- 1944

The Alaska Juneau Mine and mill closed April 8, putting between 225 and 250 men out of work. The big mill began operating in 1917 and had operated constantly since except for a six-week strike in 1935. The company had been losing money for the past several years due to decreased production because of the war-created manpower shortage. The management decided to close rather than to pay a 14 cent an hour wage increase recently ordered by the War Labor Board. The company formerly employed about 1,000 men and had an output of about 12-13,000 tons of rock daily, only a portion of which was milled. Daily tonnage had recently fallen below 4,000 tons and the operation was unprofitable at that level.

The Columbia Lumber Corp. Juneau sawmill on lower South Franklin St. burned February 29, with damage estimated to be $200,000.

Establishment of a car ferry, using a diesel-powered boat, between Prince Rupert and Haines-Skagway, and possibly between Seattle and those same ports, was urged by Regional Forester B. Frank Heintzleman in a talk January 6 before the Juneau Chamber of Commerce. He pointed out that such a service would be necessary if Southeastern Alaska was to have a connection to the Alaska Highway and to maintain its tourist business.

Prisoners of War Camp (German prisoners) Excursion Inlet, Alaska. August-November, 1945. Alaska State Library, U.S. Army Signal Corps Collection, P175-116.

At the Army post at Excursion Inlet, built as a transshipping port for the Aleutian Island campaign and other Alaska stations, cargo shipments had virtually ceased by early spring and the port function was discontinued by April, except to clear remaining cargo and begin shipping salvageable materials back to stateside.   Instead it was then was turned into a P.O.W. camp for German war prisoners late that year. They, in turn, were put to work dismantling most of the camp buildings (some, however, were saved and were put to post-war use for a salmon cannery, which discontinued canning operations in 2021.)

Penicillin, flown to Juneau by Pan American Airways, was used here May 4 for the first time to save the life of an U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Department employee who has been stricken with pneumonia after an appendectomy.

President Franklin Roosevelt tried, unsuccessfully, to catch a salmon off Aaron Island outside of Tee Harbor August 9, as he stopped by secretly on his way back from an inspection tour of the Aleutian Islands.