This week in history
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Carvers stand with the library's new totem pole Saturday.
Sept. 8 1969
The Haines municipal water system will be inspected tomorrow when two state officials will come to town to try to determine what caused the bacteria to rise from a normal of 3 to a recent count of 38.
According to Councilman Henry Hartmann, John Scribner, state sanitary engineer, and William G. Goodman, regional supervisor of environmental health, will assist the city to locate the problem and solve it.
The city was informed by letter and telephone that the water contamination was determined from water samples sent to Juneau by the city. While the bacterial content is probably low enough not to cause problems for healthy people, Hartmann said, invalids and tiny youngsters might be affected.
Notices were sent out Friday by TV and word of mouth to boil water until further notice, or to purify it by chlorination. At the school, drinking fountains were turned off and students drank chlorinated water from cups.
Sept. 8 1994
Excavation at the former Rainy Hollow pump station was put on hold Wednesday while U.S. and Canadian government officials discuss who will pay for the clean-up pf DDT and other chemicals that may be buried within the boundaries of Canada’s Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness Provincial Park.
On Tuesday, hazardous materials workers uncovered a full, five-gallon can of the now-banned pesticide in a landfill trench near the pump station, operated until 1974 by the U.S. Army.
Although an official laboratory analysis has not been completed, field tests conducted at the 48-Mile site show it “likely” the chemical stored in the unmarked, black can is DDT, B.C. Environment spokesman Richie Morrison said. “It has all the earmarks.”
Sept. 3 2009
A 20-foot totem pole representing the history of the Haines library was unveiled at a ceremony on the south side of the library’s grounds Saturday.
Part of an eight-year collaboration between the Chilkoot Indian Association and the library, the totem was presented to community members, who gathered in the wind and rain and cheered as the pole was revealed.
“Pull the cord,” directed carver Jim Heaton, who designed the totem and oversaw the work of three Klukwan carvers and three teenage apprentices. “Thank you so much for braving the weather.”
The pole, a straight-grained, 800-year old cedar from Kake, has a crouching female at its base. Representing the Haines Woman’s Club, which opened the first library in the mid-1930s, the female, who has a labret in her lip, is holding the “Box of Knowledge.”
The box doubles as a time capsule and is filled with letters, photographs, an Obama pin, a copy of the week’s Chilkat Valley News and other mementos from 2009. It will be opened in 25 years.
