- 1943

Since federal Office of Price Administration regulations forbid the delivery of parcels by taxi cab, a local firm, the Parcel Delivery Service, was established in January to carry trunks, baggage or parcels at any time of the day or night. The Episcopal Church at Douglas was equipped with beds and supplies so it could be used as an emergency hospital, according to the Douglas Director of Civil Defense May 3.

A Stinson tri-motored plane belonging to Woodley Airways of Anchorage went down January 19 in Gastineau Channel, opposite Thane, and sank, taking Pilot Don Glass with it. Glass was making a preliminary test flight with the wheel plane before picking up his passengers for a trip to Anchorage (Woodley Airways became Pacific Northern Airlines in 1945, one of Alaska’s largest carriers until it was absorbed into Western Airlines in 1967.)

The Cliff Apartments, just off Calhoun Avenue on Dixon Street, was almost totally destroyed by fire February 3, with the loss set at $30,000. Of the 27 apartments in the building, 22 were occupied and 31 persons were now homeless.

The Douglas Island Women’s Club re-established the Douglas library, incorporating April 14.  Members earlier were busy cataloging books for an open house and a paid librarian would be employed by the club. .

By a margin of one vote on September 2 , the Juneau Chamber of Commerce adopted a report of its legislative committee incorporating the opinion “that the time has not yet arrived for Alaska to be admitted to the Union as a state, and that all efforts to pass the pending bill should be suspended at least until the present war is ended and until we can see more clearly the conditions which are likely to confront us.”

Following re-capture of the Japanese-held Aleutian Islands, the Juneau Army post was down-sized to caretaking detachment status by late fall.  The Excursion Inlet subport/barge shipping terminal, activated March 22,  received about 275,000 tons of material, most of which was transshipped westward through the end of the year.

Miners at the AJ mine demanded wage increases to off-set inflationary cost-of-living prices and were supported by federal labor board actions.  Management threatened total mine shut-down as the year ended with a large deficit in revenue.