Landslide Nov. 22, 1936, Juneau, Alaska. Alaska State Library, Trevor M. Davis Photo Collection, P97-0407.
The worst landslide in Juneau’s history roared down the side of Mount Roberts November 22 and killed at least 12 persons, injured at least nine, destroyed four buildings and damaged several others. The slide, triggered by heavy rains, which also caused slides on the Glacier Highway, piled dirt 20 feet deep against the Juneau Cold Storage Company Building on South Franklin Street.
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Gambling, at least in public, was at a standstill in Juneau and the card rooms around town were empty as a result of an edict of the City Council October 2 ordering the closing of all gambling in the city. One-hour parking on downtown Juneau streets went into effect. The Juneau Chamber of Commerce reported in February that it would be easy to tunnel from Seward Street to Evergreen Bowl for quick access by school children. Steel workers arrived June 5 to dismantle the big mill building at Thane to provide steel for construction work at the Alaska Juneau Mine.
Residence lots owned by the City of Douglas were being disposed of in accordance with the city’s program of giving free lots to home builders. February 26 fire of unknown origin reduced to ruins the main tank of the Douglas water works. Cold weather and high winds made firefighting difficult. The loss was not as serious as it might have been because a new reservoir had already been planned for construction when the weather warmed. The new Douglas dam on Bear Creek was finished in late July and filled to provide a one million gallon reservoir for the city. Work continued in laying out new water mains for the city and installing a chlorination plant. Out at Auke Bay, the Auk Bay Inn, a large two-story building that was formerly the mess hall for the Auk Bay cannery, was totally destroyed by fire November 13.
A specially built blue-bodied, red-winged Vultee monoplane, flown by Soviet pilots Sigismund Levanevisky and Victor I. Levchenko, who were mapping an air route from America to Moscow, arrived here August 10 from Ketchikan. From here they would fly to Fairbanks, Nome and Siberia.
U. S. cruiser Detroit and five destroyers arrived July 23 for Juneau’s Fleet Week for 1936.
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