Dave Kiffer - Alaskan Poet, Historian, Humorist

  Boro faults census numbers WRANGELL - The 2020 Census says that the borough population dropped 10 percent between 2010 and 2020, but local officials say they don't believe the numbers. They are asking Alaska's Congressional Delegation to get involved. THE WRANGELL SENTINEL Man says he is homeless for smoking PRINCE RUPERT - Merve Gorda, 68, says he has been living in his wheelchair on the streets for the past week because he was kicked out of subsidized senior housing for smoking. BC Housing declined to discuss specifics but said there are other housing options available. THE PRINCE RUPERT NORTHERN VIEW F&G employee mauled; bear killed SITKA - A Fish and Game employee was mauled by a bear on Chichagof Island last week but did not suffer life threatening injuries. The bear was killed by another worker. THE DAILY SITKA SENTINEL Company packs 100,000 cases PETERSBURG - The steam whistle at the Ocean Beauty seafood plant rattled windows downtown a couple of week...

  LATE SUMMER The leaves have already Flown for the year And the coatless days Are a distant mirage. Soon the birds Will pass through, Singing South, south, south. Winter does not arrive On the afternoon jet Or with the sun rising Farther away, each day. Winter arrives With the realization There is less time In each passing day.

  They called him " Six Shooter " Grant was town's first 'official' lawman And once "bought" Ketchikan for $1 Any "frontier town," as Ketchikan was in the first two decades of the 20th Century, is bound to have characters. One of the most colorful in early First City history was a miner, businessman and lawman named Orlando Wells Grant. At least that was his official name. He was also known around the community as "George" Grant and even more colorfully known as " Six Shooter " Grant. Especially after he became the local deputy US Marshal in 1901. It says a lot that his nickname was " six shooter " although there is no official evidence that he used his ivory handled revolvers against any criminals. But he was known, reportedly, to fire them in the vicinity of other people when he wanted to get their attention. Grant was born in 1855 in Gloucester, Massachusett...

  Feds to fund cleanup HAIDA GWAII -The federal government has awarded more than $3.2 million to clean up the waters around Haida Gwaii. The project hopes to remove more than 200 tons of marine debris from 250 miles of coastline in the archipelago. THE HAIDA GWAII OBSERVER COVID patients medivaced SITKA - The number of new COVID cases in the community is dropping, officials say, but several of the more seriously ill have had to be medivaced to Anchorage or Seattle because local oxygen supplies are limited. At least a dozen local residents remained in the Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital last week. THE DAILY SITKA SENTINEL Strike in third week KITIMAT - A strike by 900 workers at the Rio Tinto aluminum smelting plant is now entering its third week. Officials say that only 25 percent of the facility smelting "pots" are operating and that it could take up to a year to get the rest back online when the strike concludes. THE KITIMAT NORTHERN S...

  THE LAST ROAD NORTH   (Copyright 2013, By Dave Kiffer)   Began in a Southwest So hot roadrunners Never stopped, their Feet fractiously flying From shade to shade Under the frigid sun You were yet a girl Married, only barely, He wanted the North Where it was better Always, always better That was the first road.    A moon blister marked Each following path Each further dash to A north where cold Crusted deprivation Became your friend, Your comfort like a Soothing bitter lemon On the ache of packing Again and again as if a Red truck's simple revving Was more than enough    The road finally stopped When he reached here This wretched little island Where you happily saw The word "end" at the North end of the road You sat there for hours Marvelling at the peace And turned to your baby Who would write the obit Never write, you said, He was the love of my life

  UNATTENDED BAGGAGE We all have some, Waiting patiently In a dusty corner. Perhaps placed Intentionally, To be unpacked Later, like some old college books You can't throw out. Or maybe just forgotten, Like a password For a computer You haven't used Since Windows 95 Was Y2Ked. Perhaps we know Exactly what is in it, Perhaps not. Perhaps it Doesn't really matter, Anymore. Except that, We really know, It still kinda does.

  Citius , Altius, Delugious! Well, the Olympic are over for at least another year or so (kind of lost that quadrennial thing when they split up the summer and the winters ones). Actually, I just read that the Beijing Winter Olympics are starting in six months. I. Am. So. Confused. At any rate, I think I was one of only two people (based on the Nielson ratings) who actually managed to watch all the coverage on NBC's various "platforms." Well, not entirely, there were some weird ones that were being posted directly into people's brains via hoof and mouth vaccinations that I decided to pass on (equestrian events are not my thing, see below). But I got nearly all the rest! Speaking of which, just what the Hokkaido Heck is a "platform?" I always thought it was a raised level surface. Or the declared policy of a political group. Apparently now it has something to do with broadcasting. Kind of in the same way that news o...

  Gravina : A Tale of Two Islands - History Story Considering that Ketchikan residents spend a lot of time staring a cross Tongass Narrows a t Gravina Island, we don't of ten know much a bout it. Yes, we take the a irport ferry a nd we fly out from the a irport. Maybe we have driven to the end of the "Road to Nowhere" or we have gone deer hunting on High Mountain. Residents of a certain a ge still talk fondly of the community picnics a t Black Sands Beach. But in general, Gravina is a like a prop to Ketchikan. Something to stare a t on a sunny day, but not much else. Of course, there is more to Gravina than that. For example, did you know that Gravina is two different islands ? Well, not now, but it used to be. First of f, there a re three distinct parts to Gravina that a re a ll geologically separate, a ccording to the 1973 federal report "Geology of Gravina Island, A laska." There is the eastern side, which is similar to the geology of R...