Dave Kiffer - Alaskan Poet, Historian, Humorist

  OUTHEAST   LOG   9-25-21 Bakewell is Ultimate M's Fan WRANGELL - Judy Bakewall has been chosen as the Seattle Mariners Alaska Ultimate Fan.  She, and the person who nominated her, her daughter Leslie Cummings, will be flown to Seattle on Oct. 1 and treated to a two-night stay and a box suite at T-Mobile Park, a personalized jersey, and a trophy. THE WRANGELL SENTINEL Senior facility under construction JUNEAU - Ground was broken recently on the Riverview Senior Living Facility. The $32 million project, a joint development between the city and Torrey Pines Development, is expected to open in the spring 2023. THE JUNEAU EMPIRE Shareholders get cash for vaccines KLUKWAN - Klukwan, Inc. shareholders are eligible to receive $225 each for showing proof of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Officials say the money is coming from a $100,000 federal CARES Act grant. THE CHILKAT VALLEY NEWS Vape flavors may be limited PRINCE RUP...

  Ketchikan:  The Key West of Alaska We've all seen that "map" that superimposes Alaska over the Lower 48. Ketchikan is near Savannah, Georgia. Point Barrow is somewhere in way northern Minnesota. The Aleutian Islands stretch all the way to California. It reminds us, and others, just how big Alaska is. That it is NOT some little place down next to Hawaii, like it is shown on most US maps. The maps showing Alaska in the little box in the lower left-hand corner have always royally cheesed me off. We come off about the same size as the big island of Hawaii. No wonder Outsiders have the way wrong impression of how big Alaska is ("Can I drive from Ketchikan to Denali and back in one day?"). You even get some pretty strange conclusions. We've all had someone ask us what it is like to live with igloos and polar bears. But I once had someone insist to me that Alaska was a "pretty warm place." Obviously, my astound...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 9-18-21 Nevermind! KITIMAT - Residents on the north coast did not feel the jolt when a 6.5 earthquake was reported in the ocean south of Kitimat last week. Why not? It didn't happen. Officials are now saying a computer glitch caused a false report. THE KITIMAT NORTHERN SENTINEL Sockeye run surprisingly strong HAINES - Fishers in Lutak Inlet saw a bumper run of sockeye in late August when more than 24,000 fish returned. The late surge caught officials and fishers by surprise. The "blue backs" were also larger than has been normal the past few years on the Chilkoot River. THE CHILKAT VALLEY NEWS Relief funds parceled out SKAGWAY - The borough assembly has decided how to spend the $2 million Skagway received from Norwegian Cruise Lines for COVID relief. Approximately $1. 2 million will go to small business relief, while other amounts will go to the Food Bank, the Traditional Council, utility relief and unemployment assistance. THE SKAGWAY NEW...

  LIMBO It always seems odd There is a place That is neither Here nor there. Yet here we are Descending slowly in the silence Of the clouds. We have places to go, Things to see, But we are not There yet. We are haunted As we pass through these endless clouds, This up-in-air limbo. The ground awaits Just not too soon.

  When Fur Farming was Alaska's third biggest industry Hundreds of farms dotted islands in Southeast Every so often, when exploring a remote island in the Alexander Archipelago, one can come upon aset of puzzling remains. Fences and wire and sometimes dozens of rotting cages near broken down houses or occasionally larger buildings. It is the remains of what once was the third largest industry in Alaska. One that burst on the scene in the 1920s and had pretty much disappeared in barely a decade, leaving only the debris of numerous get rich quick schemes that never did. In the 1920s, one of the most common mammals in Southeast Alaska wasn't even a native species. There were more than 10,000 arctic or blue foxes in hundreds of small island farms from Dixon Entrance to upper Lynn Canal and Yakutat. Their forebearers had been brought south from northern Alaska to breed and make money. Later, many of the farms would switch to native mink species because of changes in p...

 S OUTHEAST LOG 9-11-21 The grass isn't always greener PRINCE RUPERT - The greens are yellowing at the Prince Rupert Golf Club. Officials say the cause is golfers using bug spray that contains DEET. DEET is also poisonous to grass. THE PRINCE RUPERT NORTHERN VIEW Writers' conference cancelled SKAGWAY - Concern over a statewide spike in COVID 19 cases has caused the annual North Words Symposium to be cancelled. Last year's symposium was held virtually, but officials say that it is too late to transition this year's festival, which was scheduled to be in person, to be switched to on-line. THE SKAGWAY NEWS 57 pounder wins POW Derby CRAIG - A 57.6-pound king is the winner of the Craig/Klawock Salmon Derby. The soaker was caught by Travis Wilson of Montgomery, Texas. THE PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND NEWS Peratrovich mural completed JUNEAU - A 60-foot mural honoring Alaska civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich is complete. The mural, by Crystal Worl, is on the s...

  FLIGHT 175   How quickly the molecules  Hammered into a 767  Disperse into a fiery cloud.    On the ground a full wheel lands,  But the rest becomes dust  Floating amidst the falling paper.    Time is divided into before  And after, and the after into  The inconceivable, the unknown

  People still have to eat' A history of grocery stores in the First City With the announcement, this 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. The first store to sell groceries in "Ketchikan" was the pioneer store of Clark and Martin, in the late 1880s. George Clark and Mike Martin had the first store when Ketchikan was still a handful of shacks on Ketchikan Creek. And the nearby wharf they built helped turn Ketchikan into a permanent community. By the 1910s, Ketchikan had numerous small grocery stores, as it spread out north and south from the Creek. Most only had had a handful of items, some specialized in meats, some in dairy, others in dry goods. Many came and went with the...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 9-4-21 Playground fund started HAINES - Jenae Larson, the Haines school kindergarten teacher who died in the Beach Road landslide last December, had spoken several times about wanting to raise funds to improve the playground at the school, which she had attended as a child and was in her first-year teaching at. Her mother, Kim Taylor, is now raising funds for the playground in her honor. Kim Taylor has set up a GOFUNDME account. THE CHILKAT VALLEY NEWS Drop-in center to open PRINCE RUPERT - Change Maker's Education Society is opening a new youth drop-in center in the Ocean Center Mall in September. The center will be called K'oomtk, which is "hope" in the Sm'algyax language. THE PRINCE RUPERT NORTHERN VIEW Ocean Beauty tops 200,000 cases PETERSBURG - The Ocean Beauty Seafood plant has now topped 200,000 cases of pink salmon. Officials say that is the highest amount the facility has canned since 2013. THE PETERSBURG PILOT 151 homeles...

   (published 8-4-21)   By Dave Kiffer For the Daily News A century ago today, residents of the First City came within about 10 minutes of seeing the first airplane in the skies over Ketchikan. Unfortunately, daredevil pilot Clarence "Ollie" Prest only made it as far as Revillagigedo Channel, about 5 miles south of town. What stopped him? The rain. In September of 1921, Prest was attempting to become the first to fly from Mexico to Siberia. He, and his co-pilot, had spent more than a week in Prince Rupert and was on his way to Wrangell, with a flyover of Ketchikan on the way. But the heavy rain forced him to turn back and return to Canada. While there a storm would wreck his plane and Ketchikanites would have to wait until the summer of 1922, when Roy Jones and the Northbird would bring air travel to Southeast Alaska. The Prest flight was actually the second aviation near-miss Ketchikan had had in the early 1920s. In July of 1920, the US Army's Black Wolf Sq...