Kenny Lake - Chitina, Alaska - 100 years of Army Roads!

Gravestone at Arlington Cemetery for
Major General Glen E. Edgerton

This year Chitina, Alaska plans to celebrate it's 100th birthday. Founded in 1910 as a town serving the railroad depot for the Kennecott Mine, it's one of the oldest towns in Alaska and was once considered a potential spot for Alaska's capital. In honor of Chitina's Centennial Celebration, I've named our Wayside espresso/gift store/burger bus operation The Terrain Depot.

Then I got to thinking about Kenny Lake's history page I wrote for kennylake.com back in 2007. I went and checked and sure enough, I wrote that Kenny Lake was founded in 1910 as an ARC Roadhouse on the Edgerton Highway, first called the Chitina Valdez Fairbanks Military Road. So I asked a couple old farmers up at the store why Kenny Lake wasn't celebrating their 100 year birthday. The farmers never got a chance to answer, because the new clerk jumped in and told me it wasn't a "community" until the 60s. I know that's what the state websites and state tour guides say, but they're wrong, I've already proved that. Now I'm trying to find out why Kenny Lake doesn't get to have a history. She actually said the people who lived here in 1910 didn't "feel" like they had a community.. and that's when I lost my temper and said ,"How in the hell do you know what the people felt who lived here then? Do you have any evidence for that or did you just pull that out of your..." and then I turned and walked out the door. I asked my neighbors who she is and she's the former Treasurer or Secretary of the League... and used to work for the Park. Heh.

So, instead of giving these local communitarians any more of my time, I'm thinking about why the communitarian State of Alaska isn't doing anything to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the FIRST road ever built here, the Richardson Hwy, which goes right through Kenny Lake for at least 20 miles. It's not as if if they aren't aware of this fact:

The Richardson Highway is Alaska's oldest highway, beginning as a gold rush trail to Eagle in 1898. General Wilds P. Richardson worked to upgrade it to a wagon road in 1910 after the Fairbanks gold strike. It was made suitable for automobiles in the 1920's and was paved in 1957. Major side excursions include Chitina and McCarthy via the Edgerton Highway and McCarthy Road. http://www.dot.state.ak.us/stwdplng/scenic/byways-richardsonsouth.shtml

Then I thought some more and went hey! What about the Edgerton Highway? What year was it completed? And while there is nothing online at any of the sites I scoured, it's apparent that the Edgerton Highway was completed at the same time Chitina became a town..because this is the road to Chitina, it's what connects Chitina to the Richardson. So technically we have Three Centennial Celebrations in our area this summer. And most important of the three celebrations is to honor the achievements made by the Alaska Road Commission and the US ARMY CORPS of ENGINEERS who made it possible for Alaska to join the 20th century.

Now I wish I'd have thought of this a whole lot sooner, because I'd guess the US Army might be interested in assisting me in planning this celebration. I found an Alaska state library too with lots of archived documents that would reveal a lot more about the history here. I always wanted to go deeper into our region's history but that was never going to pay me a dime so I didn't do it. Now I'm planning to enter the tourism market this summer and am looking at every possible angle I can find to advertise our existence. The Chitina Centennial is sponsored by their Chamber of Commerce. My Alaska Road Commission Centennial is sponsored by my principles.

I remain dumbfounded by the level of revisionist history I see happening here, and I can't stop myself from wanting to get to the bottom of this deception. I've spent most of my time lately researching the Community Plans and the way ABCD is moving into our area. But now that I'm back to thinking about my business and the importance of advertising and marketing, I'm ashamed that my state has forsaken the men who made the state possible. Our few roads are of primary importance to people across Alaska. The first road ever built should be a big deal.

Where would all these Indians and Nature Lovers drive their SUVs if the Army hadn't built anything for them to drive on? There's no evidence they've ever built anything we all use today. How would the RVs and cars and motorcycles get here if it wasn't for the US Army (and Scottish) engineers and troops (including an all black regiment) who built the Alcan Highway and every bridge on the way to and in Alaska? Modern culture is tied to the roadways and it's possible these roads might never have been built if the country would have been left in other hands. I don't know of one young Indian who does not have or desire to have modern technology in their daily lives. Everyone has snowmachines, 4x4s, cell phones, computers, televisions and vcrs and so okay the Japanese made most of this list, but that's the point, isn't it? Don't all American cultures deserve our utmost respect for what they gifted to each and every one of us? The "white" Europeans brought many good things to the Natives of Alaska and, as far as I can tell, back then it was a good trade for all sides except the Chinese. Some say the coolies working for the RR were all murdered and a mass grave exists somewhere along the McCarthy Road.

In 1971 the US Congress granted 1100 Ahtna their choice of land in the Copper River Basin. Naturally, because their subsistence naturalist lifestyle doesn't require roads, they claimed all the land along the roads. Now only Natives have places to go cut wood around here. Whites with Native relatives brag about it all the time and make it a badge of their superior position in the community. Since this whole communitarian redistribution of land started, after the feds and the parks and the state grabbed their portions, the "rest of us" non-Natives are left with the option to buy barely 1% of the land in the entire state.

I am tired of hearing how I need to honor the Indians and their way of life over my ancestors contributions to this state and this country. I know it's a communitarian divide and conquer technique, but that doesn't make me immune to it. And then part of my disgust is the level of complicity played by the tribes in implementing LA21 plans. But I really don't want to dwell on all the negative things going on around here.... not yet anyway. It's summer. It's time to make money and have lots of fun doing it!

Back to the celebrations!

Major Glen E. Edgerton was the engineer for our portion of the ARC Military Road, still not sure the exact date it was completed. At some later date the Highway was named for him. There's not a lot online about him but what there is shows an interesting fellow with connections to many names you'd recognize. I would LOVE to have access to copies of his orginal ARC blueprints!

GLEN E. EDGERTON
1940-1944, Born in Parkerville, Kansas, on April 17, 1887, Glen E. Edgerton was the son of John Edgar and Alice Edgerton. Graduated from Kansas State College in 1904; from the Military Academy at West Point, in 1908; and from the U.S. Army engineering school in 1910; advanced through the grades to major general in 1942. In 1914 he married Cordelia I. Hessin.

Edgerton was assistant engineer of the Panama Canal from 1908 to 1909, then he was chief engineer of Alaska Road from 1910 to 1915; director of the War Department Sales from 1921 to 1923; chief of the Federal Power Communication from 1925 to 1929; assistant professor of the Engineering School of the U.S. Military Academy in 1930. He returned to Panama as Panama Canal maintenance engineer from 1936 to 1940, then he was appointed Governor of the Panama Canal Zone on July 11, 1940, and served in that position until 1944.

During his tenure, several administrative changes occurred: the organization formerly known as the Bureau of Clubs and Playgrounds was designated the Panama Canal clubhouses; the special construction division and the special engineering division were consolidated under the title of the special engineer division.

During his administration, also, the highway and railroad bridge across the Canal at the existing Miraflores locks was officially opened to vehicular traffic in 1942, thus providing the first permanent bridge connection between the east and west banks of the Canal since the Canal was opened in 1914, and the excavation for the third locks project was initiated.
Edgerton retired on April 30, 1949. He died in 1956. http://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/biographies/edgerton.html

The gravestone pictured above looks like it says he died in 1976, not 1956?

I found one tutorial he wrote:

Wooden and Combination Highway Bridges. by Captain Glen Edgar Edgerton; 36 pages, 18 illus. Price 3.50 {Item No.6221} [Includes: Introduction, Design: Substructures, Superstructures. Construction, Costs] [Good technical article on prefabricated light wooden truss bridges] http://www.military-info.com/aphoto/Pm2.htm

Edgerton renovated the White House under Truman and chaired the Selectoon Board that inducted the first 333 women into the US Army Officer's Corps.

Edgerton was also a member of the exclusive Alfafa Club, and one year he was their "candidate" for president. According to their official story, they are a secret club whose members just have fun and makes jokes. Edgerton's name comes up in a David Ike forum about the club http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?p=541089

It's also been fun to see how many websites took their information from what I wrote on kennylake.com... I can tell who did because I spelled Edgerton's name wrong.

40 below in Kenny Lake

Here's a video I made last month of Tim skinning a 9 foot griz. Very graphic, not for the squeamish. I thought I'd throw it on here today to highlight the difference between Alaska and Kansas. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbr6szW6V0A

The winter garden

We can hear the trees popping

%Well it's 40 below and I don't give a f**k
there's a heater in my truck and I'm off to the rodeo%
The Rodeo Song by Gary Lee and Showdown
http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=491

Copper River Record and WISE defend WISE objectives in KL

Merry Christmas from Camp Redington!

Nordica brought me the local paper because she thought I might want to see what editor Mary Odden and WISE executives Janelle Eklund and Paul Boos had to say regarding the growing controversy related to the Community League recently changing the league's bylaws.

The new Board of Directors is making fast plans to hire a "professional facilitator" to help them "straighten things out." They were challenged by another local (who I do not personally know) regarding some of their new corporate changes. He said some people around here think the Board members benefit financially from their volunteer work.

The Board's response in emails and at the meeting was to lecture him about what good, caring people they really are, and that their new positions are not salaried positions. My response was in an article I posted here last week, Enlightened Rule by Scientists and Experts. I should have added "and Volunteers" to make my point even clearer.

http://www.copperriverrecord.com/

This is a hardcopy newpaper so I can't republish both editorials, and you can't read them at the above link. On page 3 of the December 17 issue editor Mary Odden gives us a driving lesson in a piece called "Who's Driving?" She writes about how perfectly she exists beyond the dialectical divides, and says,

"Consider this idea: What if the middle ground is really the high ground? What if thought is required - instead of having our knees kerked like marionettes?"

Later she expounds on her communitarian values with this: "

To those who don't like the word 'community,' I just want to say: community, community, community, community, community."

What kind of a response does she expect to her chanting? Does saying the same word, over and over, make it more powerful? Did her pen float when she wrote that line?

Then she adds this near the end:

"These are the people who get their feelings of power from dissaproving of and even despising others. In my experience, those are the people who are least likely to show up with a bucket of water when your house is on fire."

What makes that almost hilarious is the only emergency fire I've ever helped put out was back at Sharon and Daniels their first winter in Kenny Lake. The cabin he built for his wife and child had a problem in the stack and one day it caught on fire. Daniel was at Tims and we heard her screaming my name. After some confusion over the phone, Nord wanted me to call Tims, I just grabbed a five gallon bucket of water and ran through the trees to where their place is. My ladder just happened to still be leaning on the roof so Sharon ran up it and I handed her the bucket. We had the fire out by the time Tim and Daniel came running over. There's plenty of witnesses to that event, but I never felt the need to go around telling everyone about it. I'd never use it as an excuse to avoid being responsible for any other things I do in my life.

She admonishes me to hold my fire until February. Wonder why.

Turning the page we are greeted with a large headline called "A Season of Giving Thanks" from Paul Boos and Janele Eklund, the WISE leaders who worship Lucifer. Heh. Boos starts right in with reference to the emails that "flew" in the controversy over the bylaws. He directly referenced my email to the Community League elist and a link to my article with,

"One e-mail even commented that people who volunteer have a Mother Theresa complex, as if that was something bad."

I used the term Mother Theresas in response to their continual littany of all the volunteering they do. My tone was, okay, I get it, you're all practically angels here on earth, now, will you please answer the questions about your financial plans? I used that term because they brag and use their accomplishments and virtuous principles to avoid answering other questions like, "What do you need a new community credit card for?" What do you need to form Seven Standing Committees for? Is the league expanding it's original purpose to include Development?

I still haven't seen one answer to any of those Qs.

Boos and Eklund get around to the whole financial gain issue in the fifth column, after lecturing us about being mean spirited. They list all the things other locals do for each other as if I haven't done any "volunteering" since I moved here. It's too funny. I have been volunteering in this place since my arrival, beginning with helping Tim, later giving a huge discount for kennylake.com, built a Kenny Lake Museum out of my own pocket with no grant funding, and spent the entire fair in 2008 parking cars for the public, for free. The fair organizers never mentioned my contribution in their public thank you, but I didn't write the paper to complain or brag about how hard I worked to make sure everyone had a safe place to park and walk.

Our WISE teachers cleverly insert their program and their own altruistic volunteering with "educate our chuldren to respect where they live and who they live with" as if that is on the same par as volunteering for the Fire Dept. Then they slip us the big lie:

"These people don't volunteer for financial gain or power or for some sinister motive, but out of respect for their community and where they live. We truly believe these people are trying to make our community a better place to live."

I agree I didn't volunteer here for financial gain. I'm actually living proof of what happens when we volunteer to do deep background research for lawsuits and magazines full time. I don't agree they don't have a sinister motive because their websites tell it all very plainly. Why reference my research wthout giving the reader the oportunity to consider the facts for themselves?

The truth is this, I found a lot more than was in my article about them. Financial records show WISE receiving money. Regardless of the altruistic motives of WISE partners, it doesn't change the fact that WISE was included in the 2007 Kenny Lake Community Plan. WISE was given the greenlight in the Matrix by the 11 people who finalized the Plan. WISE funds improve private property. WISE funds are used to implement education of dubious intent and origins that any sensible citizen would agree requires further investigation and perhaps vigorous public debate. Public funds are beng used to teach us a new religion, a religion we know very little about. Besides the constitutional restriction against establishing a state sponsored religion, there is also the fact that their "religion" is the direct opposite of what most people claim to worship around here. If I live in a "Christian community," as all the local insist I do, then why does my community vision for the future include my mandatory global citizenship training in WISE's anti-Christian religion? How do the people who claim to be Christians justify their participation in this Luciferian vision? I don't belong to either "church" on either side of this dialectic, and US law says I don't have to either. What new law circumvents the US constitution in this way? The international law of Community Sustainable Development?

WISE writes:

"We don't see any evidence of the trumped up plots by unknown subversive groups that someone says they believe are trying to control our lives. We see caring and giving people that are friends and neighbors here. If that gives us Mother Theresa complexes, we wear the title proudly."

They don't see any evidence? Well neither does the person reading the paper. My article is no where to be found in this public rebuttal. I exposed their theosophy and identified their belief in bringing humanity into the Light. I challenged their right to expand the tiny purpose and role of the community league to include Economic Development. I have verified many of the programs CED introduces to the whole community. They don't even mention me by name nor do they provide a link to the article I wrote in which I provided ample, well researched, direct source evidence. They certainly never mention that the league board members are all on the receiving end of either govt paychecks or government grant funding. This simple fact places all their internal records open for public scrutiny under the Freedom of Information Act 1974.

Kenny Lake residents who want to see all the financial records of the members of the board and private businesses operating as NGOs have only to pen a brief request for perusal of documents, naming the exact documents they want to see, by name. Recipents have five days to respond.

I wrote Mary Odden a few times over the years, hoping against hope that the paper here hadn't gone into the Light yet. I wanted her to print the plans and tell the locals all the meetings and major changes happening at those meetings. Big changes are happening all across the Basin, and in a free society where the people are the government and government employees can be fired, BIG CHANGES would also be BREAKING NEWS. Especially changes to the system created by people who assume leadership roles over everyone else in the community, really caring and thoughtful people who were never elected so therefore also cannot ever be fired.

I completly disagree with Mary that the "middle is the higher ground," and my thesis details my argument against that entire philosophy. But I do agree that "thought is required - instead of having our knees kerked like marionettes?" Thought IS required, that's why all these WISE people can do is tug at our emotional heartstrings and hope we believe so much in them we' won't THINK about the facts of their entire operation. And one thing I know for sure, it's not me doing the jerking.

The league is not a government entity... nobody seems to know what it is, exactly. But only members can vote, and that means anyone who's not a member cannot vote on anything the league does. This is not the American system, no matter how much they want us to believe it is. I refuse to join their league and revoke any membership sign in sheet I ever signed, if that is how I "joined." The only authentic government representative I have out here is my State Representative. Time to find that person, I don't even know who it is.

Is it also time to start our own biased one sided community newsletter? Remember the good old days when there was more than one newspaper and each one had it's own editorial slant?

Summertime in Kenny Lake

Bed drapes on diamond willow posts

Spygliders over GerTee, flying in thick smoke

Wyatt ready for hockey in July

Cut a third window in the southwest side, this one's screened so now I have a crossbreeze. It was 90 above outside and a cool 68 inside under the RadiantGuard!

Garden and GerTee

Me and my little space in Camp Redington

Weather, News & Entertainment from Kenny Lake

Alaskans love their music!

3rd Annual
Music Between the Ranges
July 17, 18, 19, 2009,
11 mile Edgerton Hwy
Kenny Lake, Alaska
www.musicbetweentheranges.com
www.betweentheranges.com

One of the things that hooked me on Alaska when I came up in the 70s was all the great music. Most nightclubs still had live bands (in the age of disco), there were lots of piano bars and honkey tonks (I was a can can cutie at the Palace Saloon in '79), and in the summer there were glorious outdoor music festivals. The old Solstice Festival in Fairbanks out on Chena Hot Springs Road and the old Talkeetna Bluegrass Festival were my favorites. Both events drew musicians from all over the state and the quality was consistantly top notch. Even after the mainstages shut down you could wander from fire to fire and listen to the small groups of pickers who played all night long. Of course most events eventually went big time, became over organized and their Alaskan hometown charm faded, but here and (somewhere up near Healy) the tradition of low key, music lover's festivals is making a revival. I didn't go the last 2 years, but this year I get 2 free tickets to Music Between the Ranges because I'm going to help with their advertising and websites!

What happened to our summer????

Big winds all day yesterday and it was the day I set aside to finish the roof and walls on little gertee. Made for a challenging makeover but I finished most of the exterior coverings by midnight when it got a little too dark to see. Insulated and covered the entire western wall (no window) and made the eastern wall completely screened and covered it with cut pieces of canvas I can roll up (if it ever gets warm here again). I'll get partial morning sun through the trees and have shade in the afternoon with a nice breeze flowing through ... I am dreaming of 80 above!

Outside temperature at 3:00 am

Took the inside thermometer outside,
had to see if it was really 20 degrees.

Gerteeville update

Gertee prototype at 3 am this morning.
Trimmed the new roofcover and installed the woodstove

Fred makes sure insulation is properly installed

Mini flower arrangements

Fresh wildflower mini bouquet

Dried and hairsprayed wildflower mini bouquet

Miniature willow basketweaving

Anika stopped by to see if we want to ride her horses.
She's always looking for riders if that sounds fun to you!
She stayed to show me how to weave a mini willow basket.

Starting is the hardest part because you slice the stems
and have to weave branches through the holes.