10 YEARS AGO

Sept. 8, 2000 — Fairbanks shoppers won’t have any trouble navigating around Gottschalks department store, formerly Lamonts, which opened Thursday for business in the Shoppers Forum.

“It looks the same, but it’s not,” said store manager Jeanne Sneddon.

In addition to many new brand lines and a sales staff almost doubled in size, Gottschalks merchandising procedures also are vastly different and the store is much better stocked, said Sneddon, who previously managed Lamonts.

25 YEARS AGO

Sept. 8, 1985 — Even without bullets bouncing from its windshield, K.I.T.T., the $50,000 talking car of NBC’s “Knight Rider” series, dazzled kids of all ages at the University Center mall Saturday afternoon.

Thousands of fans turned out to see and listen to the flashy black Trans-Am during the second day of its three-day display in the mall parking lot.

50 YEARS AGO

Sept. 8, 1960 — Six days ago, a plane carrying three persons left Fairbanks and headed toward the Yukon River.

Somewhere north of Fairbanks, it vanished.

In that vast wilderness, a women and two men have been swallowed up. Nothing has been heard from them since they left Saturday in a red Tri-Pacer bound for Stevens Village.

75 YEARS AGO

Sept. 8, 1935 — Painfully traveling at the rate of four miles per day, John H. Vance, Little Chena River prospector, spent a trying five days and five nights in the woods last week with a sprained ankle, going from his cabin 20 miles to the nearest occupied dwelling to get help to bring him to Fairbanks. On the walk, Vance discarded his gun to make his progress easier.