Empire Archives is a series printed every Saturday featuring a short compilation of headline stories in the Juneau Empire from archived editions in 1985, 1995 and 2005.
This week in 1985, a small Jet Alaska Lear jet crashed into the Chilkat Mountains about 22 miles west of the Juneau airport on the night of Tuesday, Oct. 22, killing the two crew members and two nurses aboard, all residents of Anchorage. The plane was enroute from Anchorage to Juneau on a medical mission. Bad weather hampered search efforts, with an Alaska State Trooper and three Juneau mountaineers able to reach the crash site on Friday afternoon. The jet crashed at about the 3,400-foot level, but the bodies and most of the wreckage were carried by an avalanche to about 2,600 feet, according to officials. While the plane was 3,000 feet lower in altitude than it was supposed to be at the time of the crash, the cause was still being investigated a week later.
Original Story: “Bodies of crash victims found; probe continues” by Bruce Scandling. 10/28/1985.
This week in 1995, Bucking more than 40 years of tradition, a Douglas woman is trying to bring trick or treating back to the neighborhood. Joyce Waldman passed out flyers on Saturday, Oct. 21, to her Fifth Street neighbors, asking them to turn on their porch lights Halloween night and put a strip of reflecting tape on their homes if they want to participate. While there was no law against it, trick or treating was sort of taboo in Douglas since the 1950s. Instead, children went to “The Ghost Walk,” a Lions Club carnival at the Mount Jumbo Gym or to other neighborhoods. According to legend, the reason for the taboo is a little boy got lost trick or treating one Halloween. Some say the boy was lost overnight and found safe — but cold — the next day; others have heard he died or was molested; still others have heard it was a girl that was lost.
Original Story: “Trick or treat in Douglas?” by Cathy Brown. 10/23/1985.
This week in 2005, the Juneau-Douglas High School Crimson Bears beat Palmer 49-29 to claim the state football championship, capping a 10-1 season that began in adverse conditions with the death of head coach Reilly Richey in the off-season. The team also switched from the Cook Inlet Football Conference to the Railbelt Conference that season. It was the first football state championship for JDHS since the team first took the field in 1990. The offense led the way during the championship game with junior quarterback Chris Hinkley going 8-for-15 for 145 yards and tying the state championship record with three touchdown passes. Senior tailback Tres Saldivar shattered the record for individual yards rushing with 330 yards on 29 carries. The team was coached by Bill Chalmers.
Original Story: “State champs” by Eric Morrison. 10/23/2005.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
