- 1915

(A.G.G.M. Co.) Mill plant – capacity 10,000 tons daily. Thane, Alaska. January, 1915. Alaska State Library, Alaska Electric Light & Power Company Photograph Collection, Winter & Pond, P140-107.

Ore reduction mills of Alaska-Gastineau Mining Co. began operation February 15 at Thane. They expected to grind 2,500 tons of ore every 24 hours. The Alaska Juneau mine also began operation of a new 50 stamp test mill overlooking the city waterfront, and started construction of a larger 8,000 ton/day reduction mill at that site. A-J mine installed a 56-ton compressor, largest ever brought to Alaska, to provide air for machinery and ventilation (still extant and may be seen at the Last Chance Mining Museum up Gold Creek.)

Non-voting Congressional Delegate James Wickersham (first elected in 1909) introduced an appropriation bill in Congress for a bridge to connect Juneau and Douglas (which finally came 20 years later). Congress appropriated funding for a 25-bed hospital in Juneau to provide care for Alaska Native patients.

Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company opened a Juneau office in September to accept messages to any part of the world in competition with the U. S. Army cable system. “Our rates will be 25 percent lower than those of the Signal Corps,” said Superintendent A. H. Ginman of the wireless company.

Willoughby Avenue extended past Ninth Avenue to access lower Casey-Shattuck subdivision. The first auto theft occurred June 4 and the car was recovered with a damaged axle. Telephone company upgraded their system to handle 1,200 lines and built a new office on “Telephone Hill.” Treadwell established a school district.

Sixteen feet of shark got entangled in a fish net June 23 near the Dupont powder works and was landed alive on the sands there by C. R. Rhodes. A tank was set up on Ferry Way for an impromptu aquarium for the edification of local viewers. The shark was estimated to weigh in excess of 1000 pounds.

Unusually hot and dry weather in July aided the outbreak of a number of small forest fires in the area, with two separate ones threatening several homesteads and the Nugget Creek powerline in the Mendenhall Valley, plus another one in upper Silver Bow basin, and one along the Treadwell Ditch behind Douglas. No appreciable property damage was caused but smoke-filled skies obscured the sun for several days.

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