We hosted the neighborhood potluck on the 4th and a good time was had by
all. Our neighbor Yolanda's father and his female companion were
visiting from Argentina so we served up fresh wild sockeye to give them
a taste of PacNW tradition. Anyway after we got done lamenting the state
of the country on this birthday I was able to broach the subject of the
crash with my neighbor Steve over a few beers. Turns out Steve was
intimately familiar with the story and he was more that happy to talk
about it. He spent 25 years with the NPS at Yukon Charlie and Gates of
the Arctic. He was very familiar with the crash site and had visited it
on numerous occasions. Besides floating the Charlie many times he and a
friend had mushed up the Charlie in winter and stayed in the cabins.
Apparently the cabins are easy enough to find since they are located in
obvious places like the intersection of a tributary. Mostly they
traveled by helicopter for work since the place is the size of Wales.
Steve said that they were able to deviate from their course when in the
area of the crash site to look for signs of the silk parachutes of the
missing crew members. No evidence was ever found.
When John McPhee's book _Coming into the Country_ was published in the
late '70's it caused quite a stir locally. There was a conflict with the
NPS mandate to preserve as wilderness//and remove man-made
structures//and the locals who wanted to preserve the wilderness cabins.
As justification they pointed to the survival story. This is just the
short version. It was much more complicated. A good part of Steve's
career was sorting out a compromise. As it stands my understanding is
that the cabins are historic structures but aren't maintained. Most of
the roofs are gone now and a few were destroyed by forest fires.
Anyway, interesting history.
M
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|