Courtesy of the Juneau Empire
VIEW FROM ABOVE — Tyler Swinton of Haines gets off a shot over a Hoonah player during the Capital City Classic basketball tournament.

Jan. 1971

The usually booming local timber industry is in the throes of problems.

Friday evening the Schnabel Lumber Co. shut down its veneer plant and chipper, and eliminated the night shift at the sawmill, leaving only one day shift at the mill.

Alaska Forest Products mill has been closed for several weeks. According to Tom Coiner, in charge of AFP locally, the depressed Japanese market has made it unprofitable to operate the mill now.

Approximately 70% of the AFP crew are working in the woods, Coiner said, and he held out some hope that the mill would resume operations “before too long.”

Jan. 1996

Ray Menaker said he had modest ambitions 30 years ago this month when he launched the Chilkat Valley News, which since has become, by far, the longest-running media outlet in Haines history.

Menaker, then a high school teacher, enlisted the help of one of his students, Bill Hartmann, in printing the school paper, the Chilkat Breeze, in the fall of 1965.

Soon after, some residents inquired about having a community newspaper. Menaker approached three businesses about taking out ads in the prospective publication and, to his surprise, got three affirmative answers.

“I had no idea this would turn into anything,” he said.

On Jan. 3, 1966, the untitled four-page newspaper first appeared, asking readers to choose a name from a list of suggestions. Among the choices were Lynn Canal Drift, Haines Independent Grapevine and Chilkat Valley News.

Jan. 2011

A team from Haines and Skagway early today climbed within shouting distance of a fallen hiker who’d spent 12 hours braced against a tree on a Mount Ripinsky cliff face, unable to move due to injuries and his precarious position.

Keith Hutchins, 40, of Haines, used a cell phone to call for a rescue at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday after falling off the mountain and into a steep ravine at about 1,800 feet elevation. His position was roughly 4.5 Mile Haines Highway, below the mountain’s south summit.

The team–including Scott Sundberg and John Binger of Haines–started up the steep face of the mountain near the Schnabel Pit at 10:30 p.m. By 3 a.m. they were at the base of the cliff where Hutchins was perched.

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