By Coleen (Walker) Mielke 2010
I recently re-discovered an interview I did with my father in 1985. It reminded me that time is marching on (for all of us) and it was now my turn to write down my memories of growing up in Chugiak during the 1950’s & 1960’s. All of the businesses mentioned in this story, thrived during my childhood but no longer exist. The people I mention were all Chugiak homesteaders as well as family friends. Keep in mind that this account is written through the eyes of my youth and may not be exactly correct; however, it is how I remember it.
My father, Ollie Walker, was the son of Jacob and Rosina Walker of Eureka, South Dakota. My mother, Kathleen “Kathy” (Furness) Walker, was the daughter of Thomas and Kate Furness of Cambridge, England. My folks met while dad was stationed in England during World War II. Immediately after getting married (in England), mom & dad came back to the United States and lived in North Dakota where Dad had a small farm.
I guess you could say tragedy brought my parents to Alaska. Their first baby died two days after birth because a farm town doctor failed to clear the babies lungs properly. The following year, my folks moved to Wahpeton, North Dakota. There Dad attended a vocational school for auto body repair and had a job grading roads. One weekend, while grading a narrow old country road, his grader accidentally killed a child that was hidden by tall grass beside the road. The little girls death, added to the death of their first born son, devastated my parents. They decided to make a new start…far away from North Dakota...so in March of 1950, they moved to Anchorage, Alaska.
The folks rented a tiny "house" behind the Stop & Shop Grocery in Mt. View; it was actually a large wooden packing crate from the military base, which someone converted into an “apartment” due to a serious housing shortage in Anchorage at that time. Dad found temporary work as a laborer on Elmendorf Air Force Base and had a second job as a pin setter at a Mt. View bowling alley at nights. I was born 2 months after they arrived in Alaska (1950), my sister Debbie was born in 1952, my brother Terry was born in 1955 and my sister Sherrie was born in 1957. We were all born in the old Providence Hospital at Ninth & L Street in Anchorage.
In the spring of 1950, my parents bought half an acre of land at mile 18½ of the Old Glenn Highway, near the Gib & Eileen Reid family. Life in the newly formed community of Chugiak was primitive but my parents liked the area because it was sparsely populated and open to homesteading. That summer dad secured a Civil Service Job on Fort Richardson Army Base, a job he would keep until his retirement in 1975.
In May of 1950, mom & dad filed an application with the Land Office for a 160 acre homestead at mile 17½ on the Old Glenn Highway. The Governments main requirement, before granting a homestead patent, was that the applicant live on and farm the land for five years. So, they sold their little cabin at mile 18½ and moved onto the homestead. They lived in an old building they had moved onto the property (which fulfilled the residency requirement) and they grew potatoes and raised chickens (which fulfilled the "farming" requirement). To make a little extra money on the weekends, dad bought a bulldozer and cleared land for neighboring homesteaders. Neighbors were very few and far between back then, as were grocery stores. In 1953, the "Chugiak Calendar" listed 4 places that you could buy food in the Chugiak area: Swanee Slopes (Swanson's), Moose Horn Trading Post (which offered gas, oil, groceries, laundry and showers), Allen's Grocery and Parks (which sold frozen food). I remember all of them being VERY small stores.
The birthday parties, for the first five years of my baby book (1950-55), read like an early Chugiak telephone directory (except there were no telephones in early Chugiak). Birthday gifts were received from:
Billy Cairnes
Olga Johnson
Roger & Millie Ball and children Timmy and Ronnie
Jim & Marie McDowell
Paul & Margaret Swanson and children Martha and Steven
Les & Dottie Fetrow and children Sandy, Larry and Karla Rae and Mary
The Sehm (or Simm?) Family
The Hatcher’s with children Bobby & Shirley
Simon & Bobbie Media and children Simon, David and Paul
Pat & Mickey Earles and children
The Curry’s and children Corky and Stevie
Gib & Eileen Reid and children Mike, Doug, Brian and Carolynn
The Gibsons with daughters Michael & Gale
The Frary’s with daughters Maureen & Star
Allen & Rose Pearce and son Larry
Aden & Jo Cates and children Kenneth, Pat, and Denise
Robert & Susie Aubrey and children Robyn, Audrey and Rhonda
Velda, Vesta and Bobby Land
Jess & Doris Straight and children Linda, Ryan (also known as Stubby)
and Candy
The Gunnell’s and son Gregory
Cafree's
I started first grade, in 1956, at the Old Chugiak Elementary (mile 19 on the Old Glenn Highway). The first day of school, we were all lined up and given DPT shots. Several of us had serious reactions and Mrs. Emmert (the principals wife) decided it was because the nurse had used the same syringe for everyone…times have certainly changed. Starting in the third grade, kids qualified for free hot lunches if they helped wash dishes in the school kitchen (before the days of automatic dishwashers). A popular lunch was moose meat stew (schools received road killed moose in those days) served with homemade bread, made by a wonderful cook named Penn Lee who was Paul Swanson’s sister; she was a fabulous baker.
Paul Swanson ran the Post Office across the street from the school. Every day, his Collie dog came over to the playground during noon recess, and every day, Mr. Swanson came over to scold the dog and chase him home with a board. I do not know which was worse for Mr. Swanson, the humiliation of a misbehaving dog or the jeering kids on the playground (we all wanted the dog to stay and play).
By 1956, (old) Chugiak Elementary was very crowded. Overflow classes were held in surplus Army buildings and Quonset huts. My first grade teacher (1956) was Miss Rowland (later Mrs. Waterman); my second grade class (I can’t remember the teachers name) was held in the Methodist church across the street from the school; my third grade teacher was Mrs. May; my fourth grade teacher was Miss Eggleston (later Mrs. Aske); my fifth grade teacher was Mrs. Golden Pettit and my sixth grade teacher was Mr. Kerr.
In 1962, they changed the school boundaries and I attended 7th and 8th grade in Eagle River. My teachers were Mr. Rouse, Mrs. Carole Connell and Mrs. Golden Pettit (again). I attended Chugiak High School the first year it opened, in 1964 and graduated from CHS in 1968; we were the first class to attend all 12 grades in Chugiak/Eagle River. Before Chugiak High School was opened in 1964, students were bussed into Anchorage to complete high school.
I do not recall what year telephones were installed in Chugiak, but I know it must have been in the late 1950’s. Before that, dad and three other neighbors established a “do-it-yourself” homestead phone system. They strung surplus Army wire between homesteads and hooked up World War II, EE-8 Army field phones. The field phone had a standard receiver, which hung from the side of a ten pound canvas covered battery pack base, and it had a hand crank that powered a 100 volt ringing generator. One full revolution of the hand crank (which was very hard to turn) meant everyone on the system would hear one full ring from their field phone. Supposedly, each family had its own designated number of rings but realistically, any time the phone rang, everyoneour phone system were the Robert Schoonmaker’s, the Robert Aubrey’s and the Hank Aust’s. answered it and listened in. Only a few families could be connected to any given phone line; the other three families connected to
Mom was very homesick for England and nurtured friendships with other war brides in the area such as Jo Cates, Daphne Monroe, Daisey Shetzle, Eileen Reid, Violet Hall, Edna Seabolt, Dorothy Liska, and other names lost in time. Many afternoons were spent with these English friends chatting and reminiscing over tea and biscuits. In the 1960's, Mom and British pal Violet Hall spearheaded a door to door fund raising drive for a new building to house the Chugiak Volunteer Fire Department on the Old Glenn Highway.
In the spring of 1954, thinking they were well on their way to completing their homestead requirements, mom and dad had their land surveyed and submitted the final homestead application papers. That is when they were told they had made a critical error that would cost them over half of their homestead. The Homestead Act allowed people to file on a single piece of property. The land my parents staked was technically two pieces of property since the Old Glenn Highway ran through one side of the homestead. The Government made them choose which side of the highway they wanted to apply for. After much thought, they decided to file for the smaller parcel (that lay up against the mountains) because their home was on it and because it included Fire Creek. They released their claim to the 100 acres that lay on the west side of the highway and were granted a U. S. Patent No. 1152305 to the remaining 58.62 acres at mile 17½ of the Old Glenn Highway in 1955.
In 1958, my parents inadvertently went into pig farming when JoAnn Vanover gave mom a baby pig that was destined to be destroyed because of a crippled back leg. Before long, mom went back to Vanover’s and got another baby pig; two summers later, our pigs had 11 piglets of their own. They grew quickly, and that fall dad hired a fellow dog musher named Joe Traversie to slaughter and dress the pigs. Joe was a Sioux Indian and his wife Gladys was an Eskimo. She was an excellent skin sewer and made beautiful mukluks with moose-hide soles and intricate seal and caribou fur trim. She had a son (my age) named Eddie Serrin (not sure of that spelling). Joe Traversie was a custodian at Chugiak High School when it opened in 1964, he was quite a character.
Our homestead fronted the Old Glenn Highway, from the northern tip of Upper Fire Lake, to (today’s) Del’s Lane. The homestead consisted of our home, a Jamesway hut storage shed, a large pole barn, a small travel trailer, chicken coops and the obligatory outhouse. The Jamesway hut was a 16’x32’surplus military building (canvas skin over wood ribs) where dad stored bales of hay and 50 lb. bags of oats for his dog team. The travel trailer was used to store dog harnesses, rigging and extra chain. The pole barn was made of spruce poles, covered with corrugated aluminum and must have been about 15’x30’. It was primarily for dry storage, but occasionally locals who were down on their luck, or families burned out of their homes, lived in our barn.
Besides the pigs, we had six goats, dozens of guinea hens (for the eggs), rabbits, a cow, and forty sled dogs. The dogs were Dad’s passion and he made his own dog harnesses as well as his own freight and race sleds. In the winter, the dogs were fed a cooked mixture of meat, tallow scraps and oats. Dad got the meat trimmings and tallow, free, from a (dog friendly) butcher at the Piggly Wiggly store in Mt. View. The ingredients were then cooked in a huge pot, over an outdoor burner to form an easily digestible meal for the dogs.
Mom and dad were charter members of the Chugiak Dog Mushing Club and meetings were held in our living room. Dad raced dogs in the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous and at the Tozier Track on Tudor Road. He also raced dogs, most weekends, on Walt & Melva Pippel’s 90-acre vegetable farm, in downtown Eagle River. Today “Pippel’s field” is covered with a variety of businesses, including the Carr’s grocery store.
Although Dad did not win any dog races, he won first and second place trophies in the Fur Rendezvous weight pull competition two years in a row in the late 1950’s. His lead dog, Yukon, won first place for pulling over 1,200 pounds and in the three dog class, his team pulled 2,350 pounds.
When mom and dad originally staked the Chugiak homestead, we had zero neighbors, however people moved into the area quickly. Robert & Lillian Schoonmaker moved in on the hill at mile 18 (their house was later purchased by the William & Phyllis Watkins family). Across the Old Glenn Highway from our house, lived Barry and Creatus Darby, Jerry & Leona Setters, the Gardners, Denzel & Daisey Schetzel, Burrell & Louise Frary, Connie & Mary Brinson and Charlie & Jeanie Crane. They all lived on the same street (today it is called Darby Rd.). Three of these families had close ties (Frary, Setters and Crane). Burrell and Louise Frary’s son (“Sonny”) married Jerry and Leona Setters daughter (Wilma), and Burrell Frary and Charlie Crane grew up together in Montana and were life long friends.
Just north of Darby Road, was the log home of James and Janell Lamay. James was the son of Clarence Lamay of Eagle River. James was accidentally killed in his own front yard in 1962, when his gun fired while he was putting it into the gun rack in his truck. The Liska family later lived in that house.
North of the Lamay/Liska house is Athanasius Street where the St. John Orthodox Church is. When I was growing up, that road had no name. The only people who lived on it were the Cremin’s, the Radiskie’s and the Despain’s (the road dead ended just past the Despain’s house). The Cremin's had two school age sons who were notorious for their trouble making in the neighborhood. Just north of Athanasius Street (on the same side of the road) was a tiny little green house where Yadie Hutchison lived. Yadie & her husband made home brew one summer and lined the bottles up on a shelf above the kitchen range. Yadie used to baby-sit us kids, occasionally, and one of these times, she turned on her oven, which heated up the home brew bottles to the point of explosion. One by one, as if they were all expertly timed to explode every few seconds, the bottles popped their caps and fountains of beef foam cascaded over Yadie's kitchen. Yadie later moved to the Birchwood Loop and a young family moved into the Hutchison house that had a daughter my age . She used to go to Sunday School with us and her arms, neck and chest were deeply and horribly scarred from a boiling water accident when she was very young. I can't remember her name.
Some of my parent’s more colorful friends deserve mention in this story. In no particular order, I start with Nora Collett. The first time I met Nora, she was selling small bags of delicious coconut brittle and divinity, for 50¢, at the bingo concession stand in the Chugiak VFW Hall. She also had a small candy shop in the Tommy Slanker building near Eagle River Elementary. After school, kids walked over to her shop and bought broken candies at a discount price from Nora. If you made noise in Nora's shop, or if you were less than respectful, she would give you a tongue-lashing and banish you from the store. Nora was famous for closing her candy store, on a sunny day, and putting up a hand lettered sign that said, “gone fishing…you should too!”
Another colorful family friend was Dotty Cochran. Dottie’s husband’s name was Corky Cochran and dad did a lot of land clearing on their homestead in the early years. Dotty went to jail for shooting a man that she said was attacking her in her house. Whether he did or did not assault Dottie, the legend was that, when the police arrived, the dead man was still sitting upright, in a chair, with his legs crossed at the knees and his cigarette was still between his fingers. Dotty was a character, she always dressed in mens Hawaiian shirts…combed her greased hair straight back, jokingly threatened to steal everyone’s husband and swore like a sailor; she was a great person.
Fred Bustrin, known as Chief Chugiak, rented some land from my father and opened a jewelry shop on the north end of our homestead. He was a giant, diabetic bachelor who told the tourists he was from the village of Egegik but in reality, he was from the East Coast. He made gold nugget jewelry and a variety of other items, such as forget-me-nots, cast in resin. Fred paid local kids 50¢ a coffee can for moose nuggets "in perfect condition". He used the droppings to make novelty earrings and necklaces as well as a very popular item called a “moosequito”. A “moosequito” was an oversized mosquito made out of moose droppings and porcupine quills; he sold hundreds of them, to tourists, every summer. His partner was Fred Buske, a dog musher; the two were locally known as Big Fred and Little Freddie.
In 1952, dad sold five acres on the south end of the homestead to Bob & Susie Aubrey. Bob was in the military and had a shop in his basement where he sold eyeglasses. He and his family spent some time in Okinawa so Bob’s optometry shop was decorated with Japanese souvenirs and dried, inflated puffer fish hanging on strings from the ceiling. They had three children, Robyn (we knew him as "Robbie"), Audrey and Rhonda; "Robbie" died in a fire at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks in 1968. The Aubrey's raised chickens. I remember a traumatic summer when my mother helped Susie in the butchering process. Robbie's job was to cut the chickens heads off with an ax and then the headless chickens ran all around the yard before they died. There was a 55 gallon drum of water with a wood fire under it, that they dunked the dead chickens in before they pulled out the feathers. Needless to say, I didn't eat chicken for a long time after that.
In the mid 1950’s, dad sold five acres, on the north end of the homestead, to Hank and Pat Aust. Today, their driveway is a street called Del’s Lane and the property is owned by the Koehler’s. In 1960, Jerry Setters, who first lived on Darby Road, bought 2½ acres of our homestead, just south of our house. As part of that sale, dad put in a road easement between our homestead and the land he sold to Setters. He named the road New Market Road, after the street in Cambridge, England where my mother was born. In 1965, dad sold a small piece of the homestead to Dr. Green (Eagle Rivers only doctor at the time).
In 1960, two Native girls moved into the neighborhood; their last name was Mosquito. Their mother was an excellent skin sewer and made beautifully beaded miniature mukluks that she turned into zipper pulls and Eskimo yo-yo’s; her daughters sold them at my school for 50¢. They lived deep in the woods across the street from my house (off of today’s Darby Road). Their “house” was like nothing I had ever seen before or since. It was just a dirt cave deep in the side of a hill. The hole was obviously hand dug because the moss, plants and trees that grew on top of the cave were totally undisturbed. The entrance to their “house” was framed with unpeeled spruce poles about 5’ tall and their door was a tarp. The interior walls were covered with old gray boards and their floor was smooth dirt. I don’t recall a stove of any kind although there must have been one because the girls’ clothes smelled like a wood fire. Mrs. Mosquito was a short, sturdy woman who was all business and said very little. I have no idea where they came from or where they went when they left…one day they were just gone.
Less than a quarter mile north of our driveway was Del’s Drive Inn, or I should say, the empty shell of Del’s Drive Inn. Originally owned by Sareefa Wright, it was a 6’ x 8’ abandoned (walk up) sandwich stand on the right side of the highway at mile 17¾. In 1958, the “building” was still in good shape and had a plywood counter, a couple of papered shelves and a wire dish drainer. Neighborhood kids used it as a playhouse.
At mile 18, just north of
the intersection of the Old Glenn Highway and South Birchwood loop, was Ralph
Anderson's gas station. Ralph received patent to his land in 1957. He was
quite an industrious man, he ran the gas station, put in a small trailer
court, built a small restaurant next to the gas station (the Wheel-R-In),
he sold gravel, pumped septic tanks and even ran for the office of Governor
at one time. Ralph and his wife Bernie (Bernelda Mae Thorson) had 9
children (children all born at home): Danny, Ralph Jr. (Andy), Polly, Patty,
Peggy, Wendy, Paul, David & Russell who died as a baby.
Today, a small sunken house sits on the south side of today’s the old Fuji Gift shop. In the 1950’s it was owned by former Matanuska Colonists named Einar and Inez Huseby. They were wonderful people who had exotic birds and ran a “bath house” at that location.
In the early 1950’s, we got our mail and gasoline from Moose Horn Lodge at mile 18½. The lodge was owned by Jim & Marie McDowell. Marie had a (horseshoe shaped) café counter, hot showers and post office boxes; Jim ran the gas pump and a tow truck. The McDowell’s made everyone feel welcome and the lodge always smelled like good food and strong coffee. Long after they were gone, Moose Horn became a bus garage for the Anchorage School District and later yet it was turned into apartments. It burned to the ground in 2007.
A stones throw north of Moose Horn was a small log coffee shop, on a little hill right beside the road, owned by Cloyce and Justine Parks. Today, that location is part of the Klondike Concrete Co. driveway. As I remember it, the little diner had the only neon sign north of Anchorage. I don’t remember anyone having running water when I was a kid; everyone got their water from Parks Creek that ran near Park’s coffee shop. It was quite an ordeal to fill our military surplus (five gallon) water cans in the winter. There was usually a spot in the creek that was not frozen over and Dad had to lie on his belly, in the snow and hold our water cans under the water to fill them up. It was fairly common for there to be a line of cars waiting at the creek for water.
At mile 20, sits a tiny, dark log house on the right side of the Old Glenn Highway. Years ago, we all knew it as the Spring Creek Lodge; as a child, I thought it was a big building. My family ate there on very special occasions only. It had red plaid tablecloths and the best banana cream pie in the world.
The Chugiak VFW Hall (at about mile 21) was a military surplus building that housed bingo games and dances; the huge Chugiak Senior Center and apartments are built in that location today. Just north of the VFW Hall, was the location for the Chugiak Benefit Associations annual spring carnival. People came from as far away as Anchorage to attend three days of motorcycle races, games, food booths, beauty contests and of course, Les Fetrow as the carnival clown.
Before the North Birchwood Loop overpass was built, the north end of the Birchwood Loop left the Old Glenn highway at mile 21. Today, mile 21 would be where the rear parking lot of the new Chugiak Elementary School is. From there, the old Birchwood Loop followed a sharp ridge back towards the Birchwood Loop we are all familiar with (except it ran behind today’s Circle S Grocery building, instead of in front of it). On that ridge, was the Birchwood Loop dump. Paralleling the old Loop, it was a crude 400’ open dumpsite, which had no fees, no regulation and minimal maintenance. People dumped everything imaginable there. Bigger items like vehicles, old appliances and dead animals, were pushed over the ridge, but most of the household garbage was just tossed onto a heap beside the road. Occasionally, when the garbage started to spill out onto the Loop road, someone would bulldozer it back towards the ridge and set it on fire. The dump was so large that it could be seen, cascading down the bluff, as you drove south towards the Peters Creek Bridge on the Old Glenn Highway. My husband John remembers a whale that was dumped there in 1962. Evidently, it died while it was being prepared for shipment to a lower 48 aquatic zoo, and for unknown reasons, it ended up at the Birchwood Loop dump; you can imagine the smell.
Just past the Old Glenn Highway-Birchwood Loop intersection, on the right, was a long uphill driveway (today it’s called Lace Street). At the end of that driveway was the First Baptist Church of Birchwood, which my parents were charter members of. It was housed in a WWII surplus building and had a membership of about 45 people. When the church moved to its present day location on the Birchwood Loop, it sold the old church building to Ted Sadler who used it as his first Alaska furniture store.
Reece & Gracie Tatro had a hamburger and ice cream shop in Peters Creek at about mile 22. They called it the Dairy Delight and it was a popular “Sunday drive” destination for many people. Today, the Dairy Delight has morphed into Bella Vista Pizza.
From the Dairy Delight, still heading north on the Old Glenn Highway, there was a store called Allen’s Grocery owned by George & Gracie Allen. It was built on a ridge, on the left side of the highway, just north of (today’s) Mt. Eklutna Drive. Allen’s Grocery was tiny, but invaluable, since it was the only grocery store for miles around…and because it let people carry a tab until payday.
That is about as far north as my memories take me. Now, I will list the people and businesses I was familiar with, heading south, towards Eagle River, from our homestead.
Today, there is an old dilapidated building sitting at the mile 17 summit of the Old Glenn Highway (½ mile south of our driveway). In its heyday, it was the Fire Lake Lodge, owned by Jim & Lillian Polyefko and was a favorite “watering hole” for locals and military bachelors until it burned down in 1954. The lodge was rebuilt, but by 1960, it became the private residence of the Bruton family (one son Roy Bruton and foster son Ted Adkins). Later yet, it was a Jehovah Witness Church. Just south of the lodge was Ralph Rollins’ gas station…his eccentric wife kept a skunk and a raven in her office.
My mom used to have coffee and chat with friends who owned a little used furniture shop (on the north end of Eagle River) called the “Swap & Shop”. It was owned by Melba Charles and her sister-in-law, Floss Charles (their husbands Tony & Willie were brothers). Floss Charles had two daughters, Gayle and Tonia who sold fireworks (next to the used furniture shop).Melba had a son (my age) named Forrest and an older son named Terry. As I remember it, the “Swap & Shop” sat next to Jesse & Nella Wooten’s Tasty Freeze (remnants of Wooten’s ice cream stand still exist). Another business in that area (across from today’s McDonalds) was the Lamp Post Inn, an upscale, family style hotel, run by the Bowen family.
In the heart of Eagle River was the Market Basket grocery store in the Eagle River Shopping Center. In 1960, it was the only store, between Anchorage and Palmer to have a full service meat counter. When the Market Basket store closed, it was replaced by Value City Grocery and after that it was a Carr’s Grocery. Decades later, Carr’s Grocery built a big store on Pippel’s field in Eagle River.
Just south of the Market Basket, and a stones throw north of Monte Rd., was McGann’s Grocery. It was a very small wooden structure that looked more like a house than a store. The store had two entrances, one for basic groceries like bread and canned goods and the other entrance was a liquor store. The little store was popular with Eagle River kids because it had an excellent penny candy counter. The McGann family lived in the back of the store and you often had to knock on their door (which was next to the bread shelf) and ask them if you could pay for something.
Before the existence of today’s divided four-lane highway (that bypasses Eagle River and Chugiak), the Old Glenn Highway used to be a narrow two-lane road that ran right through the heart of Eagle River, Chugiak, Peters Creek and up against the edge of Mirror Lake. I do not recall a single stop light or stop sign in Eagle River.
When I was a kid, the north and south approaches to the Eagle River Bridge were two lanes, very steep, very narrow and unlit. When the roads were particularly icy, traffic would come to a full stop at the top of the hill (in both directions). Vehicles waited for the car in front of them to get over the bridge and back up the other side before they made their own bonsai attempt. This practice began out of necessity, because some people did not make it up the other side on their first try and had to back down the treacherous grade, it was terrifying.
There was not a lot for teenagers to do in Eagle River in the mid-1960’s. A favorite place for teens with cars, was the parking lot in front of the Eagle River Shopping Center. Most of us just sat in our cars and watched the impromptu tire squealing contests and listened to the ensuing rpm flexing. One summer, someone tried to organize street dances in the parking lot, but they did not go over very well. Eagle River only had one Alaska State Trooper, in the mid-1960’s… Trooper Dubber, who lived in the trailer court on the hill behind the Eagle River Shopping Center. The teenagers kept him pretty busy with traffic tickets, etc., although I don’t remember a lot of other crime during that time.
A favorite sledding hill was Monte Rd., next to the Eagle River Baptist Church. We called it “suicide hill” for obvious reasons. When traffic was light, kids would sled down that steep road, and (hopefully) stop before a car came. Half way up “suicide hill” (and on the left) was the Eagle River Bowling Alley. My mother had a snack bar there from 1962-1964. Floyd Smith was the manager, Phyllis Stewart was the secretary, Denny Marquis was the custodian and Frank Ryan owned the bar/lounge.
On March 27, 1964, I was helping mom at the bowling alley snack bar when the "big earthquake" hit. At first, I was not sure what was happening. I could hear/feel a deep rumble that sounded like an earth excavator pushing against the building. Within seconds, all of the snack bar salt and peppershakers bounced off the shelf and landed in the deep fryer, causing a huge boil over. Stacks of glass dinner plates crashed to the floor and the bowling pins in all ten lanes fell over, causing the big orange Brunswick Crown logo’s (that indicated a strike) to simultaneously light up over every bowling lane. I remember somone shouting "what the *#&$% is that?" and Mr. Smith yelled "it's an earthquake!!" The next heave knocked all of the bowling balls off their storage racks and that is when everyone decided we might be safer outside. As we ran out of the building, I saw Mr. Ryan, through the large plate glass windows that divided his lounge from the main bowling alley. He had both arms stretched out, valiantly trying to stop dozens of liquor bottles from sliding off his counters; his eyes were as big as saucers. Once outdoors, the first thing I noticed was the absence of everyday noise…no cars, no machinery, no construction, no dogs barking or people noises. All I could hear was the deep rumble coming from the earth and the sound of overhead electrical lines making a zinging noise as the power poles caused the lines to alternate from very slack to very taut. The earth was moved so violently that it was nearly impossible to stand up and we steadied ourselves by standing with our feet far apart; it seemed like the shaking would never stop. Mr. Ryan finally gave up the fight to save his liquor bottles, and tried to exit the big glass bowling alley doors. The shifting building had jammed the doors shut, leaving him banging on the glass with his fists…reminiscent of Dustin Hoffman in the Graduate. Fifteen seconds later, the building shifted again and the big doors sprung open and released him. The earthquake shook for nearly five minutes!!
After the earthquake, the bowling alley was set up as a refuge for people that needed a place to stay. Since the electricity and telephones were out, mom sent me down to the grocery store to ask the manager if they could help feed those who were gathering. The store was a mess; the big plate windows were broken, the isles were completely blocked by fallen merchandise that was at least two feet deep, the store smelled of broken pickle jars and it was dark and very quiet. The manager generously donated lunchmeat, bread, chips, milk, soda, ice and anything else that he could not keep without refrigeration. Mom and best friend, Yadie Hutchison, used the facilities at the snack bar to make hundreds of sandwiches for people who were camping out on the floor of Mr. Ryan’s lounge over the next three days.
Our house didn’t suffer very much damage during the earthquake, just a few broken dishes and a gold fish that sloshed out of its bowl. We had countless earth tremors over the next week. Our whole dog team seemed to sense when a shake was approaching and howled in unison before each sizeable tremor. The earthquake happened on a Good Friday holiday, so schools were closed and no one was hurt when the gymnasium walls of Eagle River Elementary School collapsed. The people of Chugiak & Eagle River were very lucky; most of the damage was limited to collapsed chimneys, wells that went dry and other minor damage.
In 1968, my parents sold their homestead, at mile 17½, to Jimmie & Joyce Connell and moved to Anchorage. They were good people and like many other early Chugiak pioneers, they worked hard, packed water, battled the elements, lived paycheck to paycheck, pitched in when a neighbor needed a hand, broke fish & game laws (when it was necessary) and participated in many “firsts” for Chugiak. In their “golden years”, they spent their winters in Texas and summers in a small house they built on a reserved slice (on the north end) of the old homestead. Mom died in 1992 and is buried out at the Butte Cemetery, near Palmer. Dad died in 2007 and is buried in California.
Written by:
Coleen (Walker) Mielke
coleen@mtaonline.net
