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The Viking Swim Club continued its successful season this past weekend at the Southeast Championships in Juneau. The meet consisted of six other teams: Wrangell, Craig, Haines, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Juneau. VSC finished second, with 1144 points, 42 gold, 33 silver, and 25 bronze medals. "As a coach, I'm very happy with what I saw in the water, both with respect to the events that they swam and also how clean they swam," head coach Scott Burt said. "We had very few DQs. Incredibly happy with how...
While the total number of cruise ship visits to Petersburg will decline this summer, local tourism experts say the quality of port calls should actually increase. "I think after looking at the schedule, the numbers of port calls are down, however, the quality of port calls are high," said James Valentine, co-owner of Viking Travel. Petersburg will welcome 87 cruise ship visits in 2025, down from 104 the previous year. However, Valentine notes that many of last year's visits came at times when to...
Petersburg seventh-grade swimmer Tori Miller competed in the 2025 Northwest Age Group Championships from March 20-23, in Boise, Idaho. The meet consisted of over 600 swimmers, 68 teams across seven states, including Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Miller competed in six events and exhibited a stellar performance throughout the meet. In Girl's 12 Age Group, Miller placed six out eight in the 50-yard freestyle, with a final time of 26 seconds; sixth in the 50-yard...
The Petersburg Lady Vikings entered the regional tournament as the #5 seed, with their first game against the #4 seed, Wrangell Lady Wolves. The Lady Vikings got off to a slow start – facing a 14-6 deficit at the end of the first quarter. However, the Lady Vikings were able to go on an 11-4 run to pull within 18-17 at halftime. "I felt like Wrangell had the advantage in the first and then we had the advantage in the second quarter," head coach Matt Pawuk said. "I was pretty happy with where we w...
Budgets are tight for some schools in Alaska again this year, but in Petersburg, the borough budget is also tight. Borough officials are saying it’s going to be tough to get the Petersburg School District the local funding school officials say they desperately need. Last year the Petersburg borough’s budget was nearly $400 thousand dollars in the hole. At an assembly work session with the school board on February 6, Borough Manager Steve Geisbrecht said there will likely be similar problems this year. “I try not to be a downer at every meeting...
The Viking Swim Club continued their strong season, making waves at the 2025 Alaska Age Group Championships, in Anchorage. 22 teams from across Alaska participated in this meet. VSC finished fourth overall. The VSC Club has continued to improve throughout the season. "I've been impressed with the growth both as a team and individually. Across the board, all swimmers are showing improvement whether it be times, sportsmanship, competitiveness and technique," head coach Scott Burtt said. "We've...
The Southeast island community of Petersburg held a town hall meeting on Feb. 10 to discuss the future of tourism in "Alaska's Little Norway." The borough is considering a potential partnership with a small cruise ship company and may see more tourists in coming years. While the conversation welcomed ideas related to tourism in general -like emergency services, trails and public restrooms- much of the discussion pertained to increasing tourism, especially from cruise ships, and what that means...
After losing to the Metlakatla Chiefs during the 2A Conference Clash, the Petersburg Vikings looked to change their fortunes on their home court. The Chiefs started Friday's game by hitting four threes and leading 19-6 at the end of the first. By halftime, the Vikings were down 38-22. "We were making life a little bit too easy for them to score, we weren't challenging them at the rim – we just kind of let them score," head coach Rick Brock said. In the third, the Chiefs offense continued to r...
Returning to games after a small break in the action, the Peterburg Lady Vikings sought to start faster with their first attempt against the Hooper Bay Warriors, during the 2A Conference Clash in Anchorage. Unfortunately, turnovers plagued the Lady Vikings as they got down 17-2 midway through the second quarter. In the first half, the Lady Warriors hit three threes. “It’s been a common theme for us this year unfortunately is getting off to a slow start. Offensively, we’ve struggled a little bit playing against zone defenses this year, so I thin...
January 23, 1925 – The Petersburg Harbor, which is unusually well protected and generally very calm, on Monday night, January 19th, witnessed the worst storm in twelve years. The San Juan and another gas boat were torn from their mooring and washed ashore. The Belle, owned by S.D. Charles, got afoul of a broken piling, filled with water and sank at the float. A great many boats were mightily damaged from pounding against one another as the floats were crowded with boats. Although the storm lasted but two hours, it was so severe for awhile t...
Looking to end their four-game losing streak, the Petersburg Vikings had their first shot against the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears JV squad who were stepping up to participate in the varsity tournament hosted in Petersburg last weekend. The Vikings jumped out to a 13-5 lead at the end of the first and went on a 9-4 run in the second, holding a 22-12 advantage at halftime. "Some of the things that we've been talking about, we were finding success and as we found success, we started to believe in...
New Year, new ideas To the Editor: It’s a new year, and it’s time for some new ideas. I’m an artist so I always have ideas. I love Petersburg – but sometimes I think there is a tendency to dwell in the past. Japanese buyers are no longer paying a premium for everything we catch. Maximizing fish production is not the golden ticket anymore. As a remote Alaskan community, we should be thinking hard about how we can offer value to the world. Official charts predict population decline here. It’s not hard to become a ghost town (hint: there’s a...
The Petersburg Vikings were host to their rival the Wrangell Wolves during homecoming weekend. The Vikings started faster in game one, feeding off the home crowd's energy. With 2:10 left in the first, the Vikings had an early 10-7 lead. Then, the Wolves ended the quarter on a 5-1 run to take a 12-11 lead. The game would continue to go back and forth in the second until multiple Vikings turnovers turned into a 7-0 Wolves run to take a 21-15 lead with 3:53 left until halftime. The Vikings were...
Heading into their first road and conference games this past weekend against Craig, the Vikings looked to carry their momentum after their win against Sitka. Much like their first matchup against Sitka, the Vikings were plagued by a slow start, falling 11-4 in the first quarter. "I think our confidence in ourselves is not as high as it should be. When you play somebody who believes in themselves – both scenarios we got down right away in double figures and that kinda held throughout the rest of...
January 2024 A prized Mental Health Trust lot by Blind River Rapids, a popular recreation site for sport fishing, was sold at auction to a USCG family. Toler and Jessie Alexander are eager to return to Petersburg after retiring from the Coast Guard in a few years. The borough listed its top priority capital projects, and the Petersburg Medical Center replacement was first and second on the list – for the main hospital construction and the main hospital interior build out. Petersburg Indian A...
December 26, 1924 – Petersburg is to celebrate the completion of the Hydro Electric project. A committee of which Harold Dawes is the chairman was named at the Commercial Club meeting Monday evening to arrange details. Secretary C. Clausen was instructed to write Governor Bone and invite him to attend or send a representative, if unable to attend, or at least to “officially switch on the juice at Juneau.” The Governor will be apprised later of the exact date and hour the new plant at Blind Slough will be hooked up to the town of Peter...
Petersburg high school wrestling seniors Angus Olsen and Kaden Duke played their final high school wrestling matches at the ASAA DII Championships. While neither of them reached their ultimate goal of winning state in their respective weight classes, both wrestlers left it all out on the mat. "Both of them unfortunately did fall short but I am unbelievably proud of them for the four years that I've had with them and the amount of growth and the time and effort they put in and it's been great...
A season after they lost at regions and several seniors to graduation, the Lady Vikings enter 2024 with excitement. Heading into his second season as head coach of the Vikings, coach Matt Pawuk is looking to hit the ground running. "What I'm excited about for this year is that we were able to put in a lot of things last year, a lot of it was new to the team and this year, a lot of that is going to be review so we'll be able to build from the foundation that we started creating last year," Pawuk...
The Viking Swim Club put on a swimming clinic in front of their home crowd during the annual November Rain which could not have been made possible without the help of volunteers coordinating the meet. November Rain was the second meet of the year for VSC but it was a good opportunity to see where the team stood against other schools such as Craig, Wrangell, Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka. "What I want to see in the water is improvement in technique, especially for our younger swimmers," head coach...
Over the past weekend, Petersburg hosted the 2024 Middle School Basketball Stikine Tournament. Klawock, Craig and Wrangell participated in this tournament. There were two divisions, with Boys and Girls A and B brackets. This tournament consisted of 99 players and 23 [Viking] cheerleaders. "We ended up pulling off 25 games. We had 16 pool play games and nine championship bracket games," Petersburg Athletic Director Jaime Cabral said. The Stikine Tournament has been rotating every year between Cra...
In only her freshman season, Petersburg swimmer Lexie Tow swam her way to the top and brought home a state championship title in the Girl's 100-Yard Breaststroke on Saturday. With her title, Tow became just the second female swimmer in Viking history to win an individual state title, with Abbey Jackson winning in 2004. Tow entered the state meet as the number one seed in the Girl's 100-Yard Breaststroke but knew she had to finish the job. "I knew I could win but I knew that I had to push a lot...
November 14, 1924 – There is reason to believe there may be a slumbering volcano only a few miles from Petersburg in the vicinity of La Conte glacier. Smoke has been seen issuing from there by several parties during the clear, cold weather that has prevailed during the past two weeks. Ed Preuschoff, the fox rancher, had been told about smoke having been seen but put it down to fog or mist. However on coming to town last Monday he saw a spiral column of black smoke issuing from what he took to be one of the Sisters mountains in the vicinity o...
For the first time in program history, the PHS Boys and Girls Cross Country teams are both the ASAA State Champions for Division III. "It's a special and historic day – I'm so happy for the kids, they earned it ... they've been consistent and worked hard every day," Head Coach Casey Gates said. Last season, the PHS boys cross country team finished third, behind Cordova and Wrangell. This year, the Vikings were able to beat Wrangell and claim their spot on top. The team was led by junior Gaje V...
The Petersburg Pilot and KFSK teamed up to present a two hour long candidates forum on Thursday, September 12. All five candidates for Petersburg Borough Assembly were given one minute each to answer questions on topics ranging from EMS volunteer recruitment, to bears in the garbage, the future of tourism in Petersburg, and a whole lot more. Thomas Fine-Walsh Candidate Opening Statements: My name is Thomas Fine-Walsh. I was born and raised here in Petersburg, and I've had the honor of serving...
May 23, 1924 – The first Fordson tractor for Farragut Bay for J.O. Wallace pioneer rancher there, arrived this week from the outside. Mr. Wallace took the first horse to Farragut Bay two years ago and the animal has grazed its own livelihood the past two winters. Farragut Bay is similar to many other bays and inlets in Southeastern Alaska, with marsh, meadow and tidelands at the head, consisting of rich soil and which will someday support a considerable farming population alone. Several ranchers have located there. The Forest Service has b...
