Empire Archives is a series printed every Saturday featuring a short compilation of headline stories in the Juneau Empire from archived editions in 1984, 1994 and 2004.
This week in 1984, Gene Shields had a hunch that this was going to be his lucky year. And was he ever right. Shields, who finished seventh in the Golden North Salmon Derby two years ago, late Saturday morning guaranteed his place in the record books by bringing a 33-pound king onto the floats at Auke Bay. After a nerve-racking 30-hour wait, Shields held on to unofficially win Southeast Alaska’s richest fishing contest. He should pocket a $10,000 check to mark the triumph on Tuesday night. For Shields, the 38th Golden North derby is certainly one to remember. It is also memorable for derby officials. The derby, which offered the largest purse ever, also attracted a record number of fishermen. During the three days nearly 13,000 fishermen or women had their derby tickets validated, 2,087 more than the 10,775 who fished last year. While the total catch won’t be known until later today, derby officials said it’s clear more fish were caught than the 17,000 pounds collected last year.
Today, with the salmon derby in its 78th year this weekend, significantly smaller fish are winning the event. The last fish to win weighing more than 30 pounds was in 2008, with winners since there as low as 17.7 pounds. Last year’s winning fish of 24.4 pounds was caught by Dylan Kubley.
Original Story: “Shields wins salmon derby with 33-pound king,” by Chuck Kleeschulte and Amy Jo Macaulay. 8/6/1984.
This week in 1994, a cruise ship carrying 1,275 people ran around this morning near Ketchikan, and though the ship has been refloated the company expects it will have to end the cruise. The Nieuw Amsterdam, operated by Holland America Lines, was refloated with no evacuations or injuries, the U.S. Coast Guard reported. The ship was on a seven-day cruise from Vancouver, B.C. to Seward. It was headed for Ketchikan when the accident occurred and the ship was scheduled to spend Wednesday in Juneau. Passengers were comfortable and the shipboard services were working said Larry Dessler, director of public relations for Holland America Lines-Westours in Seattle. But it’s doubtful the 704-foot vessel will be able to continue on its cruise. Dessler said the company is considering a range of options from chartering aircraft to fly its passengers out of Ketchikan to taking the ship with passengers to a drydock for repair work. After running aground the ship leaked an unknown amount of hydraulic fluid, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. An oil boom was deployed around the spill.
Original Story: “Ship runs aground at Ketchikan,” by The Associated Press/Juneau Empire. 8/9/1994.
This week in 2004, an Angoon family is in talks with a nonprofit organization to lease about 20 acres of land for a bear sanctuary near Eaglecrest Ski Area. The Bear Education & Animal Rehabilitation Sanctuary Inc. has a “lease in principle” with Gabe George of Angoon and his family, BEARS Inc. Executive Director Chris Grant said. The parties have not signed a lease. “We really want this to be an interactive tool for the Juneau-Douglas school district and tourism,” Grant said. “We really want tourists to learn about Alaska and its people.” BEARS Inc. was formed as a nonprofit Alaska corporation in January 2002. It is run by volunteers. The George family is trying to exchange a 100-acre Native allotment on Admiralty Island for about 220 acres of U.S. Forest Service land on Douglas Island. Once that happens, the plan is for BEARS Inc. to lease 20 of the Douglas Island acres, located about three miles up Fish Creek Road — 1½ miles from Eaglecrest. Heirs of the Jimmy George estate own the property in the south arm of Hood Bay, within the Kootznoowoo Wilderness of Admiralty Island National Monument. The Forest Service wants to preserve that land.
The sanctuary was never established, but in 2007 a Skagway company using the parcel for sled dog carting tours with the permission of the George family and significant logging took place in 2018 for purposes that were not made clear.
Original Story: “Nonprofit eyes land near Eaglecrest for bears,” by Tara Sidor. 8/5/2004.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
