May 30, 1974

Speeches flowed like water last week as the new Haines Alaska Native Brotherhood hall was dedicated Tlingit style. 

Friends from all over Southeast Alaska joined with the Haines ANB Camp Np. 5 as it celebrated the completion of its new hall, named in memory of Jack David, father of Robert “Jeff” David Sr. of Haines. The new building, just west of the Haines Presbyterian Church, was begun three years ago and was mostly the work of volunteer labor — 90% of which was donated by one man, David Light. 

The first ANB hall, which was built in the 1920s, had fallen victim to time and weather and was torn down years ago. The new hall will provide a meeting place for both local ANB and ANS (Alaska Native Sisterhood). Austin Hammond of Haines got a rousing round of applause during her speech in Tlingit — which the “unenlightened” found out later was for her promise of $10,000 toward the building fund. 

May 27, 1999

The addition of a new Norwegian Cruise Lines ship to Haines’ weekly docking schedule next season is expected to result in a 17% jump in cruise-passenger traffic, the largest projected growth in Southeast. 

Norwegian Cruise Lines’ new 2000-passenger, 750-crew Norwegian Sky is scheduled for 20 Wednesday morning stops next year, bringing up to 40,000 passengers to Haines from May 7 to Sept. 17. 

It will be the first big ship making regular morning stops in Haines. 

May 29, 2014

A large tropical parrot spooked 70 feet up a cottonwood tree was retrieved when a neighbor scaled an adjacent spruce and coaxed it from its perch early monday. 

It was a rough Sunday night for Midas, a pet macaw. The green-headed, blue and gold bird was on a deck at the Cemetery Hill home of pet-sitter Kimberle Whittaker, who lets him out when temperatures warm up over 50 degrees. Whittaker and friend Rick Mapes were outside Sunday afternoon when Midas bit Whittaker’s hand and wouldn’t let go. 

“I flung him off and he just winged right across to that tree. He was looking for a place to land,” she said. “Then he was just sitting there like ‘Wow, how’d I get up here?”