Among my more interesting neighbors is a man who died too young:
Poor guy; probably thought he lucked out when the Army sent him to Alaska instead of France. The newspapers I've checked say nothing about the death of this local soldier, but I think it's a safe guess he was a victim of the great flu epidemic.
Fort Liscum, it turns out, stood on the site of modern Valdez, and closed in 1923. The University of Alaska has some great photos of the fort available online.
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When it came to the influenza pandemic there was no safe place. The CDC Pandemic Flu story book has some horrific stories: http://www.pandemicflu.gov/storybook/index.html.
Did you know there was talk about closing the bars in Hurley due to fear of contagion?
Found a whole bunch of news articles once while researching something else.
Will check out that link.
Here we go:
Ashland Daily Press November 22, 1918
HURLEY IS AS DRY AS ASHLAND
The chief of police has closed every saloon in the city of Hurley on account of the flu epidemic
It is almost impossible to believe the city of Hurley is as dry as lutefisk. The flu is prevalent in Hurley and the Board of Health placed the ban on movies, schools, churches and similar places where people congregate. When the order was first issued the saloons were permitted to keep open but the proprietors were notified not to permit crowds in their places of business but to keep the customers moving.
Chief of Police Schafer instructed the saloon keepers to close and keep closed until the order was lifted and notified the saloon owners that violators of the order would not only be arrested buy would lose their license n addition.
A saloon license in Hurley is worth money and it is unnecessary to state that this warning has closed the saloons of Hurley tighter than any previous order of either the sheriff or district attorney.
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