The Fourth of July started off with a bang at sunrise when Dennis Foley fired a salute on the anvil in front of his blacksmith shop. Later in the morning there was a parade on Front Street with Dr. F. S. Reynolds as marshal. The patriotic program took place at the Opera House at 11 a.m. with a reading of the Declaration of Independence and orations. This was followed at 1:30 p.m. by various contests on Second Street, including foot races, broad and high jump, hop skip and jump and a three-legged race.
A horse race took place on the beach near the Indian village, with three entries. ‘Pigeon-toe,’ owned by Charles Salley, won, with ‘Juneau,’Dr. Reynold’s entry, not far behind. The horse entered by Richard Blake was well in the lead when it shied near the finish and threw its rider.
There were no entries for the single or four-oared race and the sailing race was cancelled because there was not a breath of wind, but the canoe race, with six entries, was worth seeing. Each canoe had 12 paddlers. Two of them were from Metlakatla, one was from Wrangell and there were three local canoes, one Taku and two Auk. The race was about three-quarters of a mile down the channel, around a stake boat, and return. The Taku canoe, which had won in the three previous races, was in first place with one of the Metlakatla canoes in second. There were no entries for the women’s canoe race.