Dave Kiffer - Alaskan Poet, Historian, Humorist

  In the Time of Dripitus Maximus By the time you read this it will be sunny and 80 degrees. That's what happens when someone comments in print about the weather. By the time the comment reaches the audience the weather has usually changed. Unless you are reading it in Our Fair Salmon City, of course. In all likelihood, it will be rainy and cold when you read this - as it is as I write this - because that is what summer in Wetchikan is. We hear a lot about Global Warming, Climate Change, the Summer of Satan, whatever you want to call it. But since everything gets to Ketchikan 10 years after the fact, it ain't here yet. And it probably never will be. You see all those wonderful climate change models that agree on nothing seem to agree on one thing. One part of the North American continent will not get warmer and dryer. It will have more rain, more storms, more wind, more yuck for the next century. That area is the Pacific Ocean coast bet...

By Dave Kiffer For the Daily News It was a gorgeous sunny July day around 1 pm as Northbird pilot Roy Jones and his mechanic Gerald Smith approached Revillagigedo Island and Ketchikan from the south. Already the two men could see the scattered houses south of Ketchikan near Mountain Point. Jones leaned over to Smith and shouted "I'm going to swing in and come down behind Deer Mountain." The roar of the airplane's 150-horsepower Hispano-Suiza engine was so loud that Jones knew Smith couldn't hear him in the open-air cockpit, he recounted nearly 40 years later in a story for the January, 1961 issue of the Alaska Sportsman magazine, so he just pointed. Smith nodded back. The two men had left Prince Rupert 90 minutes before and were cruising about 4,000 feet above Revillagigedo Channel at about 60 miles per hours in a Curtiss Flying Boat Jones had purchased from the US Navy and named the "Northbird." Commercial aviation was about to arrive in ...

  Aviation came to Ketchikan a century ago Roy Jones started first commercial aviation company in Alaska A century ago,   Roy   F.   Jones   flew the first airplane into Ketchikan and brought the modern transportation world to Alaska. Planes had flown into and through Alaska before, but Jones '   flight from Prince Rupert on July 17, 1922, was the first commercial flight in Alaska. He hoped to start a successful aviation business with his Curtiss Flying Boat, which he had named the Northbird. It wasn't to be. A crash at Heckman Lake in 1923 proved the end of the Northbird Aviation Company,  but   Jones  lived long enough to see the jet age come to Ketchikan and to take part in the dedication of the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island in 1973. Jones   and mechanic Gerald Smith's flight from Seattle to Ketchikan only involved 10 hours of flight time, but took nine days, according to Lone Janse...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 7-30-22   The puck stops here TERRACE - "Hockeyville 2009" will be no more in downtown Terrace. A prominent mural celebrating the community's being named Hockeyville in a national contest will be covered up after the building it was on changed ownership earlier this year.. THE TERRACE STANDARD Pond seeks mayorship PRINCE RUPERT - Former mayor Herb Pond has filed to run for mayor of Prince Rupert. Pond was mayor from 2002 to 2008. Current mayor Lee Brain says he is not running for re-election. THE PRINCE RUPERT NORTHERN Landslide study funding sought SKAGWAY - The Skagway Traditional Council is supporting a proposal to expand geohazard monitoring in Southeast. Of particular interest is landslide research in light of the recent landslide that caused some damage to the Railroad cruise ship dock. THE SKAGWAY NEWS Ewww! WHITEHORSE - Yukon Premier Sandy Silver was given the "honor" recently of being the 100,000th person to be known to have...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 7-23-22 Highly entertaining! SKAGWAY - Madame Cooper's Peepshow Parlor has opened on Broadway with a four-minute burlesque show featuring peepholes, tassles, singing and "PG 13" stripping, according to owner Madame Cooper who says the entire operation features a gold rush theme and costumes, more or less. THE SKAGWAY NEWS Most dangerous intersection PRINCE RUPERT -The most dangerous intersection in Prince Rupert is 5th Ave. East and West crossing with McBride Str. according to new data released by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia with seven motor vehicle crashes documented in 2021 for that location. Overall, Prince Rupert has had more than 445 vehicle crashes since 2017. THE PRINCE RUPERT NORTHERN VIEW Little League not so little HAINES -Haines Little League has the most players it has ever had with 87 participants, nearly double last year's total. Officials estimate that nearly 70 percent of the eligible children in town are...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 7-16-22 Traffic fatals investigated JUNEAU - Police are investigating three serious traffic accidents that have occurred in the last few weeks. This week, a 59-year-old woman was struck by a car and killed while crossing Egan Drive. In late June, a 48-year old man riding a motorcycle was struck by a bus and killed downtown and a 13-year-old girl riding a bike was struck and seriously injured by a car near Gold Creek. THE JUNEAU EMPIRE Lightning blamed for fires WHITEHORSE - Yukon fire resources were stretched thin last week, when more than 20 fires broke out within 24 hours. Officials say that the fires were caused by a lightning storm. THE WHITEHORSE DAILY STAR Gang members charged with assault PRINCE RUPERT - Assault charges have been filed against five members of a group allegedly calling itself the Crazy Indian Nomads gang. The charges stem from an incident where a man was assaulted in April. THE PRINCE RUPERT NORTHERN VIEW Low school enrollment tro...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 7-9-22 No clinic vote, yet SKAGWAY - There will not be a July vote on whether to sell the Dahl Memorial Clinic to SEARHC after all. The Borough Assembly cancelled the  ote after SEARHC questioned a recent $9 million appraisal for the health clinic and then asked for more than $6 million in borough support. There is still a chance that a future sale vote can take place after more negotiations. THE SKAGWAY NEWS Road repairs needed PRINCE RUPERT - The community needs upwards of $600 million to replace aging infrastructure, outgoing Mayor Lee Brain announced recently. One of the biggest needs is nearly $100 million just to repair the roads, which Brain says were built incorrectly using salt products that decay the underlying piping and hog fill. THE PRINCE RUPERT NORTHERN VIEW Free bird? HAINES - When Alaska Seaplanes pilot Sam Riggs flies between Haines and Juneau, his passengers should ask him to "hum a tune or two." Riggs is...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 7-2-22 Salmon plant closes SITKA - Sitka Salmon Shares business boomed during the pandemic, but business tailed off in the past year and the company closed its processing plant earlier this month. Approximately 40 workers were laid off. THE DAILY SITKA SENTINEL Premier visits Tahltan TERRACE - British Columbia Premier John Horgan recently made the first premier visit to the traditional Tahltan Band lands in northwestern BC in 30 years. During his two-day visit, Horgan made stops in Dease Lake, Telegraph Creek and Iskut. THE TERRACE STANDARD Eagle roosts installed HAINES - More than 175 tree trunks are in the mud in the Chilkat River along the Haines Highway, but they are not a big foot mystery. The trunks were put there to provide roosts for eagles after numerous cottonwood trees were taken down in a state highway project. THE CHILKAT VALLEY NEWS First ever Pride march SITKA - Approximately 250 people turned out last week for the first ever Sitka Pride...