Wrangell's recovering economy: fishing, tourism, forestry all part of revitalization.

AuthorDobbyn, Paula
PositionECONOMY

When Carol Rushmore moved to Wrangell in 1993, the Southeast Alaska community was buzzing with business activity. Although historically dependent on natural resources--fur, gold, timber and fish--and prone to boom and bust cycles, Wrangell was vibrant at the time Rushmore was unpacking boxes.

Rushmore remembers settling into a picturesque Panhandle town of about 2,400 residents when the community's primary economic engine was churning--a sawmill that employed nearly 250 workers at its peak. Surrounded by the lush Tongass National Forest, the mill was a good place to work. It paid average wages more than 50 percent higher than most other jobs in town, according to the Alaska Department of Labor.

"When I got here, things were hopping. You couldn't get a post office box. You had to do general delivery. The housing market was unbelievably tight. Houses would sell overnight. It was a very busy place," says Rushmore, Wrangell's economic development director.

With an annual payroll in excess of $10 million, the Alaska Pulp Co. sawmill in downtown Wrangell provided about 30 percent of Wrangell's wages. Besides loggers and sawmill workers, the company indirectly employed many other people, including dozens of longshoremen.

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But a year after Rushmore took up residence the mill closed, sending shockwaves into Wrangell's economy. "We lost about hundreds of people practically overnight. Our unemployment rate shot up to over 20 percent. It was a dramatic loss and downturn for our community," she says.

Wrangell's unemployment rate in 2011 was down to 8.6 percent, and the preliminary September 2012 figures are even lower--6.9 percent. But the recovery has been slow and painful as the remote island town, about 155 miles south of Juneau, attempts to redefine itself and diversify. Still, there are many signs of life in Wrangell and indications that the economy is on the rise.

"We're heading in the right direction. Our fishing industry is strong. We've made a lot of improvements to our community infrastructure that is going to attract more visitors. We've seen nothing but opportunity for growth in our marine services sector," says Jeremy Maxand, a member of Wrangell's economic development committee and a former mayor.

There's also some hope for what's left of Wrangell's timber industry. Last fall, the U.S. Forest Service awarded three small-scale, or "micro," timber sales in the area to a small group of specialty wood-products producers in the area. In addition, there's talk of turning the former Silver Bay sawmill site, about five miles south of town, into a niche wood-projects plant.

"If we begin a real specialty wood products program here, Wrangell could be the center of it for all of Southeast Alaska," says Ron Franz, owner of Whale Bay Woods. Based in Quilcene, Wash., on the Olympic Peninsula, Franz recently opened a facility in Wrangell that turns Tongass wood into components for guitars, cellos and other musical...

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