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The Hanging (1973)

Woodcut
Dale DeArmond
Unlimited Edition
Unknown proofs were produced

Print size: 14" x 18"
Image size: 11" x 13 ½"

Illustrated in the book Juneau: A Book of Woodcuts.

One of the first laws passed in Juneau prohibited shipping in or selling molasses, an essential ingredient in making the firewater, hoochinoo. Some molasses got in anyway, of course, and not all of it went into the Saturday night baked beans. Hoochinoo was made somehow and the result was Juneau's first and worst crime wave.

Two Indians bashed in the head of a white man, possibly with some reason. The two Indians were arrested along with a third who tried to help them. All three were put in jail but they escaped by overpowering and killing the guard. A man who tried to stop them was killed with an axe they had picked up along the way. One Indian was shot and the other two were caught and hanged on a scaffold erected on the beach at the foot of Seward Street. Six men dead and the vendetta stopped there, fortunately. Apparently both sides were satisfied that justice had been done.

Original price: $30.00