September 17, 2002
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Talkeetna Historical Society
Alaskans tend to be proud of themselves and their history, even if that history doesn’t extend back much before the twentieth century. Although people were here before that, since they didn’t write stuff down, that period is “prehistoric”.
Greyfox has wanted for some time to take me to the museum. He has developed a proprietary attitude toward it since he joined the historical society, and it had been a few years since I was in the museum. Many of the displays were new to me.
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Looking at one of the museum displays, I had to laugh. A few of the tools on display there are newer than tools I use regularly. They’re old tools, yes, and so are a lot of mine.
The museum is housed in several small buildings, some of which I recognized as having started out as “railroad” buildings. There are a lot of them in our part of Alaska: houses for railroad workers, old stations, shops, etc. This strip of the state where most of the population is concentrated is called the “Railbelt” because these communities grew up around the tracks. The baggage cart above is a relic of the railroad. No explanation was given for the smiley-faced old Wards snowmachine, but it fits right in anyway.
A small building behind the main museum is devoted mostly to our mountain, Denali, AKA Mount McKinley, and the people who climb it. This was all new to me, and I was impressed. I especially admire the room-size relief map showing the ridges, glaciers and main climbing routes.
Each corner of that room shows a different view of the mountain. The photo at left is an up-close look at the side of Denali we see from here. Wowee, I never get enough of this mountain. It is magical.
Climbers are one sort of local heroes. Another sort of Alaskan hero is the bush pilot. The breed has not died off yet; we still have a few of them around. Talkeetna is home base to several flying services that exist mainly to ferry climbers and their gear to base camp on Denali, or to drop fishermen at remote sites then come back and pick them up. It’s a different life, a different job, from when bush pilots had a much bigger role in keeping mail and supplies coming in to remote Alaskans.
Don Sheldon was one of these local heroes. His display in the museum includes this chair he made from antlers, sinew and fur.
He is known for many daring rescues, such as the time he was flying over and noticed an overturned boat. He landed his float plane on the Susitna River in a narrow canyon four times that day, each time picking up one of the stranded survivors. Unable to take off from the canyon, he floated the plane downriver until he could let each man off safely, then he took off, flew back and floated down with the next one.
The State of Alaska now prohibits aerial hunting of wolves, even to the exent of outlawing flying and shooting in the same day. It was different before statehood, when this was the Territory of Alaska. The territorial government paid a bounty on wolves, and Don Sheldon made his living back then partially as a bounty hunter. The museum has his wolf guns on display. These double-barreled shotguns were mounted under the wings of his plane, and he sighted them with the aid of marks on his windscreen.
Any readers ready to jump in with judgmental comments about the evils of aerial wolf hunting would be well-advised to express them elsewhere. That was a different time, and this was, and remains even now, a place much different from those most of you know. My personal view is that the current prohibitions on wolf hunting reflect a more evolved mindset, but that it would be unfortunately narrow-minded to condemn an acknowledged hero for supporting his family on government bounties, or to overlook his ingenuity in devising this mechanism to do it.
Comments (16)
Yeah! There ya go … a well deserved rest!
And you couldn’t have picked a better time!
eeep! no arguments here! I jest a lowley slimer!
Good to hear y’all had a great time! (Insert Virginian accent here).
Sounded like a great trip. I love learning about the history of an area. Too bad the roof wasn’t finished when you had returned. That would have been a great present.
I can’t imagine myself in Alaska. I feel so femme, it’s almost an embarrasment.
My parents have always dreamed of visiting Alaska…after seeing your pictures and reading about your corner of the great wilderness, they’ll have to take me too!
Spot
Wow, those photos are great. I just found you by chance a few days ago & have already read through all of your facsinating journal. I am hooked. I have subscribed. I am even dreaming about you!
I sure like that stuff about what’s going on in alaska. I don’t intend to ever go there, but I like hearing about it.
Okay Susu…that sno-mobile has a face on it…reminds me of the cartoon thomas the tank engine.
I don’t know…I think you need to take a day off…just relax from the exposure to culture you’ve had the past few days. Schwanky hotel…historical museum…hob-nobbing w/a member of the historical (or, as we call it in our house..hysterical) society. Will you still talk to us??
This was so very interesting. Thank you for the short tour.
That little symbol at the bottom of all of your stories, what is it, a dream catcher?
The wolf is a noble animal. I only wonder if the hunter felt as noble as his prey.
Thanks for sharing! I love history and travel info
NFP: In my experience, people who kill for a living, whether it is by giving lethal injections to impounded dogs or condemned murderers, or subsistence hunting or fur trapping or bounty killing, don’t usually get their feelings involved in their work. This is why killing is largely a masculine profession. Women find it much harder to act without feeling.
Any man with such a sense of personal superiority that he would feel “noble” about anything would be a bit too self-important for my taste, and those who attribute “nobility” or any similarly specious anthropomorphic traits to entire species of animals (including us primates) simply have too little experience of the reality of life on this planet. Civilization often insulates people from such experience.
Wolves, as a species, are no more outstanding or superior (I looked up “noble” in the dictionary, and those are the only synonyms that could even come close to applying to a wolf unless it happened to be born into a titled family.) than weasels or watermint.
Government policies regarding control of vermin, predators, noxious weeds, etc., change over time. In a democratic republic such as ours, those policies usually reflect the attitudes of the majority. Does it make sense to pick on the hired executioners and ignore the cultural environment in which they function?
shitfire, if you can’t shoot at animals from an airplane, what the hell good is technology?!
Technology sucks. It gives humans an unfair advantage. Hunting should be allowed only by those willing to even the odds: get naked like the animals and go after them with tooth and claw. Then, eat what you kill.