McCarthy celebrates independence

WRANGELL ST. ELIAS NEWS JULY & AUGUST 2013 PAGE 1

As the floatswere stagingnext to the

McCarthy Museum,crowds lined the mainstreet of the town,awaiting the opening offestivities commemo-rating the birth of ournation.

Sticking with tradi-tion, the KennecottAvenue Marching Bandwas at the forefront ofthe parade. Theystopped in front of thecrowd and played aspirited rendition of the Na-tional Anthem.

What is a parade without children?The appropriately small “McCarthyKiddos” float was sandwiched amongmuch larger fire trucks and loggingvehicles. The fun level of this groupwas anything but small, though!

Vol. Twenty-Two Issue Four July & August 2013 $2.50“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”

Wrangell St. Elias News

www.wsen.net

McCarthy celebrates independence

All photos WSEN staff

WRANGELL ST. ELIAS NEWS JULY & AUGUST 2013

A note from the publisher

Today is July 12th and Mc-Carthy folks are experi-encing another of those

hot, summer days. The high temper-ature today peaked at 80 degrees.We are seeing record temperaturesthis summer. On June 25th the ther-mometer “finally” stopped at 90degrees. After a long, cold winterand very little spring weather, Mc-Carthy leaped into summer for allits worth! McCarthy Center, ourlocal grocery store, is pumping outthe ice cream cones.

As you can see, we are late ingetting this issue to the printingstage. If you are reading this,you know we made it. Our B & Bis doing very well this summerbringing many wonderful guestsour way. The “busyness,” howev-er, has put the WSEN on theback shelf. Most of our reader-ship is very patient with our tar-diness, except for subscriberCarol Michal who usually callsand reminds us she is waiting forher next issue. She misses herMcCarthy area friends and lovesreading about them.

Another subscriber, DavidAdams, surprised me, along withmany other McCarthy ladies, bygiving us “sun and bug bonnets.”These are no ordinary bonnets.Each hat was especially tailoredto each lady. The hats came withcolorful netting that could be letdown to cover the face for pro-tection against the pesky mos-quitoes that invaded our littletown this summer. Thank you somuch, David and daughter Dena-li for your kindness and specialtouch to bring a smile to theladies of McCarthy. (By the way,

McCarthy Center has a selectionfor sale, if you want one!)

Our Alaska guests tell us themosquitoes are just as bad intheir neck-of-the-woods. I amthankful to report that they havelessened in the last week. Maybeour reprieve is on the way!

Rick and I enjoy the notesour subscribers write. I hadhoped to print some of them butwe ran out of room. Irma Haa-land is a Kennicott Kid. She isnow 93 and still reading the WS-EN. “Those childhood memoriesin Kennicott including Fourth ofJuly’s in McCarthy, are more viv-id the older I get.” Interestingly,Irma celebrated her 90th birth-day riding the Costa Rica ZipLine! Irma, I thought you mightwant to know that McCarthy nowhas its own Zip Line owned andoperated by Fred and Ann Dure.You might want to consider cele-

brating your 94th doing Alaska’sBoreal Canopy Adventures.

Another subscriber, CharlieBranch, sent a newspaper clip-ping from his hometown paperin Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. JamieEsler (brother of Jason Esler)and his wife Mandy are well-known in McCarthy. He wasnamed the Coeur d’Alene SchoolDistrict’s Teacher of the Year.He will represent the school dis-trict in the Idaho Teacher of theYear contest this fall. We wishyou well, Jamie, and thanksCharlie for the news.

WSEN welcomes aboard thefollowing subscribers: J.C. andKatherine Scott, OK; Julie Ny-holm, AK; Sharon Lain, AK; andMike Murphy, AK.

Table of ContentsMcCarthy celebrates independence..................................................................1A note from the publisher...................................................................................2Items of Interest.................................................................................................3Alaska Grown-1980 continued...........................................................................6Budworms and Warblers...................................................................................7Kennecott Recreation Hall lease enables continued community use................8McCarthy celebrates Independence Day (continued from cover)......................9How the conservationist “Saved” Alaska.........................................................10Does History Really Repeat itself?..................................................................10Looking back in time at the world's oceans.....................................................18USDA annouces rural grower subsidies..........................................................19Open Fire Ban Lifted .......................................................................................19Crowley’s Tugboat receives recognition..........................................................22Subsistence hunting permits available ...........................................................22Cooking with Peggy.........................................................................................28A LOOK AT THE WEATHER...........................................................................29Lightning starts fires in WRST.........................................................................30


Wrangell St. Elias News (USPS 011301) VOL. Twenty-Two, Issue Four, July & August 2013.Published every two months at McCarthy, Alaska. McCarthy, PO Box MXY, Glennallen, AK 99588-8998.

Phone (907) 554-4454. FAX 1-866-487-7657. E-mail: [email protected]. “Copyright © 2013 byWrangell St. Elias News. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the express

permission of the publishers.”Contributors to this issue: Peggy Guntis, George Cebula, Mark Vail and Rick Kenyon Jr. Subscription priceis $14 for one year in the USA. Canada $16. Other countries $23. Advertising rates upon request. Deadline

for publication in next issue is August 15.PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT GLENNALLEN, AK. 99588.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wrangell St. Elias News, McCarthy #42, PO Box MXY,Glennallen AK 99588-8998.

Items of InterestNik and Gina Merlino and

family: The summer season is wellon its way for the Merlinos. In fact,I don’t usually see Nik except whenI pass him on the road, or when hecomes for propane. He and Ginaare nearby neighbors but oncetheir rafting business—McCarthyRiver Tours & Outfitters— begins,they are on the go, usually hurtlingdown the Kennicott River.

Nik made a quick stop at ourplace this week to have a propanetank filled. That gave me a goodopportunity to see what news wastaking place in his neck-of-the-woods.

The first item he shared was heand Gina’s wedding in January—naturally, while on a raft trip! “Gi-na is the brains of the operation!”said Nik. They have two guides andone more expected to help fill outthis season’s business venture. TheMerlinos specialize in ½ day, fullday and multi day river expeditionsin the Wrangell-St. Elias NationalPark.

Gina’s daughter, Cassidy, 11,wants to be a river guide and a dogwhisperer, says Nik. She loves tosketch dogs and has started herown business venture—a dog sitterand walker.

Cassidy’s brother, Dylan, is 9and he, too, is in business for him-self. He is offering to do yard work.

My ears perked up at this one. Weno longer have a dog, but we dohave a yard that needs quite a lot ofattention these days.

Congratulations, Nik and Gina,on your marriage and welcome tothe neighborhood, Cassidy and Dy-lan!

Patti Pollizzo: Writing about abusy summer season, made methink of Patti. After spending herfirst winter in McCarthy, she hasbegun her second year working forMcCarthy Lodge. She is the manag-er for Ma Johnson’s Hotel whichkeeps her slate quite full. However,when she isn’t at the lobby’s frontcounter, you probably will find herat the lodge’s greenhouse.

“Whew! After thinking thesnow would never melt, we got thegreenhouse planted and all theflower beds, too. Of course, nowwith the heat, we are watering twoor three times a day. It’s worth itthough! Our chef loves having thefresh herbs and edible flowers forhis dishes, and the rest of us alllove the color and beauty the flow-ers bring on McCarthy’s mainstreet.”

I’m sure the visitors enjoy yourhandiwork, Patti, but so do we lo-cals! Keep up the good work, butdon’t forget to take the time tosmell those flowers you planted.

John and Barbara Rice andMarcheta Long: Marcheta and Bar-

bara, and dog Clark, drove theRice’s camper van to McCarthy thisyear, arriving the second week ofMay in a snow storm! John got thebetter deal, I think. He flew up theweek before, arriving in McCarthyon the mail plane.

When he arrived, he found hishouse already occupied. Sonny As-bury and Dian Cook, with theirthree dogs, had made the longdrive north from their winter quar-ters in Texas. Due to a late springbreak-up this year, Sonny and Diancouldn’t get to their home on theother side of McCarthy Creek untilright before Barbara and Marchetaarrived.

Once the snow melted everyonegot into their summer routines.Barbara is working part-time at Mc-Carthy Center store, gardening andplanting her favorite flowers aroundtheir summer home. She also takesgreat pleasure in cooking up deli-cious meals for John and the Sun-day luncheons at the McCarthyCommunity Church.

John is working on the houseand cutting firewood for next year.In his spare time, he works at theMcCarthy-Kennicott Historical Mu-seum, upgrading the museum’stechnology. With the help of agrant from the Rasmuson Founda-tion, the Museum has been able topurchase a new computer and soft-ware. John says this will enable

them to digitize their inventorylists and eventually scan and storeimages of all their pictures andmanuscripts. In addition, he saysthe Museum has purchased a TVand DVD player, a small cameraand a video camera to enable themto present historical entertainmentand, hopefully, capture interviewsand presentations as the occasionarises. Thanks for all your volunteerwork, John. It is greatly appreciat-ed!

Marcheta has assumed the posi-tion of manager of the MountainArts Gift Shop in downtown McCa-rthy and spends much of her offtime walking to and from work. Sheloves to walk (unless she meets abear or an inquisitive moose!). OnSundays, Marcheta assists me withthe music at church, playing key-board.

The Rices are presently hostingtheir friends, Bea and Dom fromBelgium. Many years ago, Bea was aforeign exchange student, livingwith John and Barbara. They havemaintained a friendship ever since.I’m sure the Rices will show Beaand Dom the many sights of McCa-rthy and Kennicott.

Sonny Asbury and Dian Cook:Sonny and Dian finally got home totheir cabin on the far side of McCa-rthy Creek. It didn’t take themlong to settle in for the summerseason. Out came the paint brushesfor Dian and Sonny got busy tuningup their 4 wheelers. Of course, allthis didn’t happen until the wintersnow was melted and the warm,summer weather rolled in.

The outside and inside of theircabin is taking on a new look. Alettuce garden is producing saladmakings, says Dian. The major hur-dle this year is the battle with themosquitoes. Keeping them off herpaint brush is a challenge, but sherefuses to give up.

Sonny’s job as a shuttle driverbetween McCarthy and Kennicottbegan in early June. Dian enjoys

reading during her quiet hours.Now that she has received propertraining on a 4 wheeler, she is ableto venture out by herself and joinSonny for lunch and even meet upwith a few of the ladies for an icecream cone at the store.

Welcome back, Sonny and Di-an!

McCarthy-Kennicott Museumnews: Since John Rice broachedthe subject of the museum, hereare a few updates from SunnyCook, the museum president.“Things are going very well at themuseum. The new Caretaker, Shan-non Robel, is working out wonder-fully, working together with JohnRice to get all of our technologyequipment up and running. Wehave actually entered the 21st cen-tury with the help of the RasmusonFoundation. We are looking for-ward to a presentation by KatieRingsmuth on Saturday, July 27th,‘How Two Failed Bremner MinersHelped Build an Aviation Empire.’Katie packed the house last yearwith her presentation on the Rado-vans.

“We also plan a more casual-than-usual John Denver event atthe museum, a reading or two fromthe Ted Lambert book, and a bookreading by Tom Kizzia’s “Pilgrim’sWilderness.” Tom’s reading will beheld at the Kennecott RecreationHall in Kennecott on August 16th.We have ordered a good number ofautographed copies to be sold atthe museum.

“Everyone watch the local bul-letin boards, email for more specif-ic information or, by all means,please come by the museum forfurther details on our summerevents.”

Jim and Peggy Guntis: Othersummer arrivals were the Guntis’from Tucson, Arizona. They are al-ways glad to escape the heat of thedesert. However, this year theywalked right into record-breakingtemperatures in McCarthy! One day

our high was 90 degrees. Peggythought she was back in Tucson.

Jim and Peggy arrived May 13th.Daughter Kim, husband, Richard,and their son Robbie came outfrom Homer, just in time to cele-brate Kim’s birthday on May 27th.The Frosts stayed for 8 days.

While they were here Kim, Peg-gy and Robbie relaxed, went to mailand sampled ice cream at the storewhile visiting neighbors. Kim wasable to see old friends she hadn’tseen in some time. On mail daysRobbie had the time of his lifewatching the airplanes land andtake off at the McCarthy airstrip.This year the mail pilot let Robbiesit inside the plane, and, for thefirst time, he was able to get in linewith everyone else to help carrypackages from the plane to the lit-tle mail building. “I watched thepilot and he always looked to see ifRobbie was coming for ‘his’ pack-age. He made sure an appropriate-ly-sized parcel was waiting for hislittle helper,” says Peggy.

While the ladies and Robbieplayed, visited and relaxed, theguys, Jim and Richard, busilyworked on their new pet projectthat Jim calls the “quad barn.”Peggy describes it as a “roofedstructure about 12' x 30' that has abreathtaking view where Jim canpark the quads (4 wheelers tosome) or have his outdoor work-shop. Who knows, one of these dayshe may start asking me to bring hismeals out there!”

Jim’s outdoor projects are mak-ing him vulnerable to the hoards ofmosquitoes McCarthy area folks areexperiencing this year. Peggy staysready to use the good ole’ bug zap-per when Jim comes inside thehouse. Not on Jim—just the mos-quitoes that come in with him.

The Guntis’ are planning a tripto Homer this summer to help Kimbabysit Robbie , assist Richard onsome solar projects and go halibutfishing. In the meantime, when she

PAGE 4 WRANGELL ST. ELIAS NEWS MARCH & APRIL 2013


isn’t cooking Jim one of his favoritedishes, she can be found reading agood book or working her sudukopuzzles.

Bob and Sunny Cook: TheCooks are back in the neighbor-hood at their summer cabin on thefar side of McCarthy Creek. “Boband I have already been in townmore than a month, busily workingaway on the inside of our cabin,finishing the new sun room off thesouth side of the house,” says Sun-ny. “It’s finished enough that wecan fully enjoy sitting in it—per-haps one day we will even be able tothink on summer time in Alaska asa vacation? But, I’m not holding mybreath! Next comes the outsidedeck so the step into the sunroomis not quite so steep.”

Bob continues to drive a shut-tle van a couple days a week forMcCarthy-Kennicott Shuttle, andSunny continues to hold forth atthe museum one day a week and onthe telephone and email.

Daughter Nancy and grand-daughter Izi are on their way toMcCarthy as I write. Sunny says sheis hoping the mosquitoes will begone by then. I couldn’t agreemore, Sunny!

Stacie Miller and Peter Macha-do: Pete has visited us several timesfor propane since mid-June whenTailor Made Pizza 2 opened for theseason. Talk about two busy folks!Thankfully, Karen Clark, a friend ofStacie’s, has jumped aboard thepizza bus to give Stacie and Pete ahelping hand.

We mail sorters are missingStacie’s assistance on mail days,but with the bus open from 7 am to7 pm, seven days a week, there isn’tmuch spare time for Stacie to leaveher Kennicott post for McCarthy’smail shack.

I’m hearing all kinds of goodreports from folks who have sam-pled the variety of pizzas, wraps,and Expresso drinks. The pastries

and desserts that Stacie is puttingout this year is an added bonus.

Congratulations, Stacie, Peteand Karen on a job well done!

Mark Vail: Mark is back from atrip back east to memorialize hisaunt’s passing. He was excited tosee some family members he hadn’tseen for 40 years. It was a fine gath-ering, he said. His aunt had a horti-cultural degree who workeddiligently in commercial blueberrypropagation. No wonder Mark has agreen thumb! Besides sharing histransplants (I gleaned celery andparsley this year) with many of usMcCarthyites, he helps WrangellMountain Center plant and overseetheir yearly garden. His homegrown lettuce can often be foundon a Glacier Burger at Glacier ViewCampground/Grill and on a burgerat The Potato.

This year his own garden areahas grown to include what used tobe Carol Michals’ garden plot.When I called him a couple weeksago, his first comment was, “I wishit would rain!” His water line thathe uses to irrigate the new plot,needs tweaking. The source is anearby swamp. Normally, that isn’ta problem, but this year the mos-quitoes are fierce. Mark is notlooking forward to the project.

His neighborhood is a quietarea with very few visitors—unlessyou discover the sighting of a rarebird. Recently Mark identified aCape May Warbler near his proper-ty, posted it on Facebook, and,well, you can only guess what oc-curred. By the time I called, Markhad already hosted 5 “Birders.”Some traveled 700 miles round tripto spend 1 ½ hours viewing thisspecial warbler. I won’t go into anymore details in this item sinceMark has written an account of thisevent. Be sure to read it on page 7.

Mail Shack Update: This is tolet users of McCarthy’s mail shackknow that you may notice severalchanges occurring this summer.

Many mail boxes are receiving newlabels and the wall display contain-ing updated names/boxes has tak-en on a new look. We hope thishelps the mail sorters locate peo-ple’s boxes quicker and with lessmissorts.

If your mail box label is not cor-rect, please feel free to make anote of correction or addition onthe provided sheet below the walllist. There is also a list with a fewavailable mail boxes. If you needone, please choose a number onthe list and call Bonnie Kenyon at554-1194. Trig Trigiano is makingdividers for a few of the larger box-es where the present owners aregraciously willing to share theirspace. This will provide severalmore available mail boxes.

We certainly appreciate all thepast work done by folks such as Au-drey Edwards, Neil Darish andGeorge Cebula. Their labors aremaking it much easier to make thepresent upgrades!

Volunteer medical/fire re-sponse update: This year there is a24-hour phone number to call forEmergency Medical and Fire re-sponse—554-1240. The phone willbe answered all hours, ready to dis-patch the appropriate emergencyresponse.

There is a need for communitymembers to volunteer with the Mc-Carthy EMS. Taking shifts with theEMS phone, driving the ambulance,etc. You do not need medical train-ing to help! If you would like tohelp the local EMS in some way,contact Jacob Shultz at 503-860-3040.

The McCarthy EMS is havinggeneral training days this summerto help people become familiarwith the equipment, etc. The train-ing will happen on the evenings ofJuly 22nd, August 12th and August26th at locations to be announced.


It wasn't long before Mom,Grampa, Grammy and Ipacked the Monaco moto-

rhome and headed south towardsMableton, Georgia. Uncle Ron'swedding was to take place in afew days and we arrived in plentyof time. Mom stayed with Grand-ma Neta while Grampa, Grammyand I continued south to Venice.We stayed there a few days thendrove back north to Michigan.This time we spent a few days inMt. Morris at Uncle Jim and AuntAlice's home. It was a nice familyreunion with aunts and unclesand cousins. (Aunt Alice wasGrampa Carl's sister.) Grammy'sfamily lived close by in Holly andthere was time to visit her twosisters and their families as well.

After three or four days, wecontinued our journey northwardto Perch Lake, in the Upper Pen-insula of Michigan. We arrived tofind the cabin just as we left itseveral weeks previously. Thesummer days were warm and hot.Grammy had plenty of "projects"for Grampa and me to work on!One project was an outdoor fire-place with rocks and concrete.Another was a small garden witha fence to keep small crittersout. One day we saw a black bearmeandering through the backyard by the clothes line. Grammywas not impressed to say theleast!

Several times we drove downthe county roads in search ofmushrooms that grew on trees.Grammy would pry them off thetrunks and draw pictures on thewhite part of the mushroom.Grampa and I would keep a sharpeye out for bears and poison ivy.

One day I decided that learn-ing to swim would be a goodthing for a twelve-year old toknow. After talking it over withGrampa, he agreed to teach mehow. We drove to a pond nearbyand he showed me how to do the“dog paddle.” Within a shortwhile, I was swimming! (Yearsbefore, I had taken swimminglessons, but was afraid of drown-ing and never learned how toswim.) This was a real break-through for me and came at agood time in my life.

Dad's surveying job was overand he and Sam made it back toMcCarthy. (They had used a por-table building at Fidalgo Bay andHarley King was able to secure itand have it brought to our place.It was erected in the back yard toreplace the old army hut thatDad used to work on the Kings'Super Cub plane. This new “hut”had a bright blue cover and waslarger and more insulated.) Our

cabin was in good shape and allwas well at the homestead.

Dad drove to Anchorage andleft Sam at a kennel before flyingdown to Daytona Beach to joinMom at Grandma Neta's home.After a week or so there, Dad andMom boarded a bus headed forMichigan. Grampa, Grammy andI met them at the bus station ina nearby town a few miles fromthe cabin at Perch Lake. We weredismayed to discover the luggagewas not on the bus when theyarrived and it would take a fewdays to get it. I was happy to seethe folks after a summer's break.

Grampa Carl gave us the1968 red Chevy pickup to driveback to Alaska. Dad bought acamper that fit in the truck'sbed. Some work was done on thesprings to allow for the extraweight of the camper before weset off for home. After we bidfarewell to Grampa and Grammy,the three of us left Michigan anddrove through Wisconsin towards

Alaska Grown-1980 continued


June 7th I was in thegarden plantingstarts when I heard a

new birdsong. I looked up to seea small bird singing from a deadsnag. I went for the binocularson the bench outside the green-house and got them focused onthe bird just as it departed forparts unknown. I saw a few keymarkers to look up in my birdbook when I got home. It wasbright yellow underneath withdark streakingacross the breastand flanks, and ithad a dark eyeline and I saw aflash of orangeas he flew off.

At home thebird I presumedit to be showedcompletely dif-ferent in thefield guide. NowI was perplexed. With just theshort viewing opportunity and anunfamiliar song to guide me, Ithought I would never know whothe foreign visitor was.

The next day Irelocated the birdnot far away, againby the unfamiliarsong. This time,though, I couldn'tspot him in the tallspruce trees wherehe repeatedly sang“seet, seet, seet,seet, seet” in rapidsuccession. Just then a neighborthat is also a birder arrived in thearea and I told him of the un-

identified singer.Over the next

few days we bothtried to locateand identify thebird. His size toldme he was likelya warbler. Thefield guide gaveme a few optionsbut without abetter look itwas going to be

hard to define. My neighbor got agood look the same day that Ibrought my guides over to gothrough and try to define thisbird by elimination. I alsobrought my camera in hopes of

slowing him down in digital for-mat so I could get a long look athim even if he flew off to anothersinging post in a distant spruce.My friend declared that hethought it was a Cape May War-bler (Setophaga tigrina). He’dseen the russet cheek patch thatshowed as orange when I’d seenhim that first time. So I flippedto that page in the guide andfound his picture. Yes, he wasbright yellow, had breast streak-ing and the orange cheek patch.I agreed that must be it, but thebook gave his range as onlyreaching Saskatchewan on thelower border of the NorthwestTerritories. That is a long wayout of range.

My other birder friends wouldquestion my veracity if I just said

Budworms and Warblers

Canada. I remember seeing thesun flower fields along the high-way in Wisconsin. We evenstopped at a road-side vegetablestand and bought a few items,including local-made cheese. Itwas delicious.

The trip through Canada waslong but uneventful. For the sec-ond time, we drove the AlcanHighway all the way to Tok, Alas-ka. Once inside Alaska, we head-ed to Anchorage. There wepicked up Sam who was over-joyed to see us again! Supplies

were purchased and the little redtruck headed to its new home inMcCarthy. We stopped in Glen-nallen to pick up my schoolbooks and supplies.

It was good to pull up in ouryard at the cabin after beinggone most of the summer. Thegrass in our yard was knee high.Fall was on the way and soon thefamiliar signs of it were appar-ent. I was happy to be sleeping inmy own bed and Sam was thrilledto be back in his “kingdom.” Weunloaded the camper off the

truck and put it down by theshop. Dad got busy again on theSuper Cub project and built a“jig” to rebuild the fuselage. Nowwith the new building to work in,there was more room to work ona wing and fuselage at the sametime. It was a slow, tedious pro-cess yet rewarding to see theplane come to shape.

We had a wonderful summerand a lot was accomplished. Nowit was time to get back to bushliving and to prepare for anotherlong winter.

Photo courtesy Shirley Hannah

Spruce budworm

Photo courtesy the author


I’d seen this exotic visitor. Ineeded photographic proof. Sooff I went with my eye to the skyand my ears tuned for his dis-tinct call. Oh, but not before Iread the description in theguide, where further info waspiling up in favor of the CapeMay Warbler.

It seems this denizen of theboreal forest of central and east-ern Canada had a close connec-tion with the Spruce Bud Worm.There is an ongoing outbreak ofBudworms this summer in partsof the spruce forest.

I had first noted the SpruceBudworm (Choristoneura Orae),one of many bud worm species,about six years ago when I washiking into the Nizina RiverGorge below my home here atFireweed Mountain.

Hiking down the bluff Ipassed through a forest of an-cient spruce trees that were fes-tooned with inch-long reddishworms hanging from silkenthreads. I’d never seen them be-fore that time and when I gothome I looked them up in a fieldguide of insects.

The worm is the larval stageof a small moth. It is one of the

most destructive insects to thespruce and fir forests of easternand central Canada. Hmm, thatmatches the bird’s known range.Further reading led to informa-tion that weather played a partin these outbreaks. Our warmer,drier springs are allowing out-breaks to occur further west andnorth over the past few decadesinflicting its spruce stunting eat-ing habits on the spruce forestsof Alaska. There have been out-breaks in the Yukon and TananaRiver drainages.

They are known to have a for-ty year recurrence in eastern for-ests exploding to huge numberswith devastating harm killinglarge numbers of trees beforedying back to their backgroundnumbers and having little effecton the forest for another fortyyears. The forest records showtheir presence going back hun-dreds if not thousands of years inthe east.

It wasn’t long after I first sawbudworms that I recorded myfirst Tennessee Warbler, anotherknown predator to the budworm. That year observers sawthree or more times the numbersof Tennessee warblers across the

affected areas of the spruce for-ests. So now we have a secondchampion of the spruce forest toour aid—the visiting Cape MayWarbler. A bird surveyor alongthe McCarthy Road also spotteda Cape May Warbler but it wasthirty miles further down theroad. He also noted three Ten-nessee warblers in his survey.

After almost an hour of flash-ing through the forest and sing-ing from hidden perches, thebird appeared just above headlevel right in front of me at tenyards, quiet now and preeninghis feathers. I was able to get adefinitive photo. When I postedthe picture to my Facebook ac-count, I was immediately queriedif it was still there. For it seemsin the world of birding that myback yard find was only about thetwelfth time this bird was seen inthe state. Since then I have host-ed a number of serious birdersthat drove great distances to seethis seldom visitor and add himto their list. Now I am watchingto see if he has a mate and ifthey are nesting which would bea first for the state. I’m off nowto watch my new worm-eatingneighbor.

Kennecott Recreation Hall lease enables continuedcommunity use

After three years oftalks to overcome asuccession of adminis-

trative challenges, the WrangellMountains Center (WMC) is hap-py to announce the June 20 sig-nature of a 5-year lease of theKennecott Recreation Hall fromthe National Park Service.

The WMC pursued the leasespecifically to facilitate on-goinguse of the Recreation Hall con-sistent with historic use, long-standing contemporarycommunity interest, and theoriginal partnership model un-derlying NPS acquisition of Ken-necott.

The lease also relieves thepublic from having to seek one

or more NPS permits for individ-ual events.

The historic Kennecott Rec-reation Hall has long been local-ly used for a variety of activitiesand, more recently, also for con-ferences, weddings, educationalprograms, community events,exhibits, concerts, children’sprograms, and receptions. It of-fers 1,800 square feet of well-lit


McCarthy celebrates Independence Day (continued from cover)

WSEN staff photo

Perhaps one of the largest entries in the paradewas David Rowland’s. David was driving a beautifulKenworth truck with his new sawmill busily makinglumber on the bed.Blackburn Logging and Milling is the name of Da-vid’s enterprise.

WSEN staff photo

Undoubtedly the smallest entry this year was KaylinMoffit’s radio-controlled off-road vehicle, called aTraxxas Summit.Kaylin is another of the McCarthy area’s young entre-preneurs. His new company is called -60RC. If youare interested in RC modeling, give him a call!

space for up to 200 people, over-looking the Kennicott Glacierand within the Kennecott MinesNational Historic Landmark.

In the 1990s, the non-profitgroup Friends of Kennicott andthe NPS worked together to re-store the deteriorated building.After restoration, communityuses were initially managed bythe Friends group under a sim-ple cooperative agreement. Be-cause it has staff to handlescheduling and administration,that management is now in thehands of the WMC.

To continue with marketingand revenue-generation to off-setadministrative costs, the NPSrequired the WMC to secure a

lease. The annual, seasonal leaseruns May 15 through September15.

The new Recreation Halllease includes a number of re-quirements including liabilityinsurance, rent, payment of utili-ties, and daily up-keep. Hencethe long-term success of theleasing arrangement is depen-dent on attracting enough use toeventually cover our direct costs.

To help subsidize lower costcommunity uses like classes,community potlucks, and localperformance art, we will be ac-tively marketing the RecreationHall for weddings, corporate re-treats, etc., which we hope will

bring in additional “outside” rev-enue.

Our fee schedule will be re-evaluated periodically as we gainexperience with operating costs.Our dual goals are to increasevolume of use so we can lowerper-event prices.

To reserve the RecreationHall or find out more aboutevent options, pricing, or avail-ability of other services, contact<[email protected]>. Weare now able to take reservationswell in advance, which is essen-tial for many types of events.

Please help get the word outabout this unique and valuedfacility.

July 4th is always one of the most heavily-visited days for our little town. This year was no excep-tion, although it did seem the number of visitors may have been slightly less than last year.The parade leads off the festivities, followed by the traditional games and other activities. This

year we were blessed with exceptional weather for the holiday. The McCarthy Center grocery store re-ported selling somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 ice cream cones during the afternoon. Food wasavailable on the boardwalk bordering the main street.


W hat is presentedhere is a con-densed version

of the events in early Alaska bywhich the conservationists, whowere also the great “trust-bust-ers,” successfully closed down anentire industry to conserve re-sources and prevent a monopoly.Yet a monopoly is exactly whatthey got—for only the singlerichest mines could survive thehigh cost of freighting in Alas-ka—and that meant the AlaskaSyndicate who were to becomethe Kennecott Corporation.Lesser companies, lacking thevast financial resources wouldnever have a chance. Is this real-ly all that different from what ishappening today in the name ofenvironmentalism?

Each of the political muck-rakers in this story: Gifford Pin-chot, James Wickersham, LouisGlavis and Louis Brandeis all hadtheir own personal agendas andthe banner of conservation (envi-ronmentalism) and anti-monopo-ly (anti-big business) provided ahandy forum for selling them-selves as heroes protecting thepublic interests. Like the mod-ern day environmentalists, thesemen were early advancers of aform of socialism that gave maxi-mum control of the lands to thefederal government.

I am not defending the Alas-ka Syndicate, for they were cer-tainly capable of underhandeddeeds, and were, of course, oper-ating in their own exclusive bestinterests. Yet without them, the

development which did occur,and the rich historic legacy theyhave left us, could not have hap-pened. The Alaska Syndicatewere indeed the boogeymen ofthe day. For they were biggerthan life and so highly visible asto be easy targets. May God saveus all from those self-appointedprotectors of the public good—the political inheritors of theconservationists of old.

The early history of anti-development forcesand radical environ-

mentalism in Alaska may corre-spond with the discovery of theBonanza copper ore depositfrom which developed the Ken-necott Copper Corporation andAlaska’s second largest privatelyfinanced construction project—the Kennecott mines and theCopper River & NorthwesternRailway.

At the height of the Klondikegold rush in 1898 the U.S. Armybecame engaged in attempts tofind a route into the interior ofAlaska which would provide an“all-American” route to the Yu-kon River and the Klondike goldfields.

Captain W.R. Abercrombieheaded a military reconnaissanceparty known as the Copper RiverExploring Expedition based inValdez. One of the civilianguides attached to the party wasStephen Birch who would laterbecome president of the Kenne-cott Corporation.

Birch was assigned to Lieu-tenant P.G. Lowe’s expeditionwhich successfully worked out a

route over the Valdez and Kluti-na glaciers to the Klutina River,eventually reaching Copper Cen-ter in July 1898. This tent townbecame a jumping off point forprospectors heading to placesranging from the Klondike to theNizina River. This glacier routehad been abandoned by area Na-tives years before as too difficultand would soon be replaced by amilitary road over ThompsonPass. But it was through this ear-ly trail that the McClellan groupwould enter the Copper valley—and among these were the loca-tors of the Bonanza claims.

The McClellan group andanother party led by B.F. Millardsought out Chief Nicolai at Tar-al, across the Copper River frompresent day Chitina. They wereseeking the source of copperbullets that Chief Nicolai hadshown to Lieutenant Allen in anearlier expedition. This led tothe acquisition of the NicolaiMine, which in itself, thoughsomewhat spectacular, was toprove economically insignificant—but which would lead to thediscovery by Clarence Warnerand Jack Smith, of the McClellangroup, of the Bonanza copperoutcropping. Chittyna Explora-tion Company, which was formedto develop the Nicolai Mine,would later claim that it hadgrubstaked Smith and Warner,bringing on one of many lawsuitswhich would plague the Kenne-cott developers.

The McClellan group lackedcapital to develop the Bonanzaand other nearby claims, includ-

How the conservationist “Saved” AlaskaDoes History Really Repeat itself?


ing the Jumbo. Knowing thatStephen Birch, recently of theAbercrombie expedition, wasstill in Valdez and that he wasassociated with monied interestswho were seeking mineral invest-ments, Jack Smith contactedhim seeking money for develop-ment.

Those potential investorswere Henry Havemeyer andJames Ralph. The Havemeyerfamily had used connections toget Birch assigned to the Aber-crombie expedition, but Birchwas also sent to seek investmentopportunities. Birch had enoughconfidence in the McClellangroup reports to begin negotiat-ing with the prospectors beforeeven investigating the claims.One of the eleven claimants, DanKain, contacted Birch to sell himhalf of his part of the interestimmediately. Kain would laterlocate gold placer claims for Ste-phen Birch on a tributary of theNizina River which would then benamed Dan Creek in his honor.Dan Kain also assisted Birch inhis negotiations with the othermembers of the group. The in-vestors formed the Alaska Cop-per Company with Birch as itshead in 1901 to pursue and pur-chase the 45 claims and to as-sess the mining potential in theupper Chitina and Nizina Riverareas for both gold and copper.

The Chittyna ExplorationCompany filed suit against Alas-ka Copper Company in 1903 foran interest in the claims. Thisslowed development, especiallyof the railroad which would beabsolutely necessary for accessto the mines. Judge James Wick-ersham of Alaska’s third judicialdistrict ultimately decided thecase in favor of Alaska Copper,

thus gaining favor with StephenBirch. Birch had already becomea power in his own right and wasable to influence the reappoint-ment of Wickersham to thejudgeship in 1904 despite signifi-cant U.S. Senate opposition.

Now it became necessary todetermine a route and line upfinancial support for a tidewaterto interior railway. Believing thatthe Childs and Miles glaciersblocked access to the CopperRiver, Birch chose the port ofValdez in the summer of 1904 asthe start of the proposed line.

There were four applicationsfor authority to build railroadsusing Valdez as the tidewater.These had nothing to do withthe mines, but were proposalsinto the interior. The followingrailroad companies filed for con-struction permits from the portof Valdez under the Act of May14, 1898 prior to the CopperRiver & Northwestern Railway:Akron, Sterling and NorthernRailroad Company, to build fromthe head of Valdez Bay via Mar-shall Pass to Eagle City (1900);the Valdez, Marshall Pass &Northern Railroad Company, toEagle City (1904); and the Val-dez-Yukon Railroad Company,also to Eagle City (1906). All ofthese routes had to be relin-quished before the Copper River& Northwestern Railway couldgain access to the Keystone Can-yon right-of- way. It was the lastof these, the Valdez- Yukon RRwhich had brought in the 4-6-0Rogers locomotive which waslater sold to Michael Heney, thebuilder of the CR&NW from Cor-dova to Kennecott, to becomeengine number 50—the oldestengine on the line and the one

shown in the famous photo ofthe driving of the copper spike.

The Copper River & North-western Railway filed for twoconstruction permits in 1906.The first, known as the Tonsinaroute, basically followed the gov-ernment trail from Valdez. Thisroute had the most difficultgrades, crossing Thompson Passand then Ernestine divide, thenon to the Tonsina River, finallyon down to the Copper River.The second and chosen routefollowed Lowe River to its head,crossed Marshall Pass and fol-lowed the Tasnuna River to theCopper.

In lining up the financial sup-port, Stephen Birch succeededin combining the financial andrailroad interests of the J.P. Mor-gans with the mining and smelt-ing interests of theGuggenheims into a mega- part-nership known as the Alaska Syn-dicate. The Syndicate began withan agreement to invest ten mil-lion dollars, and with this capitalobtained the Kennecott mines,the CR & NW Railway, the AlaskaSteamship Company and otherinterests which eventually in-cluded the only other significantcopper mine in Alaska, the Beat-son on LaTouche Island inPrince William Sound.

The Alaska Syndicate hadbarely begun development of itsValdez line when its attentionturned to a small fishing villageon Controller Bay named Katal-la. In 1905 a coal rush of sortshad occurred as a result of a newcoal law designed for Alaskawhich enabled individual claimsof 160 acres and combinationsof claims to 640 acres. Althoughthis legal limitation was far toosmall, many illegal claim combi-


nation agreements developed,including the Cunninghamclaims. The lure of nearby coalfor railroad and copper mine de-velopers was obvious. The Syndi-cate abandoned its rockwork inKeystone Canyon, leaving deputyMarshall Edward Hasey in chargeof protecting the right-of-wayshould it be needed in the fu-ture.

Valdez was left abandonedwithout a railroad and was ripefor the likes of the con artistH.D. Reynolds who encouragedthe town people to place theirown savings and credit into anill-conceived Alaska Home Rail-road. Reynolds actually raised$106,000 locally. The first rail-road equipment for the proposednarrow gauge arrived in Septem-ber 1907, and crews began work-ing toward Keystone Canyonwhere CR & NW men still occu-pied the right-of-way. Reynoldsthought he could deal with theSyndicate, believing they wouldpay him a substantial sum tohalt work rather than facelengthy legal proceedings. TheSyndicate was already involved inthe Katalla operation and re-fused to deal with Reynolds.

When Reynolds sent his meninto the canyon in a desperateattempt to force the issue, the“battle of Keystone Canyon” be-came inevitable. In a mob rushof the Keystone Canyon barri-cades placed there by the CR &NW workers, several were injuredand one was killed in the shoot-ings which followed. Ill feelingsagainst the Syndicate resulted,and this would only be the begin-ning. It did not help mattersthat the Alaska Home Railwayfailed, leaving the workers owedsome $30,000, the local mer-

chants another $20,000 and lia-bilities in Seattle at $75,000. Inaddition, a bank brought in andheaded by Reynolds also failedleaving large liabilities. Reynoldseventually was caught and con-victed of using the mail to de-fraud, but much of the ill willwould be reserved for the AlaskaSyndicate.

In 1906 President TheodoreRoosevelt withdrew all Alaskacoal fields that had not been le-gally filed upon by executive or-der. The withdrawal was justifiedas a means to conserve naturalresources and prevent monopo-lies. The question was: “Why justcoal lands?” Was this the resultof Eastern coal trusts trying tohold on to their west coast mar-kets by prevailing on the Presi-dent to withdraw potential coalfields thus maintaining their ownmonopolies?

The withdrawal limited coalmining to those claims filed inthe preceding two years, whichincluded the twenty seven Cun-ningham claims. The Syndicatetook an option on those claimsas the means for coal access—half interest in the claims for$250,000. The commissioner ofthe Central land Office, RichardA. Ballinger, was prepared toapprove the Cunningham pat-ents but an idealistic investiga-tor, Louis Glavis, objected thatthe claims should not be ap-proved.

The conservation policies ofthe Theodore Roosevelt adminis-tration were largely conceived byRoosevelt’s chief forester, Gif-ford Pinchot. He proved to be anatural propagandist who be-lieved that the end justified themeans. He believed in a policy ofholding as many public lands as

possible from development. Heespecially wanted to close downall the Bering River coal claimsand place the area under hisnewly formed Forest Service. Hewas, to this end, able to convinceRoosevelt into creating theChugach National Forest in 1907with boundaries which includedvirtually all the coal lands.

Pinchot especially dislikedRichard Ballinger, who as headof the Central land Office hadtried to get many of the coalclaims to patent. When HowardTaft succeeded TheodoreRoosevelt as President, he ap-pointed Ballinger to the post ofSecretary of Interior. Pinchotsaw Ballinger as far too pro-de-velopment and was determinedto discredit Ballinger. Then Lou-is Glavis, who had become adupe of the conservation forces,handed Gifford Pinchot the am-munition he needed when Glavisfound evidence of the secretagreement behind the Cunning-ham claims—which combinedmore than four claims, contraryto the 1904 coal law. Pinchotclaimed that Ballinger hadknowledge of the agreement,that the agreement was fraudu-lent, and that Ballenger hadtried to get the claims to patentwithout proper investigation—probably in collusion with theGuggenheims. He brought his“evidence” first to President Taftand later to the public througharticles in Collier’s Magazine.Even though subsequent investi-gations cleared Ballinger of thevarious accusations, the effect ofthe controversy was to freeze anyCongressional or Presidentialactions regarding Alaska coal.

There was already a naturalfear among many Alaskans of any


large monopoly, and the AlaskaSyndicate certainly seemed to fitthe bill. With the Keystone Can-yon “massacre,” Judge Wicker-sham found his own cause. Thegood judge had offered his ser-vices to the Syndicate as legalcounsel, and much to their ulti-mate regret, he was turneddown. He then ran for Alaskadelegate to Congress as an anti-monopoly and particularly ananti-Syndicate politician. TheSyndicate countered on electionday of 1908, rather foolishly, byloading flat cars with railroaders,bringing them in to Cordova tovote, and coaching them to voteagainst Wickersham. The Cordo-va voters rejected the tactics andhelped assure Wickersham’s vic-tory. Now the Syndicate had anoutspoken antagonist with a na-tional pulpit.

The Syndicate alreadycontrolled Alaska Steamship, theCR & NW Railroad, theKennecott mines, Alaska’ssecond largest fish packingassociation and much of themercantile business on theSeward Peninsula centering onNome. Now Wickersham wouldclaim that the Syndicate wasattempting to monopolize theBering coal fields through theCunningham claims, and thatthe Syndicate had controllinginterests of all the railroadsgoing into Alaska’s interior,which also included the AlaskaCentral Railroad at Seward andthe White Pass and Yukon atSkagway. None of this was true,but little did the truth matter.Like the great trust-buster andradical conservationist GiffordPinchot, yellow press ally JamesWickersham was not concerned

about the truth as long as hecould discredit the Syndicate.

It is true that the Syndicatehad made some regrettablemoves, especially in regard tothe Cordova voting incident, butthere was never any intention todominate Alaska’s resources orpolitics. The Guggenheims wereonly interested in developingvery large mines. The Bonanzaproved to be just such a pros-pect, and this required the build-ing of a vertical monopoly, asthere was no existing infrastruc-ture to deliver the copper tomarket. There was no railroad—or indeed any form of overlandtransportation available until theSyndicate stepped forward withthe capital to build it. Then itwas necessary to assure uninter-rupted delivery of the ore fromCordova to the states.

The acquisition of the North-western Steamship Company,forerunner to the Alaska Steam-ship Company guaranteed thisvital link. While the CR & NWRailway was only profitable for afew years when the rich oreswere being shipped, the AlaskaSteamship was always profitablewhile owned by the mining con-cerns. The line controlled 15steamers totaling 28,160 tons,making it the largest fleet of itskind operating exclusively inAlaska. The new company oper-ated four routes that made ithighly visible in Alaska: Seattleto Skagway, Seattle to Seward,Seattle to Nome and the mailrun from Seward to Unalaska.

The Guggenheims alreadyhad a lock on the smelter busi-ness, and had acquired one atTacoma which was built in 1890to process lead, gold and silverand modified in 1905 for copper

reduction. Alternate plans calledfor constructing a smelter alongthe Copper River at CRNW mile40, which would also serve as thebranch line to Katalla and theBering River coal fields. The as-sumed availability of Alaska coalcombined with a nearby smelterwould greatly reduce the costs ofcopper production and wouldalso make possible the mining oflower grade ores. It has been es-timated that the use of the Ber-ing River coals might have madepossible up to 5,000 jobs in theChitina and Copper River valleysas railroad freight costs wouldhave been significantly reduced.Combined with access to theproposed smelter, many margin-al mining operations would havebeen made possible.

Meanwhile in WashingtonD.C. opposing forces were atwork. That young, idealistic in-vestigator for the Central landOffice, Louis Glavis, had becomea willing accomplice of the greatconservationist agitator GiffordPinchot. It was Glavis at the di-rection of Pinchot who sought toundermine the Secretary of theInterior Ballinger with a veryone-sided report to PresidentTaft. After consulting with hisAttorney General, Taft conclud-ed that Glavis had an exaggerat-ed notion of his own importanceand was advancing a personalagenda (as was certainty thecase with Pinchot) by embracing“only shreds of suspicions with-out any substantial evidence tosustain his attack.”

Investigator Glavis was firedfor “unjustly impeaching the of-ficial integrity of his superiorofficers” while Ballinger was ex-onerated. But it did not endthere. When Gifford Pinchot had


Glavis rehash his accusations inColliers, he pursued the themethat perhaps the Guggenheimswere actually running the Interi-or Department. Interior Secre-tary Ballinger threatened to sueColliers for libel, and the maga-zine hired a flamboyant attorneynamed Louis Brandeis to defendGlavis’s articles. Brandeis provedhimself the master of the ulti-mate red herring, and was ableto spread so many accusationsthat Ballinger finally gave up andresigned his post.

He even defied his boss,Howard Taft, and contactedmembers of Congress directlywithout clearing the informa-tion. For this the chief foresterwas finally fired. Pinchot, whowas a dedicated Teddy Rooseveltconservationist, contacted hisformer boss, who was on safari inAfrica, to let him know that Taftwas violating the conservationistand anti-monopolist principlesRoosevelt stood for, and that heshould return to once again runfor President.

When a terrific storm in thefall of 1907 reduced the break-water and docks at Katalla tocomplete destruction, a milliondollars of rock work was gone,and so were the hopes of makingKatalla the railroad port. TheSyndicate had already purchasedwork started by Michael Heney,the builder of that other “impos-sible” project, the White Passand Yukon Railway. The samefinancial backers of that earliersuccessful railroad, the CloseBrothers of London, also hadbacked Heney in Orca, (which herenamed Cordova) knowing thateventually the Syndicate wouldhave to purchase the rights foraccess up the Copper River.

Even with this development,the possibility was held open forusing Alaskan coal. The branchline at CRNW mile 40 was sur-veyed. Other surveys includedextensions to Chena, (at thattime the Tanana River terminalfor the Tanana Valley Railroad)with the branch line to Fair-banks, an extension to other de-veloping coal fields in theMatanuska Valley. Several otherlesser spur lines would later becontemplated. One line wouldfollow the Kuskulana at least asfar as the North Midas mine, andanother would extend up McCa-rthy Creek to the promisingMotherlode mine. In the end, allof these would become historicalcuriosities of undevelopeddreams, for there would be nocoal.

The rich coal lands of theBering River would become for-ever buried under the bureaucra-cy of the Forest Service as itremains today. Although someoil fields were developed nearKatalla, production was low, anda refinery fire in 1934 spelledthe end for what little remainedof Katalla. Along the Bering Riv-er rests an ancient saddletanklocomotive and a couple of openfreight cars on track remainingfrom the last railroad there—theAlaska Anthracite Railroad. With22 miles of completed track, itwas the only railroad to actuallyreach the coal fields. It was avictim of the Forest Service sys-tem of leasing brought on byGifford Pinchot—too little ton-nage and thus economically un-feasible.

One of the frequently heardcomplaints along the CR & NWRailway line, especially at McCa-rthy, was of the high cost of ship-

ping over the railroad. Therewere no realistic alternatives,and, by comparison, tariff ratesfor passengers were 12.5 centsper mile compared to about 2 to4 cents per mile in the states.Freight rates per ton/mile were3.5 to 14.5 cents compared toabout one cent stateside. Ofcourse, imported coal cost$15.00 and up, whereas localcoal should have cost about$3.00 a ton. In addition, thepresence of the large coal fieldsso close to the CR & NW wouldhave naturally meant that aready market would have beenavailable in Fairbanks and else-where to the north with the ex-tension of the railroad, thusbringing overall costs down. Anextension to Chena/Fairbankswas estimated to cost $15 to $20million. Considering that thewhole cost of the original 195miles from Cordova to Kenne-cott was $23,500,000, the extracost was relatively economical,for the extreme cost of crossingthe coast range and the glaciershad already been expended. Thesurveyed grade into the northpresented no unusual difficul-ties. Permits to Eagle City and toChena/Fairbanks were appliedfor by the CR & NW in 1905 and1906. Knowing all this, one canbegin to imagine the tremen-dous loss to commerce that thewithdrawal of the Bering Rivercoal fields represented for all ofthe territory of Alaska.

With the completion of theCR & NW Railway in 1911, thecompany shifted to locomotivesrun by bunker “C” oil. Some ofthe older locomotives were leftas coal burners because theheavy bunker oil did not do wellin extreme cold, but the basic

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line was now an oil system. Origi-nally, the coal came from BritishColombia, but a Cordova “teaparty” put an end to that, andUtah coal, which was far moreexpensive to ship had to be used.The bunker oil came from Cali-fornia refineries, and for purpos-es of running the existingrailway, was the most economi-cal choice.

So in the zealous effort to“conserve” coal resources—atleast this is what the proponentsclaimed—and to prevent monop-olistic practices, the coal indus-try of the Bering River nevermaterialized, the smelter wasnot built, no branch lines or ex-tensions on the CR & NW wereconstructed, and many marginalmines died a quick death. The

lack of access to coal could notstop development of the greatKennecott mines, for the ore wassimply too rich and there wastoo much of it. But the membersof the Syndicate learned thatdoing business in Alaska was notnearly as desirable as operatingin foreign countries such asChile. In fact, the huge profitsmade in Alaska at both Kenne-cott and LaTouche Island wereused to develop the great BradenMine in Chile and to buy lowgrade copper mines in thestates.

Kennecott abandoned theworked out Beatson and Gird-wood mines on LaTouche Islandin 1930. By 1938 they hadworked out and abandoned theKennecott site, leaving behind

also 195 miles of track andbridges, now written off. Theright-of-way to this line waspassed on to the territorial gov-ernment, and in 1942 the U.S.Army began tearing up thetracks. Kennecott had become aghost town over night, and Mc-Carthy soon followed, especiallywhen the entire downtown coreburned up in 1940. Only the stillprofitable Alaska Steamship asthe last remnant of Syndicateactivities still operating businesssection remained behind in Alas-ka. In 1944, the Kennecott Cor-poration sold off their interest inthe line, and the last legacy ofthe Alaska Syndicate— the phan-tom monster which threatenedto completely dominate Alaska—was now history.




TELEGRAPHICAMUNDSEN IN THE ARCTIC

Nome, Alaska. June 30th. Amund-sen and party sailed on the Maud yes-terday afternoon for the Pole. He andElmer Fullerton, of the Canadian RoyalAir Forces will attempt a nonstopflight for Point Barrow and Feitsbergerin about three weeks.

PERSONALBill Berry and Ben Jackson who

left April 1st on a trip to the interior,returned to McCarthy on Thursday.They traveled over the trail from McCa-rthy to Chisana by dog team wherethey built a boat and went down theTanana landing at McCarty on the Fair-banks trail, where they took an auto-mobile to Chitina and then traveled bytrain from Chitina to McCarthy.

Lawrence Barrett is expected toarrive here in time to spend the Fourthwith his parents.

Jack O'Neill had a marvelous es-cape last Wednesday evening fromwhat might have been a serious acci-dent. Driving the red car from thewarehouse up 2nd St. the machineskidded at the culvert and overturned,pinning him under the car. FortunatelyBilly Urlass was close at hand & ran tohis assistance so Jack was able to crawlout with a bad cut on the head and asevere jolting. A box of dynamite was inthe car and many sticks were smashed.

JULY THE FOURTHEven though it is several days be-

fore the Fourth, quite a number ofvisitors have already arrived in townand it is expected that there will bemore people in our city on that daythan there have been for several years.

The Green Butte Copper Corpora-tion will close down on the 3rd untilthe 5th. The men of this camp aredetermined to carry off most of theprizes. Anyway the drilling contest andthe tug of war.

Kennecott and the mines willclose down all day on the 4th &

practically the entire camp has sig-nified its intention of celebrating inMcCarthy.

Cars for hireTo GREEN BUTTE,

KENNECOTT, NICOLAI,MOTHER LODE, NICOLAI forGOOD FISHING — TENTS

FURNISHEDDay and Night Service. Service

GuaranteedSEE OLSEN

McCarthy GarageJuly 1

PERSONALMiss Bernice M. Hamilton, an en-

thusiastic member of the Mountain-eers Club Spokane, Wash. is findingmany mountains worthy of climbingduring her stay here. This week sheand Mrs. John E. Barrett made theascent of Nicolai Peak, finding a viewunsurpassed in any country, then visit-ed the Green Butte. Trips to MountRegal and other peaks are alsoplanned. Miss Hamilton is at presentthe house guest of Mrs. Barrett.

July 15OF GENERAL INTERESTPaddy Devlin and his partner shot

a bear the other evening not very farfrom town.

The McCarthy Mercantile Co. hasbeen taken over by J. B. O'Neill, hehaving purchased the holdings of theother stockholders. From now on thebusiness will be conducted under thename of J. B. O’Neill.

An impromptu dance was held atthe Pioneer Hall last Saturday eveningand greatly enjoyed by those present.The same young folks have arranged adance for this evening, every one isinvited and a good time promised. On-ly one stipulation—be there at 9o'clock sharp.

Walter Quon Eng left on today'strain to join the Beach hunting party

en route to the Mt. McKinley districtMr. Beach having insisted on this chef& no other. Wm. Slimpert will be guidefor the party; he left a week ago.

Deanie O'Neill attained the dignityof eight years of age today and enter-tained her little friends at a party ather home. Games were played and de-licious ice cream and cake were servedat a prettily decorated table, whereeight lighted candles on a big frostedcake formed the centerpiece.

With seemingly a plague of fieldmice, gardeners round here are havingtheir troubles this year. Mrs. A. V. Dozetried heroic measures and set traps, tofind next morning that the mice hadtaken trap and all. But the crowningtragedy was when she found a rabbitfeeding in the cabbage patch.

PERSONALMessrs. W. M. Briggs Jr, and Doug-

lass Parschall of California who arevisiting at the Green Butte, left yester-day on a sight-seeing trip to the headof the Lakina on saddle horses. KingOscar went along as guide and packer.This is their first acquaintance withglaciers. Mr. Parschall who is a scenicpainter of merit, has taken his artist'sequipment and will make sketches ofthe scenery.

Gus C. Johnson, who has been outin the Chitina River country for severalweeks on a prospecting trip, has re-turned and left yesterday to resume hiswork at the Green Butte.

Jack Schultze returned last weekfrom the Chitina where he did theassessment work on the copper proper-ty in which he and Cap Hubrick andothers are interested.

George Marhoffer has been do-ing assessment work on his miningproperty at Dan Creek for the pastsixty days and returned to town yes-terday.

According to word received by afriend from N. P. Nelson, formerly ofChisana, who left here nearly a year

The McCarthy Weekly News1922 July & August editions


ago and spent last winter prospect-ing in the Iditarod, Mr. and Mrs.Nelson are now in Seattle and areplanning on locating there.

Lawrence Barrett is assisting E.Lottsfeldt in survey work at the GreenButte.

July 22Miss Beulah Jarnagin entertained

a number of ladies very delightfully ata sewing party at her home last week.

Mrs. Barrett and Miss Hamiltonwith Ben Jackson as guide took a hik-ing trip to Mt. Regal this week, climb-ing to the topmost peak.

Twelve men came in from thePalmer camp on Chititu yesterday.

A train will arrive tomorrow bring-ing mail and freight from the AdmiralWatson.

Mrs. Johnson has gone on a threeweeks visit to Pete's ranch.

Con Miller and D. McGilvra areleaving on the next train for Chitinawhere they will take horses and sup-plies for a sixty day prospecting trip toRobinson Creek.

Yesterday W. Lubbe was fined $50and costs by U. S. Commissioner Cop-pernoll for driving stock off the publicrange. Complaint was laid by G. C.Gwin.

PERSONALWm. Neece arrived on last

Wednesday's train from Chitina formedical attention having sustained aninjury to his shoulder while employedas axeman for the A. R. C. at Ernestineon the Valdez trail. Dr. Gillespie foundthe shoulder fractured and dislocated,and the patient will remain someweeks in his care.

July 29NEW GENERAL MANAGER of

Alaska Steamship Co. and C. R.& N. W. VISITS.

The new general manager of oursteamship and railroad companies,Mr. F. H. Knickerbocker, his wifeand daughter made the round tripto Kennecott today, spending aboutan hour there. They will leave thetrain at Chitina and motor throughto Fairbanks, returning to the coastby way of the government railroad

to Anchorage. General Passengeragent Bunch of Seattle and his wifealso of the party.___________

Mr. Hubrick returned from his pic-ture taking trip on Sunday, he securedsome splendid panoramic views of theglaciers and mountains. These will beon display next week at the drug store,which he has taken over. A full line ofpicture molding and glass for framinghas also arrived.

_________Miss Hamilton, who states she

will never forget the hospitality ac-corded her in McCarthy entertaineda number of ladies at an ice creamparty at the Alaskan Soda Fountainlast Thursday before leaving for Ken-necott to be the guest of Mrs. RalphRothe. She leaves soon for her homein Spokane.

__________Mr. and Mrs. Anderton have taken

over the Alaska Cafe and Hotel. Theyhave been at Kennecott for over a yearand are well acquainted and should bevery successful in their new venture.

PERSONALCharles Veach is spending a vaca-

tion in town and on Tuesday enter-tained all the children at anautomobile party to the Mother Lode,where a fine feast was served. It tooktwo cars to hold the crowd, who hadthe time of their lives, and Charlie wasthe biggest kid of all.

ALASKA HAS OVER ONETHOUSAND AUTOMOBILES

There are 340 automobiles operat-ed within the confines of the Tongassforest reserve in Alaska and the totalnumber of auto cars in Alaska will runover one thousand. The list shows thatJuneau has 185 autos, Ketchikan has88 cars, Cordova 16, Valdez 52, Seward30, Petersburg 12, Hyder 6, Wrangell4, Anchorage has probably 50 cars.McCarthy holds her own with sevenpleasure cars and four trucks. 133 ofJuneau's cars are pleasure cars, 52 aretrucks owned by business houses andindustries.

Ketchikan has 41 pleasure carsand 47 trucks, Seward 24 pleasure cars

and 12 trucks, Cordova 4 pleasure carsand 12 trucks.

August 5A trio of mules, buckboards, dou-

ble-enders and a large and varied as-sortment of army gear was purchasedby George Anderson from Liscum Postrecently and reached McCarthy thisweek.

August 12

LOCAL AND GENERALMr. Asa C. Baldwin, who has been

surveying at the Mt. Regal property,and also was in charge of the assess-ment work, returned to town last weekand reported an important strike, afissure rich in azurite and glance wasuncovered. It appears to be of consid-erable extent. Mr. J. P. Gaskill and Mr.Baldwin made a trip to the Regal onMonday. Urgent matters called Mr.Baldwin to Seattle and he left onWednesday's train.

A fine white car was received todayby the new firm which includes HenryOlsen and George Anderson, automo-bile experts.

August 19

TRAIN NEWSThe unusual heavy rain this week

caused temporary inconvenience onthe railroad between Chitina and Cor-dova. On Tuesday the last five hundredfeet of track was washed out at mile62, but the emergency crews put theline in order in a very short space oftime and yesterday trains ran as usual.

A train left Cordova this morningbringing passengers and mail from thesteamers Admiral Watson and North-western. This train will not stop over-night in Chitina but come rightthrough, and should arrive here about9 p.m.

Miss Edna Thawley of Chitina isrelieving depot agent here this week.

Mr. C. E. Burroughs left on Tues-day's train for Cordova, there to meethis bride, who was a passenger on theNorthwestern from the states. They areexpected to arrive on this evening'strain, when congratulations will be inorder.

August 26


A time capsule of satel-lite imagery of theearth will become

available to scientists thismonth.

On June 28, digital imageryfrom more than three decadesago will be released by the Alas-ka Satellite Facility at the Uni-versity of Alaska FairbanksGeophysical Institute, NASA’sprocessor and distributor for thistype of data. The images revealan unprecedented view of seaice, waves, forests, glaciers andmore.

“It was awesome because Iwas resurrecting data that no-body has seen in 35 years, pic-tures of the earth from when Iwas a child,” said Tom Logan,the software engineer who pro-cessed the data.

The NASA Seasat satellitewas launched in June 1978 asproof of concept for using satel-lites to monitor ocean features—like temperatures, wind andwaves. Four months later, a ma-jor power failure killed the mis-sion. For 35 years much of theimagery was stowed away in fil-ing cabinets.

Now the data has been pro-cessed into several thousandunique gray-scale images of theearth’s surface, each displaying100-square-kilometer sections inhigh resolution.

Data was collected over all ofNorth America and much ofnorthern Europe, so there is im-agery of the Arctic Ocean, Ber-ing Sea, and other surroundingwaters. You can detect whether

lakes are frozen or thawed, thepattern of waves, and even boats.

“It’s a little boat with a big Vvisible from the ship’s wake,”Logan said.

This mission was NASA’s de-but of synthetic aperture radar(or SAR) in space. SAR bouncesa little pulse of energy off thesurface of the earth and listensfor the echo with an antenna.It’s “synthetic” because it col-lects the echoes from many ra-dar pulses and processes theminto a single radar image.

“It’s like combining 1,500looks at the ground into onelook,” Logan said.

This information can be usedby a wide range of scientists. Abiologist studying the impact ofclimate change on the borealforest can now rewind to see theland cover back in 1978. A geo-physicist studying receding seaice has even older baseline datato compare rates of melting andother qualities.

“You can determine the ageof the sea ice, whether it’s multi-year or new ice. And you canwatch the ice move so you cansee fracture patterns and seehow the ice floes work,” Logansaid.

Radar can see through dark-ness and clouds, unlike othermonitoring tools. This can behandy for researchers looking atglaciers or volcanoes in the mid-dle of nowhere, far from GPSstations or cameras.

“That’s really the niche thatSAR data fills, the ability to pro-vide data about some geographicfeature that scientists can’t get

in any other fashion,” said GwenBryson, a data quality engineeron the project.

If the satellite had circledthe earth more times, you couldeven clock the movement of gla-ciers and watch the inflation anddeflation of volcanoes.

The release was partlyspurred by growing demand forthe data by the science commu-nity. Plus there are no other SAR“birds” in space right now.

“There’s nothing new comingin, so let’s go back and minewhat has previously been taken,”Bryson said.

It’s also more accessible thanever. Using 1980s technology, itwould have taken a week to pro-cess five scenes, Logan said.

“Now we process a scene ev-ery 5 minutes.”

Yet it didn’t happen at theclick of a mouse. First he had toclean some “bit rot” off of datathat had been sitting on agingtapes for decades. Then he fil-tered the data six times to makesure the metadata (time, coordi-nates) for the imagery was cor-rect. After developing softwareto decode telemetry and sort thedata, he configured the files sothey could be synthesized intosingle images.

“I don’t think anybody hasdealt with SAR data this old,”Logan said. “It took a lot of cre-ative problem solving to figureout the best way to get the rawdata to be correct.”

The images will be availableat the Alaska Satellite websiteat: http://www.asf.alaska.edu/

Looking back in time at the world's oceans


Danny Consenstein,Executive Director ofUSDA's Farm Service

Agency in Alaska, announcedthat Alaskan growers, farmersand ranchers who experiencehigh transportation costs arenow receiving payments throughfunding authorized through theFood, Conservation and EnergyAct of 2008 (Farm Bill). USDAremains focused on carrying outits mission, despite a time ofsignificant budget uncertainty.Today's announcement is onepart of the Department's effortsto strengthen the rural econo-my.

The Reimbursement Trans-portation Cost Payment Programfor Geographically Disadvan-taged Farmers and Ranchers(RTCP) assists farmers andranchers in Alaska, Hawaii, andother outlying areas.

"Alaska farmers make a bigcontribution to the economy,the health and the security ofour communities. They provide

jobs and healthy, local food forAlaskans. But our farmers faceunique challenges. In addition toour northern climate, they expe-rience high costs of fuel, equip-ment, materials, and fertilizerbecause of our location. TheRTCP program helps level theplaying field for our producersand provide more local food atcompetitive prices," said Consen-stein.

"In 2009, when AgricultureSecretary Tom Vilsack visitedPalmer, Bethel and Hooper Bay,he saw first-hand the challengesfaced by Alaska producers. USDAis committed to developing newprograms like this that fit theneeds of Alaska producers. I alsowant to thank our congressionaldelegation for all of their workto support this program in Con-gress," noted Consenstein.

173 Alaskan agricultural pro-ducers will soon be receiving$390,766 to help offset the highcost of farming in Alaska. Pay-ments to individual producersrange from $70 to $6,130.

Producers across the stateare receiving payments. Farmers,ranchers and growers fromCraig, to Bethel, to Kodiak, andManley Hot Springs are partici-pating in the RTCP program.Some of the agricultural prod-ucts they are producing includehay, vegetables, oysters, dairyproducts, grain, livestock andpeonies. These payments are forexpenses incurred in 2012.

For more information aboutthis program, please visit yourFSA county offices. In Palmer,contact Donna Kramer at: (907)761-7753 [email protected].

In Delta, contact Lloyd Wil-helm at: (907) 895-4242, Ext.102, [email protected], orhttp://www.fsa.usda.gov/ak.

Applications and further in-formation will be available on-line, or can be mailed or emailedto interested agricultural pro-ducers.

USDA annouces rural grower subsidies

Effective immediate-ly, open fires maybe built as allowed

by park regulations on allWrangell-St. Elias National Parkand Preserve lands.

The term Open Fires refersto any flame source not immedi-ately extinguishable or controlla-ble and applies to any form ofwood or charcoal-based fire, evenin established fire rings.

Rain and generally wetweather over the past severaldays in combination with fore-casted conditions throughoutSouth-Central Alaska is allowingthe ban to be lifted. Visitors andcommercial operators shouldstill use extreme caution regard-ing open fire use as underlyingfuels may still be dry and subjectto rapid burning. There remain103 active fires burning in Alas-ka. Visitors and residents areasked to assist fire managers by

closely monitoring any and allopen fires, keeping them assmall as possible and ensuringthey are "dead out." Fireworksare prohibited on park lands.

For statewide fire informa-tion visit: http://fire.ak.blm.gov.

Updated park information isposted on the web at;www.nps.gov/wrst.

Information can also be ob-tained by calling park headquar-ters at (907) - 822-5234.

Open Fire Ban Lifted


Wintercreek JewelryAlaskan Stones in Silver

Making Copper Ore Jewelry in Kennecott since 1979

Kennecott Copper OreDan Creek Copper Nuggets

Alaska JadeAlaska Agate

And much more

In the historic Kennecott Sauna building

Larry HoarePO Box MXYGlennallen, AK 99588

[email protected]

FOR SALE2003 John Deere Backhoe310 SG 4x4 extenda hoe

only 2400hrs TTLike new

Located in McCarthy$35,000.00

Call Dave Felts @907-554-1152

or973-335-7380

McCarthy-KennicottCommunity Church

Sunday 11am WorshipInterdenominational—All faiths welcome

Located on the “island” near the footbridge 554-1194


Paul BarrSourdough DrillingPO Box 721Soldotna, AK 99669907-262-5494 or cell 907-398-7898

Sourdough DrillingWater Wells

stress-freeholidayShopping

This season, get fabulous gifts for everyone on yourlist...all from the comfort of your home. Just call me or

visit my Web site. You’ll find pampering products,fragrances and more at your convenience!

Tammy RowlandIndependent Beauty Consultantwww.marykay.com/trowland1(907) 581-5881

A set of four, L-16 deep cycle batteries for so-lar system or electric equipment, scissor lift, electricforklift etc. 480 amp hr. Trojan brand. These werepurchased brand new in April and never used. Theyhave been kept charged and are in perfect condition,we just don't need them after all. Under factory war-rantee. Great deal for someone off the grid or operat-ing electric construction equipment. Call Steve 232-9155. Or email [email protected] and I can sendpix and specs. May consider breaking up set if youdon’t want all four. We travel to McCarthy occasion-ally and could bring them along! We live in Wasilla.

MOTHER LODE COPPER MINES COMPANY OF ALASKA201 Barrow Street #1 • Anchorage, AK 99501

"The fundamental cause oftrouble in the world is that thestupid are cocksure while theintelligent are full of doubt."

~ Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

Scheduled Air Service from Anchorage to McCarthywith stopover in Gulkana!

Phone 822-4200Or toll-free 866-570-4200

Gulkana Airfield Box 234, Glennallen, AK 99588

Now you can leave Anchorage at 8:30 on Monday or Thursday morning and arrive in Gulkanaat 9:45, McCarthy at 11:00. Or, you can leave McCarthy at 11:15 and be back in Anchorage by2:00pm the same day! (Leaves Gulkana at 12:45) This service is year around.

www.coppervalleyair.com

RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEPARTURES, ARRIVALS, CONNECTIONS.

Copper Valley Air will not be responsible for damages resulting from the failure of flightsto depart or arrive at times stated in this timetable, nor for errors herein, nor for failure to makeconnections to other airlines or of this company. Schedules are subject to change without notice.Schedules shown are based on expected flying times. Because weather and other factors mayaffect operating conditions, departures and arrivals cannot be guaranteed.


The captain and crew ofCrowley’s Prevention andResponse tug (PRT) Alert

were personally recognized by Rep-resentative Eric Feige from the Alas-ka State Legislature for courage,teamwork and professionalism dur-ing the emergency rescue tow of thedrill barge Kulluk off the southernpoint of Kodiak Island.

During their meeting, he pre-sented them with a letter of com-mendation from the members of the28th Alaska State Legislature, whichstated the following: “The crew safe-ly and methodically adapted tochanging conditions, used theirtraining to identify and manage haz-ards, and then performed each taskto minimize the risks associatedwith those hazards...We express ouradmiration and respect to each man

individually, and to the crew for itssuperb teamwork, conducting them-selves at all times as professionalmariners in an extreme and chal-lenging incident.”

Typically used for tanker escortsto and from the Alyeska Valdez Ma-rine Terminal, the 10,192-horsepow-er Alert departed Valdez in responseto the Unified Command’s requestfor assistance and arrived on sceneto find Kulluk adrift at 4.5 knots inrough weather and sea conditions.The crew of Alert was able to catcha training line from Kulluk, despitehaving their deck awash by 30-footseas, and proceeded to tie off andcommence tow. The crew slowedand re-oriented the Kulluk’s drift sothat the original towing tugboatcould secure a connection to thedrilling rig. However, with increas-ing heavy weather the original tow-

ing tug connection parted afterapproximately 10 hours.

Once attached, Alert remainedtethered by emergency tow line tothe Kulluk and continuously main-tained tow. With 54-foot seas and40 to 50 knot winds, the Alert wasbeing pushed backwards up to twoknots toward the Kodiak Islandshore. A day later, the Unified Com-mand directed the Alert to releasethe tow wire. Only after confirma-tion of the order, did the crew ofthe Alert reluctantly release theirtow wire.

As stated in the commendationreferencing the U.S. Coast Guard’sinvestigation of the incident: “Thetug Alert and all of Crowley Mari-time Services [Crowley] equipmentused in the evolution of the rescueattempt and towing of the Kullukperformed flawlessly, met and ex-ceeded standards.”

Crowley’s Tugboat receives recognition

Federal subsistence regis-tration permits for permithunts in Wrangell-St.

Elias National Park and Preserve willbe available starting Tuesday, July30, at the park’s Visitor Center inCopper Center and the Slana Rang-er Station. The Visitor Center isopen seven days a week from 9 a.m.to 6 p.m. through September 20.The Slana Ranger Station is openseven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5p.m. through the end of September.Permits will be available at the Chi-tina Ranger Station starting August1. The Chitina Ranger Station isopen from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.Thursday through Monday (closedTues.-Wed.) through Labor Day. Inthe McCarthy-Kennecott area, con-tact the District Ranger at 554-1144 for permit information.

Permits will be available formoose hunts in Unit 11 and a por-tion of Unit 12, goat hunts in Unit

11, and sheep hunts for persons 60years of age or older in Units 11 and12.

There is no federal registrationpermit for the general sheep huntsin Units 11 and 12. Federally quali-fied hunters wishing to harvestsheep in Units 11 and 12 during theregular season may do so under thefederal harvest limit, but must ob-tain a state harvest ticket and com-ply with the state’s reporting andhorn sealing requirements. Notethat the state sealing requirementfor Unit 11 applies to all rams, evenrams with less than full-curl horns.Sealing is not required for sheepharvested under a federal registra-tion permit during the elder hunts.

Please bring your State of Alas-ka resident hunting license, a photoID (such as a drivers license), andproof of local physical address whenyou come to get a permit. Docu-mentation of physical address can

include a voter registration card ora utility bill listing your physicaladdress.

Permit applicants must be fed-erally qualified subsistence usersand meet special eligibility require-ments for lands managed by the Na-tional Park Service. They must havetheir primary permanent residencein rural Alaska, and their communi-ty must be listed in the “Species/Customary & Traditional Use Deter-mination” (C&T) column of theFederal Subsistence ManagementRegulations Booklet for Wildlife forthe intended species and location.Individuals wanting to hunt on Na-tional Park lands (as opposed to inthe National Preserve) must addi-tionally have their primary resi-dence in one of the park’s 23resident zone communities. Pleasenote that residents of Kenny Lakedo not have C&T for goat in Unit11.

Subsistence hunting permits available


Caribou HotelThe New

Getting tired?Stop at the Caribou Hotel!The coffee pot’s always on!

Warm atmosphere — Hot Tubs — Satellite TVFull Menu Restaurant

Mile 187 Glenn Hwy. 822-3302 Glennallen, AK

McCarthy's Grocery & HardwareCenter

All your grocery needs. Fresh produce.Fully stocked hardware store.

Thanks to you, 2012 was a great year! We look forward toserving you in 2013.

Ma Johnson's Hotel - McCarthy Lodge Bistro - Golden Saloon -Mountain Arts Gifts - Nugget Liquors - Lancaster's Hotel

MCCARTHY CENTER


STATE OF ALASKA, DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCESDIVISION OF MINING, LAND, & WATER

LAND SALES & CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION SECTION

PUBLIC NOTICE

Requesting input fora Proposed Land Offering

Sage Subdivision – ADL 231046a Preliminary Decision and its Proposed Related Action:

Amendment to the Copper River Basin Area Plan

OPEN HOUSE7:00 pm, Tuesday, July 23, 2013Tony Zak’s Community Center

McCarthy, AK

COMMENT PERIOD ENDS 4:00PM, THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2013

This proposed project includes offering for sale surveyed parcels in a future offering under themethod and the related action as described in the Preliminary Decision document. The project may besubdivided and offered in phases.

Located within the DNR’s Southcentral Region, approximately 6 miles west of McCarthy, 127 milessoutheast of Glennallen via the McCarthy Road, and 235 miles east of Anchorage, the project area iswithin the W1/2 Section 31, Sections 28-30, Sections 32-33, Township 5 South, Range 13 East, Cop-per River Meridian, within the Unorganized Borough. The project area consists of approximately 3,454acres, of which 900 acres are identified for disposal by this proposed action. Development will bephased over time. Public input is requested for this proposed subdivision.

Project size: 900 acres maximum development area, up to 300 parcels sized from 2 to 15 acres,with development phased over time.

There is one related action with this proposal: an Area Plan Amendment to the Copper River BasinArea Plan (CBAP). If approved after consideration of public comment, this related action will be devel-oped as a separate action, accompany the Final Finding and Decision, and be approved prior to ap-proval of the Final Finding and Decision. Public notice is being conducted concurrently with the primaryaction’s Preliminary Decision.

A public Open House will be held Tuesday, July 23, 2013 at 7:00 pm at Tony Zak’s Communi-ty Center in McCarthy.

To obtain the notice, Preliminary Decision, or instructions on submitting comment, go tohttp://dnr.alaska.gov/mlw/landsale/ or http://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/. For assistance in ob-taining the documents by an alternative method, to request auxiliary aids, services, or special accom-modations, contact DNR’s Public Information Centers on State work days, Monday through Friday,between 10AM and 5PM in Anchorage at 907.269.8400 (TDD for the hearing impaired: 907.269.8411)or Fairbanks at 907.451.2705 (TDD for the hearing impaired: 907.451.2770), or the Southeast Land


Office in Juneau at 907.465.3400 (TDD for the hearing impaired: 907.465.3888), or go tohttp://dnr.alaska.gov/commis/pic/ for additional contact information. Individuals who require special as-sistance must request assistance from the Public Information Center in Anchorage no later than4:00 PM, Thursday, August 15, 2013.

Pursuant to AS 38.05.945 Notice, the public is invited to submit comment on these proposed ac-tions for which notice is being conducted concurrently. If commenting on more than one proposed ac-tion, separate comments should be submitted for each. The deadline for public comment is 4:00PM,THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2013. Only persons from whom DNR DMLW LSCAS receives timely, writ-ten comment during the identified comment period will be eligible to file an appeal of the Final Findingand Decision. Written comment may be received by fax, email or postal mail. To submit comments orfor direct inquiries, contact Lauren Rouen, 550 W. 7th Avenue, Suite 640, Anchorage, AK 99501, fax at907.269.8916, [email protected]. If you have questions, call Lauren Rouen at 907.269.8851.

If no significant change is required, the preliminary decision, including any minor changes and asummary of comments and responses, will be issued as the final finding and decision without furthernotice. A copy of the final finding and decision will be sent to any persons who comments on thepreliminary decision.

DNR reserves the right to waive technical defects in this notice.

First in fuel, first in service andfamily-owned since 1892, Crowley

supplies heating oil, propane,lubricants and accessories to

residents and commercial businessesyear round in Glennallen and the

Copper River Valley.

Alaskans know Crowley for quality,reliability and competitive prices. Be

sure to ask about our auto-fillservices and save.

(907) 822-3375,Mi. 188.5 Glenn Hwywww.crowley.com/glennall

Proudly Serving theResidents & Businesses

of the Copper River


© 2008 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. AS-3216 9551 wellsfargo.com

We’ve Been A PartOf The Local ScenerySince 1852® Wells Fargo was one of the

first companies to do businessaround here. So, you mightsay we’ve grown up together.

Thanks for all your supportover the years.

Glennallen Team

Mile 187.5 Glenn Highway

907-822-3987or

FAX 822-5209

HOMESTEAD SUPPLY

Mile 115.5 Richardson Highway (Box 49) Glennallen

Lumber, building materials and hardware deliveredto the McCarthy area at Anchorage prices!

Give us a call or come in and browse our new ACEHardware store.

NEW! Greenhouse and potting supplies!


Lowboy & Heavy Freight Service

Over the river and

through the woods,

a-freighting we will go.¯¯

ROWCON SERVICESGENERAL CONTRACTORMcCarthy, Alaska 554-4498

Keith Rowland, OwnerLifetime Alaskan

Excavation & Gravel ProductsDEC-approved septics

Community Newspaperfor the Copper Valley

Subscribe * Advertise * Contribute!P.O. Box 277 Glennallen, AK 99588

907-259-5277 fax [email protected]

RECORDCOPPER RIVER

WRANGELL MOUNTAIN

TECHNICAL SERVICESProviding Civil Engineering and

Land Survey Services

Serving the Copper Basin and throughout Alaska

On-Site Water and Wastewater DesignsEngineering Consultation

Residential Home InspectionsConstruction Inspection and ManagementAs-built Surveys, Boundary Surveys, Sub-divisions, Construction Surveys & Sanitary

SurveysALLEN MINISH, PE PLS

Mile 32.1 Edgerton HwyP. O. Box 118, Chitina, AK 99566

907-823-2280

Current McCarthyRoad informationhttp://www.wsen.net/page3.html


Dear Cooking and Eat-ing Friends, I'm inAlaska! It was a beau-

tiful trip from Tucson again thisyear. The weather was great.We left earlier in May than weusually do but not quite as earlyas we had planned. Our favoriteweather people in McCarthy(Bonnie and Rick and GeorgeCebula) had told us there wasstill a lot of deep snow and it wasstill snowing. Then, of course,when it started to melt, therewas an unusually large amountof water. To get to our propertywe had to go through “LakeGeorge!” We're here now andthe sun is out, the snow is melt-ing, the water is flowing and all'sright with the world.

Just before we left home, Ireceived my little coupon maga-zine from our Fry's supermarket(Kroger). In it they were talkingabout Mother's Day and whatcooking lessons you would like topass on to your children. Thenthey made the statement that Ilove. “Times change but great rec-ipes shouldn't. Cooking to me islike stepping back in time andsharing the moment with all thepeople in my family who made mewhat I am today.” I would changethat a little to “........Times changebut great recipes shouldn't. Cook-ing to me is like stepping back intime and sharing the moments ofcooking and eating with all myfamily and friends who made mewhat I am today.”

People laugh at me when theylook at all my cookbooks andthree-ring notebooks filled withfavorites. I have notes written byso many of them referring to

things like, “this was Daddy's fa-vorite;” Joan served this when wewent to see her in Virginia in1970; this was Irma's favorite wayof making....; made this and Jimhated it! (Fortunately there areonly two of those); delicious chick-en served at the 40th Christmastree trimming party and on andon. When I see these notes I im-mediately picture the setting andthe people with whom I was shar-ing the meal. Do any of you dothat too?

Today, I'd like to step back intime a little and share a couple ofrecipes given to me by three of themembers of my family who helpedmake me what I am today.One from Mom—

BAR B Q HAM SANDWICHES1 bottle ketchup½ cup chili sauce1/8 cup brown sugar1 teaspoon Dijon mustard1/8 cup vinegar1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce½ cup watersalt and pepper to taste1 ½ lb. chipped ham

(Mom's message—get a 3 lb.can of chopped Ham—Armours isgreat—and have them chip 1 ½ lb.Get the other 1 ½ lb. sliced andfreeze for another time.)

Mix all the ingredients exceptthe ham and simmer for about 15minutes and then add the hamand heat. Serve on buns. Makesabout 12 sandwiches.Irma (my children's other grand-ma)—

POOR MAN'S COOKIES1 cup raisins, cooked so there will

be 1 cup water left on them.½ cup shortening melted in the hot

raisins and juice1 ¼ cup sugar1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon½ teaspoon cloves1 teaspoon nutmeg2 cups flour1 egg well-beaten1 cup nutmeats, if desired.

Mix and drop by rounded tea-spoons onto cookie sheet. Bake at325 degrees for about 20-25 min-utes. Don't over bake.They may be glazed when coolwith a mixture of2 cups powdered sugar1 teaspoon vanilla3 tablespoons or more of boiling

waterAnother one from Mom—STUFFED MEATBALLS(I had to recopy this one for

my books because the original pa-per was disintegrating! Our familyreally used to love these.)

1 pound ground beefsmall chopped onion1 eggsalt and pepper to tasteMix these ingredients and di-

vide into small to medium sizehamburger portions. Flatten eachone to look like a pancake thentake about 10-12 slices of whitebread and break them into smallpieces.

Add1 egg, salt and pepper

Grate a bit of onion and addenough water to moisten (about 3tablespoons).

Mix and form into balls thesize of a lemon, or a bit smaller.Put one on each of the flattenedpieces of meat. Roll the meataround the filling making sure allthe filling is covered with meat.Put oil or grease in a skillet andbrown the meat balls. Whenbrown all over, pour the greaseout. Pour a can of vegetable soup

Cooking with Peggy


utes. Don't over bake.

and a can of water over the meatballs. Let them simmer for about45 minutes. ( Sometimes I use 2cans of vegetable soup and just 1can of water). When ready toserve, you don't have to thickenthe gravy—it's good just as it is. Itmakes a wonderful gravy formashed potatoes to serve with themeatballs.

My sister, Kathie's recipe forCHEESECAKE

She always served this atChristmas time and everyonewould gobble down their food sothey could be first in line to getthe cheesecake!1 six-ounce box graham crackers

finely crumbled. (I use a rollingpin to get mine really fine)

2 tablespoons sugar½ teaspoon cinnamon6 tablespoons unsalted butter,

meltedIn a mixing bowl, with a large

spoon, combine the finely crum-bled graham crackers, the sugar,and cinnamon. Stir the meltedbutter into the crumbs and mixuntil well saturated.2 tablespoons soft butter

Heavily butter a 9-inch, 3 inchdeep spring form pan with the twotablespoons of soft butter. Besure to butter the sides well. Withyour fingers, pat an even layer ofthe cracker-crumb mixture on thebottom of the pan. REFRIGERATEwhile you make the filling.

Filling3 eight-ounce packages of cream

cheese—softened1 and 1¼ cups sugar6 egg yolks1 pint sour cream3 tablespoons all-purpose flour2 teaspoons vanilla1 tablespoon lemon juice1 tablespoon finely grated lemon

rind6 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 350 de-grees. Cream the softened cheeseby using an electric beater. Thengradually add in sugar. Beat theegg yolks in one at a time andcontinue to beat until all of thoseingredients are well combined.Next, stir in with a large spoon thesour cream, flour, vanilla, lemonjuice, and lemon rind.

In a separate bowl beat theegg whites until they are stiff

enough to form unwavering peaks.Fold GENTLY into the cream mix-ture and fold it in carefully untilno egg white is showing. Be care-ful not to overfold.

Pour the mixture into the panspreading it evenly with a rubberspatula. Bake in the middle of theoven for 1 hour. Then turn theoven off but leave the cake in theoven with the oven door opened.Let the cake rest on theoven shelf for 15 minutes.Remove and let cool to room tem-perature. Remove the sides of thepan and sprinkle the cake withconfectioners sugar.

Be sure to keep the cake cov-ered in the refrigerator.

Over these last 70+ years Ihave sat down with so many fami-ly and friends to join hands, sharethe blessings, and laugh, talk, andeat while we move through all theups and downs of life. I wouldn'tgive up one second of those timestogether or one morsel of food weshared. Thanks to all of them andto all of you.

Eat up everyone and I'll seeyou next time.

A LOOK AT THE WEATHER

April 2013 saw belowaverage temperaturesand average precipita-

tion. The high temperature forthe month was 48 on the 8th (59on Apr. 26, ‘12, 57 on Apr. 23,‘11, 62 on Apr. 28, ‘10 and 64 onApr. 30, ‘09). The low was -7 onthe 6th (4 on Apr. 4, ‘12, 9 onApr. 11, ‘11, 5 on Apr. 10, ‘10and 0 on Apr. 1, ‘09). The aver-age temperature for April was26.6, compared to 37.1 in ‘12,34.6 in ‘11, 34.8 in ‘10, 34.0 in‘09, 34.1 in ‘08, 34.4 in ‘07, 33.1

in ‘06 and 37.4 in ‘05. The low-est average temperatures forApril were 22.4 in 1972 and 24.7in 1986.

The precipitation for April wasabout average with only 1.02 inchesof liquid (0.04 in ‘12, trace in ‘11,0.11 in ‘10, 0.20 in ‘09, 0.50 in ‘08,0.01 in ‘07, 1.14 in ‘06, 0.08 in ‘05and 0.77 in ‘04). There was 6.9inches of snow (0.4 in ‘12, 0.3 in‘11, 1.6 in ‘10, 2.9 in ‘09, 7.0 in ‘08,trace in ‘07, 10.2 in ‘06, no snowin‘05 and 8.7 in ‘04).

McCarthy started April with 20inches of snow on the ground and

ended the month with 15 inches onthe ground.

The temperatures were a bitbelow average for May 2013. Thehigh temperature for May was 81 onthe 28th , 29th , 30th & 31th (71 onMay 23, ‘12, 81 on May 29, ‘11, 82on May 28, ‘10 and 78 on May 26,‘09). The low temperature was 20on the 20th (20 on May 17, ‘12, 20on May 16, ‘11, 20 on May 16, ‘10and 23 on May 18, ‘09). The Mayaverage temperature was 44.3, thiscompares with 43.6 in ‘12, 45.7 in‘11, 47.6 in ‘10, 47.2 in ‘09, 44.8 in‘08, 45.5 in ‘07, 45.0 in ‘06, 48.8 in‘05, 49.3 in ‘04 and 44.4 in ‘03.There were 5 days with a high of 80


or above and 6 days with the low of25 or lower.

The precipitation for May 2013was about average with 1.54 inchesof liquid. This compares with 2.19inches in ‘12, 0.68 inches in ‘11,0.25 inches in ‘10, 0.86 inches in‘09, 0.12 inches in ‘08, 2.50 inchesin ‘07, 0.47 inches in ‘06, 1.64 inch-es in ‘05 and 1.05 inches in ‘04.There was 8.0 inches of snow inMay, with 3.8 inches on the 2nd , thelast snowfall. May 2013 saw thesnow depth increase to 20 inches onthe 2nd and finally disappear on the17th .

The total snowfall at McCarthyfor ‘12-‘13 was 80.9 inches (84.6 in‘11-‘12, 66.6 in ‘10-‘11, 85.2 in ‘09-‘10, 121.3 in ‘08-‘09, 73.4 in ‘07-

‘08, 44.7 in ‘06-‘07, 84.0 in ‘05-‘06,79.4, in ‘04-‘05, 110.6 in ‘03-‘04,46.0 in ‘02-‘03, 74.2 in ‘01-‘02, 85.2in ‘00-‘01, 65.8 in ‘99-‘00 and 38.9in ‘98-‘99).

The ice on the West Fork of theKennicott River began to breakapart around May 13th and waterwas moving over the top. The riverwas clear of moving ice by May 23rd

and all the shore ice was gone byMay 27th . A late break-up this year!

The first week of June was acontinuation of late May, with highsin the 70's .The lows were mostly inthe upper 20s and low 30s. Therewas only a trace of rain and plentyof thunder.

Summer should be in full swingby late June. June and July are thewarmest months with the highs usu-ally in the low 80s. The temperaturebegins to cool in August with highsonly getting into the low 70s. Theall time high recorded at McCarthywas 88 on July 8, 2009. Freezingtemperatures should be back by theend of August, although they can beobserved at any time. Averagemonthly rainfall is about 2 inches(June-August ). Hidden Lake shouldempty sometime in July, with a rap-id rise of the water level in the Ken-nicott River and some possibleflooding. The first snow usually ar-rives sometime in late September.

ENJOY THE SUMMER WHAT-EVER THE WEATHER!

A new wildfire was spot-ted by State of AlaskaDivision of Forestry

(DOF) fire staff June 11 innortheastern Wrangell-St. EliasNP. The Bruin Creek fire is 73miles southeast of Slana, 22miles northeast of Chisana, 28miles west of Beaver Creek, Can-ada and 16 miles southwest ofthe Chisana River Fire. At 2acres, the fire was inactive ex-cept for a few smokes. Wrangell-St. Elias NP and DOF fire staffwill monitor the fire closely.

Two park cabins are nearly 3miles southeast of the BruinCreek Fire. Today six interagen-cy fire staff will remove brusharound the cabins to make themdefensible should the fire activityincrease and advance toward thestructures. Staff will also set upsprinkler kits in order to wetdown the structures and reduce

the fire risk. Temperatures inthe area are expected to staywarm and dry.

The Chisana River Fire locat-ed 82 miles east of Slana, 37miles northeast of Chisana and19 miles northwest of BeaverCreek, Canada is 3175 acres.The majority of the fire burns inthe Tetlin National Wildlife Ref-uge. Twenty-nine acres are innortheastern Wrangell-St. EliasNational Park. The U.S. Fish andWildlife Service, Wrangell-St.Elias NP and DOF fire staff willcontinue to monitor the fire,documenting fire behavior andgrowth. Staff are allowing thefire to take its natural course forthe health of the boreal forest.Interagency fire managers willtake action if structures, naturalor cultural resources are threat-ened.

A quiet Edge Creek Fire wasreported June 12. Less than ¼

acre, the fire is located justnorth of the Bruin Creek Fireand will be monitored byWrangell-St. Elias and DOF firestaff.

When detected June 5, the 1acre Tractor Trail Fire was out.Located south of the BruinCreek Fire, it likely was ignitedby lightning, burned for a shortperiod of time and then rain ex-tinguished it.

Naturally-caused wildfireshave on occasion burned in thenortheastern portion ofWrangell-St. Elias. Visithttp://www.nps.gov/wrst/parkmgmt/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageID=385664 tosee a map of the park's wildfirehistory.

Visithttp://www.nps.gov/wrst/parkmgmt/currentfireinfo.htm for cur-rent fire information.

Lightning starts fires in WRST

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness." --GeorgeWashington


Just a couple miles from McCarthy atMile 57 on the McCarthy Road

� 1 bedroom� 1 Loft� 1 bath� Propane Refrigerator� Propane Cooktop/Oven� Inside Plumbing� Metal Roof� Solar operated Freezer� Mud Room� Green House� Garden Plot� Mountain Views!

� Full Bath w/ Claw Tub� Roomy Kitchen w/Dining Area� Nice Living Room� Satellite Dish� Deck off Kitchen� 6.54 acres� No Taxes� Existing deep year-round Well� Full Septic System� Unfinished Guest Cabin� Separate Shop Building� 7KW Genset

Awesome mountain views!This house has all the right stuff!Solar panels, well, septic sys-tem, full bathroom, 2 wood burn-ing stoves plus Toyo backup oilstove, solar operated freezer,washer and dryer, small outbuilding, spruce trees, lowerpasture, beautiful deck area,green house, bedroom, bath,kitchen and living room plusmud room. It's all here! Callabout this property today! 60Miles east of Chitina on the Mc-Carthy Road.

In addition to the 2 lots with house and well as described above, there are anadditional 4 heavily wooded, untouched lots available that can be sold together orseparately. The asking price for each lot is approximately $39,000 based on size at$13,000 per acre. Owner financing is available for the unimproved lots. 3 of these

lots are contiguous.There is also a Pasture Lot (approximately 3 acres) with a storage barn, perfect

for farming or agriculture. Pasture Lot w/Barn offered at $57,000If interested in any parcel or all of the property, please contact Neil Darish at

907 554-1102

Offered at $168,000


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McCarthy celebrates independence

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