Items of Interest

by Bonnie Kenyon

Kevin Smith and Dorothy Adler: Kevin and Dorothy are taking good advantage of our splendid fall season in the McCarthy area. A newly-constructed root cellar is finished (no small task when hand dug!) and getting a successful trial run in our cool 4 degree temperatures.

Kevin, with the encouragement and expertise of local resident Jürgen Ogrodnik, is doing excellent rock and cement work around the exposed upper portion of the cellar. Eventually an addition to the existing cabin will be built over the cellar.

Be sure to read Dorothy’s story on page 18 about Jürgen and his second recent musical production.

Keith and Laurie Rowland and family: Family time at the Rowlands can include a variety of fun-loving activities and most likely will also include a few friends. What was dubbed “family time” by Laurie on the afternoon of September 26 entailed a down-to-earth “shootout at the Rowlands.” The friends included Rick and I and Lynn and Rene Welty.

You notice I said “friends”—meaning Rick and Keith weren’t shooting at each other and, no, Bonnie, Laurie, Lynn and Rene Welty weren’t shooting at each other and the Rowland kids weren’t shooting at each other either.

It was one of those days. Each of us needed to come up for air, especially on this crisp fall-like afternoon. The summer had been an overly busy one for each of us so when Laurie’s invitation came, we gladly accepted. We met at the Rowland’s place then followed their lead to their personal target range on the river bar.

Everyone took a turn trying out their hand at some good ole’ target shooting. Keith built a terrific bon fire while the ladies turned out hefty hamburgers and juicy, plump hot dogs – a real outdoor cookout. Thus, the term “shootout,” says Laurie.

Thanks for the great outing, Keith and Laurie, and for wonderful friends and neighbors.

Congratulations to Lynn Ellis, McCarthy’s mail pilot! On October 26th at Gulkana Airport a celebration was held honoring Ellis Air Taxi’s 25th year in business. Also being celebrated was Lynn Ellis’ 50th birthday and his aircraft’s 100 years of flight. We want to add our thanksgiving for Lynn’s excellent service to us here in the McCarthy area. Congratulations, Lynn, for a job well done and happy birthday to our favorite mail pilot!

Jim and Audrey Edwards: ANNOUNCEMENT! Audrey is up to it again. She is planning the ladies’ annual cookie exchange and has made the announcement that the date for this year’s gathering will be held on Wednesday, December 10, at Audrey’s Swift Creek home. The time is “after mail.” If you have any questions, ladies, just give Audrey a call and she can fill you in!

When I called the Edwards’ home a few minutes ago, Jim and neighbor Jürgen Ogrodnik were busy at work on a major fall project – constructing a 16' x 46' metal building which will house Audrey’s ever-increasing fleet of machines. As petite as Audrey is you might get the impression that she and machinery don’t go together. Wrong! She has accumulated two tillers, a snowmachine, 4 wheeler and now a tractor. I remind myself that Audrey used to be a truck driver.

Jim and Jürgen have their hands full of metal pieces and somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 bolts to match with those unwieldy pieces. I figure if anyone can put this kit together Jim can – after all he’s only built two kit airplanes.

Don, Lynn, Sarah and Rene Welty: The fall season for the Welty family has brought a slower pace for Lynn but the rest of the Weltys are still in high gear. Sarah is enjoying her school year at Jackson Hole Bible College and is scheduled to come home for the holidays. Lynn tells us Sarah is having a wonderful time, learning a lot and making new friends.

Don and daughter Rene are at hunting camp with hopes that Rene will find a moose. She is becoming quite a hunter, bringing home meat for the freezer.

The family’s flock of laying hens are certainly doing their thing these days. Lynn graciously shared a dozen of her bounty with us and Rick was thrilled with the double-yoked eggs he got for his breakfast the other day. Thanks, Lynn, and thanks to your bountiful producers!

Neil Darish and Doug Miller: Although the owners of McCarthy Lodge are on “vacation” right here in their own illustrious town of McCarthy, they are spending their time going back in time. Doug is busy researching old maps, news-papers, old trails, roads, and access routes, and he feels like he is living in the early 1900's. Reading the weekly McCarthy-Kennicott newspapers from the 1900's, one becomes very involved in people’s lives on a week to week basis. Doug says he hopes the result from all the research will produce a major events’ time line for the McCarthy, Dan Creek and the Green Butte areas, as well as a better knowledge base of the founding families of the McCarthy area. Many illuminating facts about past residents have come to light from his research already. Neil and Doug plan on taking a trip to Fairbanks in the near future and more than one stop will be at the University of Alaska’s archives. Good hunting, Neil and Doug!

ATTENTION SUBSISTENCE USERS IN UNIT 13: Ramone Baccus McCoy, Field Office Manager for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), in a letter to subsistence users dated October 10th announced important harvest information regarding the winter subsistence caribou hunt in Unit 13.

“As stated on page 83 of the Federal Subsistence Regulations, the sex of animals that may be taken will be announced by the Glennallen Field Office Manager of the Bureau of Land Management. The winter caribou hunt for 2003-04 will remain bull only. The season dates for the winter season are October 21-March 31, 2004.

“The fall population estimate of the Nelchina Caribou Herd by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) is 30,141 caribou, which is below their management objective of 35,000. If the herd reaches the ADFG management objective in the future, the BLM expects that the Federal Subsistence Board will allow a limited either sex harvest.”

Questions regarding hunt information or regulations can be addressed to Elijah Water of the Glennallen Field Office at 907 822-3217.

McCarthy-Kennicott Community Church says thanks: The church grounds received a face lift this last month and a new septic system is now in place. Keith Rowland (and his sons) of Rowcon Services has done a fine-looking landscaping job -- leveling, depositing loads of gravel and soil with a future prospect of planting grass seed. Thanks, Keith and boys, for such a fine job.

McCarthy-Kennicott Historical Museum updates: “Exciting things are happening at the McCarthy-Kennicott Historical Museum”, writes Meg Hunt. “We’d like to share with you some of these changes.

“We have recently received a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation to complete work on the caretaker’s cabin, an unfinished structure near the Museum which would provide housing for a volunteer caretaker/curator, and to repair the Museum roof. The foundation of the building also needs serious work. This summer the McCarthy Area Council board voted to allocate money for this work from the Capital Projects and Improvements grant which MAC has received from the Depart-ment of Community and Economic Development. John Adams has made great progress on the caretaker/curator cabin, which is now expanded and roofed over. Work will continue into the winter; the roofing and foundation of the depot building will take place in the spring.
Meanwhile, we are rewriting the Kennecott Walking Tour, which has not been substantively revised since the National Park Service acquired the Kennecott National Historic Monument and began interpretive programs of its own. The McCarthy Walking Tour is being reprinted with minor corrections. Many thanks are due to the staff of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, who have given us substantive help with the first version and who tracked down the original computer file for us. NPS interpretive staff are also very supportive of our efforts on the Kennecott Walking Tour.

All this is good news. But it means that we must be better organized, with more people pulling the weight of running the Museum. In the past, we have been blessed with a number of individuals who have devoted tremendous amounts of their time, energy, and resources to the Museum. Through much of the Museum’s history it has become, by nobody’s plan, a one-person operation, with the rest of the community having the feeling that ‘it’s being taken care of.’ This is no longer the case. It is time for everyone who cares about the history of the area to get involved. How can you help? We need membership and volunteers. We thank those who have helped us in the past, both financially and in other ways, and we look forward to your future involvement, as well as that of new people. Much work remains to be done in addition to the physical infrastructure work that we need so badly. We need to complete the work begun by a few dedicated volunteers and finish the cataloging of our collection. We need to find a good caretaker to be a Museum presence available for visitors during peak visitation hours throughout the summer season. We need to have our documents collection curated and, ideally, scanned and somehow made available for study. We need interpretive commentary on the photos and objects in the depot building. We need a more orderly storage system for objects and documents not currently on display. As is apparent, we need lots of volunteer labor. (The current Board is Meg Hunt, Janet Hegland, Dianne Milliard, Bernd Hoffmann, Dick Anderson, and Ron Simpson.)”

Obituary

Catherine H. “Kay” Hodges, 1924-2003

Catherine H. “Kay” (Howard) Hodges, 79, of 25 Clark Hill Road, died Monday, September 22, at Hospital of St. Raphael, New Haven. She was the wife of Howard L. Hodges.

Mrs. Hodges was born January 17, 1924, in Kennicott, Alaska, daughter of the late Walter G. and Elizabeth (Austin) Howard.

She was a Marine Corp. veteran of World War 11. She was a member of the Prospect Congregational Church and a Girl Scout leader in Prospect, CT. for many years.

Besides her husband, she leaves two sons, Stephen H. and Pattie Hodges of Barrington, R. I. and henry C. and Beverly Hodges of Sherman, Maine; two daughters, Mary H. and Kevin Palmer of Watertown and Helen L. and Gary Hodge of Prospect; eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

The above obituary ran in the local newspaper in Waterbury, CT.