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10 YEARS AGO
March 9, 2015 — Its crunch time in Fairbanks as borough and state departments, police and state troopers, hotels and race officials all coordinate their final moves to ensure a successful start to the 2015 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
The Iditarod trail crews kicked into high gear early Sunday morning to lay down snow for the start line on Hoselton Road. Crews used everything from shovels to heavy-duty graders to set up snow barriers and smooth out the first mile of the course. When asked what still needed to be done Sunday morning, Restart Coordinator Darrell Davis said “basically everything.”
“We set everything up the day before the race,” Davis said. “It’ll all come down right after the race, too. The whole trail will be constructed. The fencing will be installed.”
The Fairbanks North Star Borough closed traffic in the area around the starting line, near Hoselton Road, Dale Road and Broadmoor Avenue on Saturday night and Sunday morning so crews could begin grading the route.
Crews were still hard at work Sunday afternoon. Davis said they would continue working well into the evening.
25 YEARS AGO
March 9, 2000 — It wasn’t exactly a day at the office, but Ralph Poliak soon found himself quoting prices. As the Long Island, N.Y., resident handed out complimentary box cutters and notepads bearing Oxford Assaying’s logo, the assayer reached into his shirt pocket for the latest metal prices from New York.
Gold, which held at $291 an ounce, temporarily took a back seat on Wednesday as the 17th Biennial Conference on Alaska Mining officially got under way at the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel. Platinum, Poliak said, was up to $462.20 an ounce and palladium reached $704.70 an ounce.
“It’s been like that for the past six months,” Poliak said. “Palladium is traditionally a $90 to $100 an ounce metal.”
The explanation is rather simplistic — supply is down at a time when demand is skyrocketing. Both minerals are becoming essential in the automobile industry and used as components in catalytic converters.
Russia — the world’s chief supplier of both metals — is still finding its way through political turmoil, which has choked off the supply.
Platinum exploration efforts in Alaska were the focus of Wednesday’s afternoon session. As Tom Bundtzen began to speak, a standing room only crowd gathered in the back of the hotel’s conference room.
50 YEARS AGO
March 9, 1975 — The News-Miner archive was unavailable for this date.
75 YEARS AGO
March 9, 1950 — Barrow [Natives] visiting Fairbanks for the carnival will take to the air Friday night and Saturday afternoon in a spectacular exhibition of their native blanket tossing.
Ralph “Stormy” Shideler, carnival manager, said today he had received word from David Brower in Barrow that the villagers had all turned out to finish an oogaruk skin in time for the event and that it would arrive tomorrow on the Wien Alaska airlines plane.
The tossing “blanket” is made by sewing strips of walrus hide together. The skin is elastic and oogaruk tosses have been known to bounce as high as 30 feet.
Tommy Brower, in Fairbanks with his family for the festivities, is now organizing a group of [Natives] from Barrow and other northern villages to take part in the blanket tossing and also in the traditional native dances to be shown on the carinal rink Sunday following the parade.
100 YEARS AGO
March 9, 1925 — The News-Miner archive was unavailable for this date.