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.

Why I Quit Facebook?

My new dog team - seven females!

Last night I "deactivated" my facebook account. I planned on deleting it, but that's not an option. I "can" return and reactivate my account at any time. How's that for information retention? During my deactivation session, the fb gods insisted I explain "why" I was leaving. I chose "other" from their list of reasons and then a popup box made me go back and explain further details. So I switched reasons and chose the box that said "Privacy Reason" and another popup stopped me and directed me to study more about my fb privacy. Then I still had to check another box so that I would not continue to receive emails from my closed account!

I'm doing some notes for an article based on a woman who has been an ACL supporter for years. She's also been an active Ron Paul supporter and fights daily for Liberty. I know many people like her, genuine and concerned, exist all around our nation and probably in every other nation. We are a very small, unaffiliated group of people who have chosen to accept communitarianism as REALITY. But the similarities pretty much stop there. I have never been a Ron Paul supporter, I gave up on the Libertarians within the first year of my ACL work. I have actually been very open in my opinion of Paul and his refusal to mention the words communitarianism or Agenda 21. I don't trust him because of it. I have been watching and listening to the Tea Party people, and the way I saw it develop the last couple years, I thought Gigi Bowman was at the center of that movement. Over the past few months (and thanks to fb) I realized she is not only not part of it, she openly opposes it! I'll be interviewing her in a series of written questions, it's the first time I've tried this and I think it'll be fun.

Terrain Depot plans coming together quickly, we will be open before June 1, shooting for Memorial Day Weekend. Almost everything is thawed in the yard, only a few chunks of ice here and there. My wood supply sucks again, burning green SAPA slab, but it was 38 above when I woke up at 8am so it's not life threatening anymore. I will need to find a more reliable source before next winter. My chainsaw broke down last month and I can't describe how that felt. Then my cart's wheel bearing broke and I saw my little supply of tools falling apart before my very eyes. It's a miracle I made it through the winter without any serious mishaps. After three winters camping I've used the hell out of everything. I have depended on that saw since I bought it the first summer I built gertee here, when Fred was born. I went from being terrified of chainsaws to loving them, and learning how to use saws changed my world.

Been having a blast "camping" in the new 10' gertee I put up in my backyard. I love going out there at night and experiementing with ways to make heat and fires inside. Last night I dragged a 12" metal stand in and put 2 pieces of 6" stack above it. Made the fire in the inside rim of a tire with 6" sides. Tim's got a new welder coming so I'm going to ask him to cut me a 6" hole in one of my big bread bowls and weld it to the bottom of the stack over the fire. I think it will catch ALL the smoke if I do that. Seems like it wouldn't cost that much or be that heavy either to make a hanging aluminum smoke cover for an open fire. Also thinking those Mexican stoves with the short stacks would work too. I can't seem to get the smoke to flow up and out the way it should with just the wall covers. It may be that I have to seal the floor with rugs and pull the outside walls up so the dang air can get underneath it! Cut the roofhole bigger to fit the roofring better and worked on ways to use safety pins to put up my inside fabrics. Borrowed the new materials I ordered for the 20' facelift, and I'm just going to have to include interior fabrics in the basic kit. It really does change it when you cover the inside frame with cloth, and I've got to when when I see open khana and roof poles it looks unfinished to me, even when the wood is pretty. I do like the modern classic yurt look, the beige canvas and white fabrics, beautiful wood floors and finish. That kind of yurt spells class and money and so yeah, why wouldn't I like them? My gertee is just more festive, she likes wearing different colors and textures during different seasons. And just like the woman who owns it, my gertees are always changing their clothes.

A special hello! to Sylvia in New Zealand, another gertee lover who builds her own too! I was going to upload pictures of her cute little yurts during one of my no pc times. Now I'm designing an entirely new gertee website and I'd be honored if I had permission to put them in our gallery.

It's been interesting and really uplifting to meet people from the "yurt community." It seems to be a very friendly, supportive bunch. I thought they'd all be full on communitarians because of the way the enviros write about them and the appeal yurts have in the sustainable "movement." I was wrong, as usual, because I'm meeting women and men, just like me, who only want to build a sweet little space they can call their own. Sylvia says she likes to keep hers at 8 to 10 feet max because then she can put it up herself. I know what she means by that because I have a "real" 10' gertee now too! I laughed the entire time I put the ring and roof poles up for the 3rd time in 2 days. After I stood the walls up and added the tension cable, I screwed 4 roofpoles into the roofring in the 4 directions and slipped it over the walls. It's so light this was nothing! Then I walked around the outside attaching each pole to the walls. Took five minutes. Yeah.

Oh happy spring!

The Chitina Terrain Depot opening May 24, 2010!

We got the deal on the Wayside! I plan on building a 30' gertee to attach to the van with seats, a few gifts, a slideshow and a 16' wooden dance floor in the center. I've got a bunch of old 20s, 30s and 40s lps that I'll play all day long. I'm dancing every day and amazed at how stiff my body has become this past winter. I'm thinking our older customers might enjoy a couple dances before they get back in their vehicles for the long drive to McCarthy. My crew is the same locals who've helped me with the gertees over the years. Fishing season starts on the fishwheels the 15th (I think) and dipnetting opens sometime around the first of June. Still need to find out exactly what the communitarian regulations are about selling/cooking our own fish, but I'm fairly certain we'd have to buy it from a cannery and can't use the fresh fish coming out of the river. Which means I will be able to check into the whole salmon-roe patties idea from Lark. :)

I was hoping to find the time to write an article addressing the Tea Party before I get too caught up in the details of opening. They're still not addressing communitarianism in their arguments and when I asked Gigi on fb how many people she knows in the movement who are aware of the communitarian theory, besides her, she said maybe a handful. They need to know that if they do not address the synthesis they will never succeed in restoring constitutional government.

The problem is many of the Tea Party "patriots" are so embedded in their dialectical side that they refuse to consider their own contribution to establishing totalitarian communitarianism. The right insists on blaming the left as if their side is beyond reproach, when if fact it took both sides to achieve the middle ground between the two. Both sides keep their focus on the other side and never look at the middle "solution," they never question the need for a "balance," which is where ALL their arguments lead. Tom DeWeese wrote an article recently warning the Tea Party people to watch out for infiltrators like Alex Jones and Larouchies. You'd think if DeWeese really cared about our nation he would include the most critical information the Tea Party could USE right now. But not only does he not include communitarians in the movement as the most deadly of all the infiltrators, he endorses one of the biggest communitarian liars in the game, Sarah Palin. The right is just as communitarianized as the left, and maybe even more so.

If you ask a Republican who the enemy is, odds are good they'll name the Democrats. Neither side wants to admit they're helping to establish global supremacy of communitarian law.

http://www.chronwatch-america.com/articles/2768/1/To-Quote-Pogo-quotWe-Have-Met-the-Enemy-and-They-Is-Us/Page1.html