- 1909

A new Alaska liquor law took effect February 6 to require $1,000 licenses for all saloons and barrooms, which includes prohibition of operating gambling, dance halls, or bawdy houses in conjunction with them. In July, the court ordered closure of such establishments which shook up effected local businesses.

In mid-February farmer Louis Lund reported that ice up to 10 feet thick prevented him from driving his team out to his farm at Lemon Creek.

Robert Stroud, 18, killed a client of his prostitute girlfriend in January, was convicted, and sentenced to 12 years in a penitentiary. Later after killing a guard, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and became known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz.”

Halibut schooner CHRISTINE at wharf, Tee Harbor, Alaska, June 25, 1907. University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections. John N. Cobb Photograph Collection. PH Coll 418 Cobb 2462.

International Fisheries Company, which operated at Tee Harbor, installed a modern cold storage plant to handle halibut and salmon. In the past, the company salted salmon and iced halibut with ice cut in a nearby lake. Juneau’s halibut fleet was up to 30 boats and around a million pounds of fish were shipped south that year.

The owners of the Jualin Mine at Berners Bay brought in some carrier pigeons to carry messages between there and town. It may not have worked out too well; they installed a wireless station a short while later. At Treadwell the first major caving started in November in empty worked-out mine stopes underground, which also resulted in surface subsidence and facilities damage. Miners there struck again from March through July before settlement was reached. The Juneau-Eagle River trail construction was progressing rapidly with 8 bridges and several miles of corduroy road built.

In July the United Wireless Station in Juneau installed a telephone and persons wishing information on the position of any vessel in Alaska waters could obtain it by calling. There was 24-hour service.

The Juneau Public Schools won first prize July 24 at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle for having the best school exhibit from Alaska.