Digital Bob Archive

Bomb Scares have become lamentably common of late, but it was a real bomb explosion that shattered the quiet of downtown Juneau at 5:40 in the afternoon of Tuesday, October 26, 1926. The headline in the Empire the next day said, \"Peerless Bakery Blown Up.\" That may have been something of an overstatement; the interior of the bakery was damaged but it was back in business two days later.

The Peerless Bakery, owned by Henry Meier and Theodor Heyder and operated by Meier, was on the water side of South Franklin where George's Gift Shop is today. Its two electric ovens were in the rear of the building and, it was later determined, several sticks of dynamite had been fastened to a steel I beam under the floor and near a corner of one of the ovens. The I beam was bent and a hole was blown in the floor, but damage to the ovens was not extensive. The front windows were blown out and total damage was set at $2,000.

Meier and the driver of the bakery truck, Oscar Hegstead, were in the sales room at the front of the bakery and were thrown to the floor but were not injured. Other employees had left a short time before.

On the south side of the bakery, in the Quality Grocery owned by George Brothers, broken glass jars and bottles totaled several hundreds of dollars. Greatest damage was in the Wright Jewelry Shoppe on the north side of the bakery. Mr. and Mrs. William C. Wright had just received and unpacked a shipment of glassware for the Christmas trade and much of it was broken, as were some of the display cases. Loss was placed at $4,000 to $5,000. The Wrights were in their apartment over the store when the blast occurred.

Across the street the windows were blown out of Jack Hayes' Curio Shop and Harry Owens' Barber Shop.

A fire alarm was sounded at once and Police Chief James McCloskey was quickly on the job. He sent to the Alaska Juneau Mine for some powder men who identified the explosive as dynamite, perhaps as much as a dozen sticks. All of the buildings on that side of the street were on piling and it was believed the dynamite had been placed from a skiff at high tide.

Three possibilities were put forth: A demented person, an anarchist who just wanted to blow up something, or someone with a grudge against either Meier or Heyder. They could think of nobody with such a grudge.

There was said to have been no insurance to compensate the three businesses for their losses, but at least nobody was hurt. And one good thing did come out of it: A young FBI agent was sent to Juneau to investigate. He was not able to turn up anything and soon left, but he did return to make his home in Juneau. His name: Hugh Wade.