Digital Bob Archive

MARCH 25, 1896-First class tickets are now being offered from San Francisco to Juneau for $5. Steamship rate wars are great for the travelers.

Dr. H. S. Wyman, formerly a longtime resident of Gastineau Channel, returned on the City of Topeka and will resume his medical practice here. He has been living in Olympia, Washington.

APRIL 1, 1896-Senator Perkins of California has introduced a bill to provide a system of licenses for the sale of liquor in Alaska.

Harry Ash has established a red, white and blue flashing beacon in front of his Hub Saloon.

James Winn and Robert Insley have secured control of the Opera House and will conduct a popular resort there.

Andrew Hansen is now the sole owner of the Miner?s Exchange at Third and Franklin Streets and is having the popular resort painted and papered.

Juneau now has a mining exchange. J. Y. Ostrander recently arrived from Seattle and opened an office on Third Street where he will deal in mining stocks.

John Laughlin, the locomotive engineer at Treadwell, had a narrow escape early this morning. A workman had been sent after a box of powder for some work near the Mexican mine. On his way back he passed the cottage where he lives and went in for a moment, putting the box of powder on the track. John came along with the locomotive a few minutes later had blown up. He has some bad bruises and slight burns and the engine is a near wreck.

APRIL 4, 1896-The reopening of the Opera House under the management of Winn, Insley, and Bakke was a great success and the play ?Out Witted? by the Maurettus & Henderson Company was well received. The closing theatrical spectacle was ?Encampment of the Zouaves,? perhaps the prettiest stage effect ever witnessed in Juneau. A friendly glove contest closed the evening?s entertainment.

APRIL 8, 1896-Harry Ash, proprietor of The Hub, is taking a theatrical outfit to Circle City by way of Dyea. The outfit includes one large tent, 24 by 36 feet, and several 12 by 18 foot tents. Fifteen performers will go in as soon as the ice breaks the Yukon.

APRIL 15, 1896-At a few minutes past 1 o?clock this morning there was a terrific explosion at Treadwell, shaking every building on both sides of the channel and breaking many windows. A powder house on the hillside above the Treadwell mill, containing an estimated three and a half tons of dynamite, had blown up. Every window on that side of Treadwell and Mexican mills were broken, there was damage to the store and boarding house buildings, and water pipes leading to the Treadwell mill were broken and it had to shut down. William Cota is missing and is presumed to have been in the powder house at the time.