wanted to begin his own aviation business, but opportunities were few in those days so he took his chemical engineering degree and went to work for the Crown Williamette Paper Company in Camas, Washington. He would work in the region for the next several years, but continued to fly with the Naval Reserve in California.

In 1925, he saw an advertisement for a flying boat for sale in Portland. The plane was owned by pioneer Northwest flyer Roy Davis, who had a Ketchikan connection. Davis' father Arthur, was construction manager at the New England Fish Company facility in Ketchikan. Davis had been inspired by the exploits of Roy Jones and was interested in flying in Alaska. He had spent several years in Ketchikan when he was younger, according to Robert Stevens in Volume One of  his comprehensive "Alaska Aviation History."

After talking, Davis and Merrill decided to start a flying business in Alaska. Merrill's wife, Thyra, and their two young sons would eventually join them in Alaska.

Merrill, Davis and mechanic Cyril Kruger flew from Portland to Seattle on May 18, 1925. On the 19th, they left for Alaska, with stops in Nanaimo, Sayward and Alert Bay, where they had  to set down because the engine on the Curtiss F-boat was leaking oil. Next up were stops at Bella Bella and Prince Rupert. 

"From Prince Rupert flying in the dark, they crossed the Alaska line in fog and rain... at midnight they set down for a few hours rest in the little flying boat as it nestled in a cove like a storm petrel," Robert Merrill wrote in "Flying Cold.  "Miserably cramped in the cockpit they were happy to take off at sunrise. At 5:30 am, May 26, the motor began to cough again and they realized they were out of fuel again. They put down just south of Tongass Narrows and were towed behind a barge into Ketchikan. They had made it to Alaska."

Although they arrived in the First City without fanfare, word soon spread through town that the "airplane" had returned.

"When Ketchikan awoke May 26, 1925, to find a near duplicate of "Northbird" moored on the waterfront, it quickly became clear that the airplane's absence for almost two years only made Ketchikan's heart grow fonder," Robert Merrill wrote. "The townspeople thronged to welcome the fliers and offer their services. A float was assigned to them free of charge. Soon the aviators had more requests for flights than they could accommodate."

Originally, Merrilll had planned to only spend a couple of days in the First City, but the visit would last several weeks. It quickly became clear that there was a plenty of work to keep them busy and replenish their coffers. Merrill and Davis had originally planned to spend some time in Wrangell, servicing the cross border Cassiar mining district up the Stikine, but they ran into problems getting the required work permits from the Canadian government before they left Portland, according to Stevens. - More....
Tuesday PM - August 01, 2017

Red Skies At Night
As viewed from Pennock Island.
Front Page Feature Photo By TERRI JIRSCHELE ©2017

Alaska: New images from under Alaska seafloor suggest high tsunami danger; Waves could travel far across Pacific - Scientists probing under the seafloor off Alaska have mapped a geologic structure that they say signals potential for a major tsunami in an area that normally would be considered benign. They say the feature closely resembles one that produced the 2011 Tohoku tsunami off Japan, killing some 20,000 people and melting down three nuclear reactors. Such structures may lurk unrecognized in other areas of the world, say the scientists. The findings appear today in the print edition of the journal Nature Geoscience. 

The discovery "suggests this part of Alaska is particularly prone to tsunami generation," said seismologist Anne Bécel of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who led the study. "The possibility that such features are widespread is of global significance." In addition to Alaska, she said, waves could hit more southerly North American coasts, Hawaii and other parts of the Pacific.

Tsunamis can occur as giant plates of ocean crust dive under adjoining continental crust, a process called subduction. Some plates get stuck for decades or centuries and tension builds, until they suddenly slip by each other. This produces a big earthquake, and the ocean floor may jump up or down like a released spring. That motion transfers to the overlying water, creating a surface wave.

The 2011 Japan tsunami was a surprise, because it came partly on a "creeping" segment of seafloor, where the plates move steadily, releasing tension in frequent small quakes that should prevent a big one from building. But researchers are now recognizing it may not always work that way. Off Japan, part of the leading edge of the overriding continental plate had become somewhat detached from the main mass. When a relatively modest quake dislodged this detached wedge, it jumped, unleashing a wave that topped 130 feet in places. The telltale sign of danger, in retrospect: a fault in the seafloor that demarcated the detached section's boundary landward of the "trench," the zone where the two plates initially meet. The fault had been known to exist, but no one had understood what it meant.

The researchers in the new study have now mapped a similar system in the Shumagin Gap, a creeping subduction zone near the end of the Alaska Peninsula some 600 miles from Anchorage. - More...
Tuesday PM - August 01, 2017

Alaska: Revenue Commissioner Hoffbeck Resigns to Resume Ministry Service - Governor Bill Walker announced today he reluctantly accepted Alaska Department of Revenue Commissioner Randy Hoffbeck’s notice of resignation.

“It is with mixed emotions that I have reluctantly accepted Randy’s resignation as revenue commissioner,” Governor Walker said. “For three years, Randy has been an integral member of this administration, spearheading the state’s efforts to create a plan that steers Alaska toward a sustainable future. I first met Randy more than 25 years ago, and my respect for him has only deepened over the years. He retired from government service to enter the ministry. In fact, he was volunteering for a medical mission in Kenya when I asked him in late 2014 to come out of retirement to join the Walker-Mallott team. Alaskans have benefitted tremendously from Randy’s faithful service. While we in the administration will certainly miss Randy, I know that his wife, Cindy, his sons and two grandchildren will greatly appreciate that he can finally prioritize time with family.”

Hoffbeck will serve as Revenue Commissioner until August 17, 2017. Deputy Commissioner Jerry Burnett will serve as Interim Commissioner until Governor Walker announces a new appointment. - More...
Tuesday PM - August 01, 2017

DAVE KIFFER: The sun has perished and an evil mist shall hover over all - Yeah, that missive from Homer - about an eclipse and not necessarily the Ketchikan weather -  is a little doomy gloomy.

But it seems relevant to Ktown this summer. As does the following.

"The longest eclipse in the Saros Series 145 will occur on June 25, 2522 and last for 7 minutes and 12 seconds."

Really?

That is 500 freaking years in the future. How the heck do we know that? And for how long? Seriously?

We don't really know whether or not it will be even be sunny next week, for Al Roker's sake!!!

Yeah, I get that astrophysicists are really smart dudes and dudettes. Sitting in their dark little rooms in Pasadena and Boston, mainlining Mountain Dew, staring at pictures of the cosmos that look like Jackson Pollock went crazy with only his black and white "action" drips.

I watch Neil Degrasse Tyson on TV and I think "wow, that is one smart guy" and suave and handsome too! - More...
Tuesday PM - August 01, 2017

JEFF LUND: My favorite mountain - My favorite mountain is where I shot my first buck but that’s not the only reason. 

It’s a great bargain mountain, in that an old logging road takes you within striking distance of alpine so hikes to its upper reaches do not necessitate substantial chunks of time. 

My buddy Jesse and I started up it in a light, dry-ish rain. You know, that type of precipitation that Lower 48ers would call rain, but we’d call it no big deal.

Anyway, we made camp then the weather broke and allowed us to amble around on the alpine for a few hours before the sliver of open sky on the horizon turned orange, then deep red. 

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.”

“So the ocean will be calm, but what about up here?”

Jesse laughed. 

The wind was angry most of the night. I rolled over in my sleeping bag, hoping I had slept most of the night but it was only 11 p.m. then 1 a.m. I felt most of those minutes so I was sure that I had in fact been awake. 

I watched the dark shadows of the tent move. There was obviously no moon but there was enough to see the difference in shapes. I thought about my dry bag that had food in it. It was just outside my tent. On a night like that, anything willing to be out was more than welcome to my Milky Ways.  - More...
Tuesday PM - August 01, 2017