Episode 22: Thom Andriesen; What Does A Small Town Owe Its Volunteers?

A Disney crew, a Gold Rush story, and a tiny Alaska town that had to pull off big-league logistics in the dead of winter. We’re joined by longtime Haines resident Tom Andriesen, a familiar face to anyone who’s spent time around town, and he walks us through how White Fang ended up filming entirely in the Chilkat Valley and what it took to make it happen day to day.

Tom shares the behind-the-scenes reality of movie production in Southeast Alaska, from scouting and paperwork to moving trailers, tents, restrooms, security, and keeping sets safe in remote locations like Chilkoot Lake and Nataga Creek. Along the way, we hear about meeting actors, housing animal trainers, and why film workflows looked so different in the 35mm era.

We also zoom out into the fuller Haines story: growing up between Seattle and Alaska summers, his family’s Alaska-made art and gift shop hustle, and the fairgrounds accident at age 12 that led to 13 surgeries and later changed his career path after an engineering degree. Tom talks candidly about decades as a volunteer firefighter and EMT, the strain of middle-of-the-night calls, and why small towns depend on people who keep showing up. If you love Haines Alaska history, White Fang filming location stories, volunteer EMT life, or the real mechanics of tourism in Southeast Alaska, you’ll find a lot here.

Subscribe for more local conversations, share this with a friend who loves Alaska stories, and leave a review if you want to help the show grow. What’s one moment in your life that changed everything without warning?

Transcript

Welcome And How To Listen

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, thanks for joining us for this episode of Doug Hat's Questions. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please like, subscribe. We're available if you want to watch us on YouTube or if you just want to listen to the podcast version on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and each episode goes live on Thursday morning. So I hope you enjoy this episode and we're happy to have you listening. Welcome to this edition of Doug Has Questions. Today my guest is longtime Haynes resident Tom Andreessen. First started coming to Haynes when he was a kid, and besides being volunteer fire department EMT, longtime employee at LuTech Lumber. So thanks for joining us, Tom. Great to be here. I'm sure there's many other things that I didn't include in that introduction, but hopefully we'll get to them as we have our conversation here.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

A good chunk of it? All right. Glad I got most of it. Yeah, in fact.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

It just occurred to me it'll be 36 years in September being at Lutec Lumbers.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

36 years.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

So it's have you have you told Chip in that that you know at four more years here there needs to be a pretty big party?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Well, when the when the invoice number goes to a million and kicks over, that's when I'm going to retire. That's when you're going to retire. Yeah, we're at 90 96,960 some odd thousand. But anyway.

Growing Up Seattle Bound

SPEAKER_01 1:21

So it's it's coming. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming. All right. Well, before we start talking about your upcoming retirement, let's let's go back a couple of years. What what was your childhood like?

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Where were you where did you start off life? Uh Seattle. Uh born born there and uh lived uh in the suburbs there, Mercer Island, and uh dad taught at a community college and uh teaching mechanical drawing, technical dra um engineer engineering drafting, and uh for primarily uh feeding people into the Boeing uh system of of engineering. And so with summers off, we would go exploring, and dad got the idea in 1970 that we should come up and check out Alaska because he'd he'd been you know born and raised in Seattle too, and there's always a pretty tight connection between Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. So yeah, so we started coming up here for summers and uh toured toured around the the state for like th two years, two two summers, and um went on up to Fairbanks and Anchorage and Dawson City over in the Yukon and stuff. And uh dad dad really you know really wanted to try and figure out some way to to live here, and um so we uh they they got some property here in Haynes. He really liked it when they'd been coming through. And so we we built a a place here. Uh dad and I started we assembled it in our yard actually in Seattle, which kind of surpr you know, we were not the typical neighbors uh in in resident, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

So you guys are pref pre-fabbing it in Mercer Island and then shipping it up here?

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yep, took it apart and then uh reassembled it here and and uh uh so uh yeah, so that that's how so in 72 we wound up starting to spend summers here in Haynes. And um yeah, it it was uh it was kind of a fun fun childhood having winters, you know, being a snowbird.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Instead of waiting until you retired, you started off as a snowbird.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

So we we uh obviously dad was teaching, so we'd go down there and and uh uh then uh come back up and and start hanging out here and he started developing his art. He he he was a very talented draftsman and and then started doing pen and ink drawings and um he he got very involved with or very interested in the whole gold rush history and stuff and and so we'd we'd poke around here and go up to Porcupine and go go up to Whitehorse and and uh he'd he'd start taking taking pictures to to then do pen and ink drawings and so that that kind of started after he started coming to Haynes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Before it was all just drafting, huh?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Yep, yeah. It was much more he he worked at Boeing back in the 50s, and then the Seattle Community College system started this this job placement program and uh in the 60s, and so that was his his primary thing was to develop that. But uh so yeah, he started uh doing the art and then we were trying to make figure out a way to to sell it, and so we we wound up making a last tr taking his art and putting it into uh things for for the gift shops around the state. So we'd we'd go around to the stores and sell it it would be tote bags with his designs on it, and note cards and the Alaska mosquito ty uh uh mosquito trap and uh uh just you know kind of schmaltzy stuff like that. But the idea was it was actually made in Alaska, not made in Taiwan. And um we we were busy doing that for several decades, and um yeah, I've still got quite a few of his prints. Of course, we in um like 1982 we built uh the gallery on Second and Willard, which is now called Uniquely Alaska. But he and I built that.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

That's right, that was your guys' first, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah, it one of the funniest things was I was um in high had gone south um for my senior year of high school and they were still up here in September, and and uh they called me up and they said, Yeah, we're gonna we bought a piece of property downtown, we're gonna build a gallery. And uh it's like, well, we'd already had at our property there on Beach Road, we had the workshop we had converted into partly into a gallery, but the location was kind of out of town and stuff like that. So uh so I I said, you know, where you know, great, where'd you buy the you know what property is this? And he goes, behind Housers. And I don't know if you remember, but the parts the parts place was the post office. Yeah, but then that road, which is Willard, actually just curved and went through what is now the parking lot of Hausers up to Main Street. And I said, Dad, why you why'd you buy down there? And he goes, Well, I got good information that they're gonna be pushing 2nd Avenue down from Main Street to the Haynes Highway next summer. It's like, oh, okay, no problem. So sure enough, we start building the gallery and and get it opened up and and here comes the road work to to put put uh so what what year was that that they were putting the second avenue all the way through the highway? I believe it was 82, might have been 81. I think right very early 80s. Yeah. So yeah, but uh yeah, so um yeah, we we ran my primarily my by that time I was going to college and stuff like that. So but I was summers, I'd come back up and help them and then also drive tour bus for the Haynes Street Car Company, uh Alaska Sightseeing. Um it was it was kind of a fun, fun thing to do, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

And and uh so besides besides working when you're in Haynes in the summertime as a kid, before you were that age, was it was it all about the business? So when you're up here, were you just driving around selling stuff? Or yeah, you do go out getting out hiking, fishing, any of that?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

We we would we would just go we we'd do some hiking, you know, with with my friends from here, we'd go hiking and uh just do the typical hangout, go have a bonfire someplace, stuff like that. And uh dad was into fishing, so we'd always hit Chilcoot Lake a lot for Dolly Vardens. That was primarily what we would do. And I tended to always just throw the lures into the water because the the the fish gods never were were good to me. We were never kind to you. Dad would catch you know Dolly Vardins left and right, and I'd just snag everything. And uh so I would just toss them in and call it call it a day. But yeah, so but yeah, it uh it's it was uh kind of kind of a fun fun way to grow up. And you know, we'd we'd go up into the Yukon and poke around up there and um just kind of uh check things out.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

And what was that like for a difference? Because you're growing up on Mercer Island, which is right right in the middle of I mean you're Mercer Island isn't itself, but you're right in a metropolitan area with Seattle and everything. Mercer Island High School, I'm sure, was fairly large. And yeah, and then you come up to Alaska and the say Haynes in the summertime. Yeah, it's a pretty distinct difference between those two.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

It was. Um I uh you know, it it was I'd have my friends down there that couldn't relate to what I was doing up here, and then I had friends up here that couldn't re-relate to down there, and but um you know, Mercer Island is now a quite well-to-do area. At that time, it was still very much being developed. Our neighborhood, you know, we we my my dad had built the house. It was kind of a serial builder too. He'd we built like three or four homes as I was growing up and on the island, and we would move, build it, and move to the next one. And uh, but we we were definitely the the odd neighbor in the neighborhood because um, you know, of the most everybody, you know, just went to Sun Valley for a vacation or you know, go camping in Mount in Rainier National Park or something like that. And here we go, you know, loading up the the truck full of stuff for the business and trucking up to to Alaska or putting it onto the ferry, uh a trailer full of stuff up to the ferry uh onto the ferry to to take it up here. And um, so did you guys usually drive up or like you said, taking the ferry most of the time? We would drive up, yeah. And uh you sometimes to Prince Rupert and then uh then we did the Alaska Highway in the first time in 71 in uh Winnebago, and that was very it was a challenge. Um very a lot of mud.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Alaska Highway was wasn't quite what it is today back in 71, was it?

Building A Cabin And Selling Art

SPEAKER_00 10:24

It's way better. And uh so yeah, we would we would primarily drive it. Um through high school, I would get on the ferry uh in Seattle at the that time. That uh before we moved up to Bellingham for that. Yeah, terminal 49, I think it was a 48. And uh I they'd send me up and I'd open up the buildings and get things going while dad and mom continued to work down there and they'd come up a few weeks later. But uh they just put me on the ferry and give me give me some money for the food and get up here and I'd I'd hang out and and get things going and they'd they'd follow up shortly. But uh later on we, you know, I I had a pickup truck and would haul stuff up here, and they would also run a truck up too. But uh yeah. What what did your mom do? She um uh was a a housewife for um part of the time, uh, was a librarian at our at our grade school when we were uh there on Mercer Island. Um pretty much she was the one that really kept dad organized, ran all the book work, kept him focused on what you know, he he he he was very creative. Um uh back in fact our our I'm surprised our neighbors didn't just you know call the cops on us sometimes because my dad belonged to this group of guys that were um were clo where they would dress up as clowns and and go to the all these parades around the Pacific Northwest, and they designed all these goofy clown cars. And my uncle was a crazy good mechanic, and they had like a fire engine that would could spray water from every port on it and have a fake engine drop out after a smoke bomb goes out and stuff like that. And so our front yard on Mercer Island, you know, this quaint little suburb of Seattle, had four or five of these clown cars parked in it all the time. Had a bathtub that was a go-kart. Um the train that's at the state fair was actually from that group. Okay, and um my dad, my dad, we were involved with the fair in the 70s, and um that group of guys, dad kind of stepped away from it because he was up here, you know, now and um couldn't really partake in all that fun and games. And uh so um he said, you know, to the fair, it's like, hey, we've got this train that we don't really need anymore. We we'd run around our neighborhood. In fact, that's the first vehicle I learned to drive was at the end. Was it the train? And we just give all the kids around town a uh you know a ride um at the church, you know, picnics or stuff that we'd have there, we'd just pull up with that, and the kids would hop on and we'd run them around the the area. And um, so yeah, we uh that came from from that group and uh it got loaded on the ferry and we we picked it up here and drove it into town and it's been here ever since.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

So I have I have memories of your dad driving that train in the parade, and yeah, he'd drive it in the parade and then also at the fairgrounds. A lot of times you'd see Pete driving that.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah, he he he liked doing that even when he was older, and and uh so but yeah, so yeah, our our neighborhood there in Seattle was kind of always kind of like, oh yeah, that's that's just Pete again, you know. So that that and Dorisan family, I don't know. So but uh yeah, so we would um yeah, we were involved with the fair in the in the 70s, and a lot of a lot of times it was every Saturday there was always a work party there and uh with with hamburgers at the end, and I don't know, we one of the projects was just pouring the concrete floor in Harriet Hall, getting that done and building the food booths and the main stage, and uh so we we did a a fair amount of that.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

And uh one of my earliest memories with my dad was watching him while he was painting Harriet Hall because he he had built Harriet Hall and I think the barn, and then he had this commercial sprayer. Yep. He's out there, and I just remember him. I I I don't know exact words, but I know he's often frustrated because the sprayer wasn't working correctly.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

There's a lot of square footage on those buildings.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

There's a lot of square footage on those buildings, yeah. And you know, I'm just messing around in the wood chips or whatever, just like, all right, well at that I was young enough, there wasn't anything I can do to help him. Right. But I was I was just kind of hanging out while he was up and down the ladder spraying and putting the first coat of paint on those buildings.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Yeah, that was uh yeah, I was like you, I was quite often I was almost too young to do anything, but you're always you're always kind of there. You're you're you're into what's going on, even if it's picking up scrap wood or collecting nails to straighten out and use again, which we did that a fair amount. Right there with you. So you're not throwing those away. Yeah, no, no, that's those can be used again.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

So I forget what it was, what project we had going on. And you know, if they the contractors, if they dropped just a nail, they were just leaving it and everything. Yeah, and I was going around like, oh my god, we cannot do this. When I was a kid, it's like, no, if you drop a nail, you're picking that up and using it. We're not gonna go buy another one. You're just yeah, we're using all those. But now with the rate you're paying them and the cost of the nail, it's cheaper to just leave them. But for my whole childhood, my grandpa and my dad, and they're like, You drop a nail and you just grabbed another one. It's like, uh uh, that's not the way that worked.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

No, it's uh it it it that has changed quite a bit nowadays. But yes, it has. Yeah, but no, that was that I really I have fond memories of doing stuff at the fair, and um and of course then when the fair was actually going on, you we were all involved with doing whatever we needed to get done with it, and so what different besides the construction, what other things because you you had an accident out there.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

How old were you when you lost your thumb?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

12, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

You were 12?

SPEAKER_00 16:32

12, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Really?

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yeah, 12, 1976.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

1976.

Two Worlds Between Mercer Island

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Yeah, yeah. So no, I I thought you were older than that when that happened. No. Um I yeah, I you know, everybody volunteers. I mean, that's the thing, is this this town was great, um, but that everybody does volunteer for these things, and so um I I was running one of one of the rides and had been working there all day and was getting kind of tired, and I leaned up to brace myself, and um my love got caught in the gears, and uh couldn't couldn't it pulled my hand in and took my thumb and my index finger off. And uh that kind of soured me about the fair for a while. Boy, I wonder why, Tom. It took it took me probably about ten years to actually go back into the fairgrounds. Yeah, it took a it took a while. And uh, but uh you know, there again that you know Stan Jones was at the clinic and he got things bandaged back together. Leighton Bennett flew me down, never did charge my folks for it down to Bartlett. Really? Yeah, it was um yeah, like I say, this town's pretty pretty cool. So but after 13 surgeries over nine months, I I did get a thumb.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Thirteen surgeries?

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

It uh did they end up going did you end up going to Seattle for some of that too? So it's yeah, get a little bit in Juneau and then back home?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Right, right. It they just in Juneau they uh they just kind of closed things up and did graphs to to cover things up, and then I spent uh probably a month at Children's Orthopedic, and then it'd be like three weeks and they do another surgery, and then another you know, four weeks and do another surgery. And it was a kind of a novel or a very new procedure of um taking a bone from elsewhere and and making a thumb a rigid thumb and uh and then grabbing grabbing skin from elsewhere to uh so you're what, sixth, seventh grade? Uh seventh grade. Seventh grade. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

So And just had an industrial accident going into your seventh grade, and now you got you got 13 surgeries in junior high school. Yeah, yeah. What were your friends thinking? It's like we told you you shouldn't go to all house.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

They were they were pretty good about it. There was a few that kind of went, oh, you know, that that's kind of weird.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

Did you make them a cool story? They get in a fight with a bear or something like that. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Yeah, I you know you should have seen the bear. Yeah. Then you tell them the real so they're everything going, oh yeah, okay, right. Yeah. But no, it's uh yeah, so but uh yeah, that's that's hard to believe. It's quite a few years ago.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Yeah, I I had thought I thought that was early 80s for some reason. I don't know why I thought that was so the fair was just getting started then. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. It hadn't been fairgrounds hadn't been going that long by 76.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Three years, maybe four years. It was early on. Because I I think your dad actually kind of got my dad interested.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Probably he had a way of roping people into projects that he was interested in. I I wouldn't put that past him. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's my dad's fault that you lost your thought. There you go. We'll blame him. It's totally my fault.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

I should never have been probably working that long.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

But uh well, even today, would they let a 12-year-old run one of these mechanical rides? That's just it. No, they wouldn't. But it was common. But it was common.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Yeah. Yeah. You know, you could take your three-wheeler any place you wanted, you know, or you know, at eight years of age practically.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

And and uh I think I was nine, maybe ten. My dad had a bobcat, and if he was doing some work or something, he'd take the truck and he'd have me drive the bobcat because he didn't have a trailer for it. Yeah, so like the Heinmiller's pit. Okay, he'd get gravel and he had this flatbed, and he need the bobcat over there. So he's like, Here you go, meet me over there. I could I couldn't hit the pedals, right? So I'd have to stand up and stomp on them to raise the bucket, and then I'd go and I'm just using the levers to steer, yeah. And I'd get over there, and then he'd hop in, he'd do all the fun stuff, and he's okay, drive it to Retha's or drive it to the drive it to the wherever I was gonna go. Yep. I had to do the boring stuff, right? And then once we got there, he got to do the fun stuff and level things off. And yeah. Well, yeah, that and police cars would go by, nobody'd say a thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

And yeah, I mean, we were running around in the back of the pickup trucks, you know. That was just what you did, you know, and and uh how did how did more of us not get seriously injured as kids? Yeah, we we we we uh we survived somehow. Pretty much unscathed.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

So fairly unscathed.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yeah, yeah. So but no, it's uh it was a fun, it was really adventurous here and and uh you know it was with our business, you know, we we wound up getting involved with the tourism side of things too, and obviously investing in a in an art gallery here and had a lot of local artists that would we would have stuff on consignment with them, you know, uh Linda Matthews with her ceramic stuff. Carol Waldo with uh her her ceramic stuff. Uh Jenny Lynn Smith silver work, you know, we would sell that. And um and so yeah, as as your folks too were involved with the development of more push towards tourism as as more people started showing up and um Yeah, it it uh yeah, my my folks finally I think they sold in the late 80s the gallery and um They sold that to Kurt Ramser, didn't they? Yeah, was he the next one in line with the next? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so and he ran that for a number of years.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

And uh so yeah, and uh yeah, so is the is the the cabin next to the Lascana shop on Beach Road, is that the original one that you prefabbed in your That is and so it's still going strong. Yeah, I I mean we I'm sure you've had to do some work on it over the years.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

A fair amount of improvements because it was there was no electric power out there, there's no running water, yeah, no sewer. There's still no sewer I've mount septic, but um so we had Well that's that's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

You guys put that in there before there's electricity out to that part of the that's at the beginning to be true.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So I mean there's um the Hortons lived past the park that the and um and then the Cliftons built there, and that same summer we built in 72, uh Jim and Edna Hatch built there right across from the park. And uh, but then that was it. I mean the road ended at the bottom before the slide, and and uh uh had the battery point trail started from there, and and uh it's that that road has changed quite a bit. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Yeah. That was when for a while people would ask me how long it was like, well, not doesn't take nearly as long as it used to get to battery point because they took a good mile out of it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

So but uh yeah, so yeah, we uh you know I I wound up going out to college and and uh Yeah, you went to that bad school and he sort of was cougars. The cougars. Damn cougars. That was that was a fun college. That was a fun college. It was it was ranked like top party college for some back when I was there.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

So it's been ranked that numerous times, I think, over the years.

Clown Cars Fairgrounds And A Hand Accident

SPEAKER_00 24:30

So although I was I studied engineering, so I had to kind of keep the the nose to the grindstone. Civil or civil, yeah, yeah. So and what what what were the plans? Um actually um to get a job doing engineering, and I I got a job uh offer um working for NOAA um in their officers uh corps uh operating their research vessels and uh doing hydrographic surveying for submarine navigation. And of course, this is before GPS well just the start of GPS and stuff like that, but it was would have been doing uh very um precise, very accurate mapping of the seafloor for submarine navigation. And uh what? Yeah, so it were you gonna be were you gonna get to go out on the submarines? No, no, but you would have been out on a on a research vessel.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

On a research vessel and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Um and uh yeah, so three the it took a long process to go through the FBI clearances and do the physicals and all this kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

And it took three almost four months, and and you had to get an FBI clearance to go out on a NOAA ship to the state secrets or whatever of where the Cold War stuff.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

So um and sure enough, the commander of the officer corps out there in New York City calls me up after my physical and said, Well, son, um, got some bad news. I can see that you don't have all your fingers. So therefore, you cannot do perform uh uh well under you know on a during a shipboard emergency. So um we can offer you your job. And I kind of went, oh really?

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Because it because it injured your thumb. Yeah, and so I um Did you say can I come back and show you how well I can do?

White Fang Comes To Haines

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Yeah, so um I I went, Oh, you know, there's no argument there, you know. I I can't really, I mean, okay, so I then contacted some other officer officer office job officer I I'd had, and those those had already been filled, and so I came back up here to because I'd always been able to find work here in in town doing um different things like driving the tour bus and stuff like that. So um it I just came up here and thought I'd try one year. When was that what year was that that you came up? 8086. 86? Yeah, okay. 80 actually spring of 87. Yeah. So I graduated December 86, and um I thought I'd try one year just to see what a winter was like here. That happens a lot. I know. That happens a lot, they just suck you in for that one year. One year and still here. One year again again. Yeah, so so yeah, I I I wound up being uh winter watchman at the Halsingland Hotel and then started working for Arnie there and doing maintenance and um helped worked on redoing the lounge of the bar there at the hotel, and um just uh did that for a few years and um wound up working for the Chamber of Commerce for uh briefly for about nine months before White Fang came and I wound up getting involved with that.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Okay, you were so you were at the chamber.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

You're right, I was the administrator for the chamber. Okay. And uh I I had stopped, I'd worked actually I'd worked on Lutec Lumber with Tim Moss doing a re a big remodel job on that, making making the second floor of the the store, and then that finished up, and so I wound up going into that the chamber of commerce um job in the in the spring of I guess it was spring of eighty-nine and uh um worked there through the summer and then went to the eight um Alaska Visitors Association uh conference at the end of September up in Fairbanks. And so Chip Waterberry was a tourism director and at the time and I was in his office working kind of helping him and too, and uh the chamber was kind of in the visitor center too. And so um I get back from that conference and and he goes, Glad you're back here. I I've this uh location scout from Disney is here, and I need you to to help her out, you know, whatever she needs, see what she needs, and and looking at they're gonna looking at the at Hanes as a place to film a movie. And so I said, Okay, so um through you know having been around and everything, Haynes, we all kind of know everybody and the ins and outs, and so you know Arnie Olsen got involved and Bart Henderson got involved and uh trying to find taking this young woman out to all over the valley to to get photos and and for her to take back to the directors.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

What time of year was this that it was October.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

October, so late fall. Yeah, we we took her out to 25 mile and then up up to the head of Chil way up at the head at Chilcoot Lake, up the road there. Um and she would she wound up you know photographing and then sending this stuff down to the director and the production designer in Hollywood and seeing if this would be a you know what they exp had in the Did you ever ask how how did Haynes get on the radar for that to begin with? Well, the location scout, Rainey Hall, she had scout she's actually an Alaskan involved with the Id Iterod and um had a lot of connections throughout the state and had worked on other movies uh or short films in Alaska. And so she knew of Haynes, and um he so she I I think that's really it was through her that Haynes even popped up on the radar for for a filming location.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

So it probably didn't hurt that we're as close as we are to Skagway since part of that's you know the Jokee Pass and everything.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

And early on, Skagway was totally not even like considered because there was just too much modern stuff, it would have been really hard to film a gold rush uh scene there without you know all the modern stuff that was around the town. And um so it it took a solid month. I John the the Schnobbels were um would you know helping out too and and uh uh it it the director and the production designer came up and then the producers came up and we took them out to the different locations. And um I was never really privy to any of the meetings, I was just mostly just an expediter. You're just the driver and the driver, and you know, hey, you know, do you know where we can find this? Oh yeah, this person can do that. You know, Danny Eagolf, we used his buses for transporting the group up there, and um so pretty much it was kind of a liaison between the town and the and the the production crew and and uh and I I actually was never really involved in the old the the whole um decision of filming here. I still don't know to this day uh uh when and how that came about. It was because like the mayor and um uh some of the other business owners uh uh in the community um went down and actually met with them down in in LA. And oh I didn't know that they made a trip down there to kind of I think the the tourism director um I forget who was mayor at the time now that I think of it, but anyways, went down and and um so all of a sudden you know like early November it's like yeah the movie's gonna gonna go for here and um so the right within a week or so the the production manager showed up with some of the the office group and uh the production office people and um he offered me a job to be kind of a liaison and uh finding you know places for the the animal actors, the the the wolves and the the bear to live and and uh just also what what resources were in town, what carpenters were available, uh uh where to where to house the special effects, where to house the editing, the uh the costumes. And uh so uh it by early December things were starting to roll where the production office was up in one of the buildings of the Halsingland Hotel, and um I worked with the location scout um uh pretty much under her um direction uh as far as because she was the one that was ultim ultimately re required to come up with these places, you know. So I I just basically helped her out as much as I could.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

So they came up in at first in October.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

And by the beginning of December, they were here full blown.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

It was it was like late November they were starting to to move people in here. Yeah, and then the construction of the sets actually started in like second week of December, they started building out at Sawmill Point there.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

They started building those in December.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Yeah, and it was brutal. It was a kid because the wind that comes through there? Yeah, and people walked off the job because it was just I don't doubt it at all. But the whole product, you know, m movie production doesn't care about weather. No. It's it's like it you they have such a weird, uh such a demanding timeline. Um there's so many variables involved, and and um I mean it it's the scheduling of stuff is so tight.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

And uh it just surprises me that they would do that, that they wouldn't be like a spring build to do the summer stuff first and then we into the winter, but they got all the winter stuff right away.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Right away. And we we all kind of went, why are they doing it now? This is you know, but it's and and here again, I'm not a I'm not very experienced in movie production other than than what I experienced there, but I think that there's just they they just schedule is just so tight with with their staffing, with the equipment, um, with the the the the casting. I mean, you know, they they fly the actors in for just the couple of weeks that they're actually acting and then they're off to another project. But they have to get everything set up for that.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

And uh so uh and I'm guessing just the the prof the professionals even behind that with the cameras and stuff like that, that you've got a very tight window because every day you have them here, it's it's costing you big money. Yeah, yeah. So and and that they weren't building permanent buildings either. No, and so building in December, they don't care if the ground's frozen, just make it work.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

They they just you know made half you know f false front buildings and and uh but it was it was pretty brutal work. Um I I don't I do not envy those guys. And uh there was the one big warehouse that was still out at uh Sawmill Point that they pretty much took over and made that into the carpentry shop and and uh but yeah it was it was a lot of hours. Yeah, they were working six days a week and um and it it was uh it was fun. I never thought I'd work on a movie, you know. Uh and I learned a lot of stuff really quick. And uh when the production started uh actually started to film like in I guess it was mid-February, the um location manager had to step out for personal reasons, and so they basically brought I I filled in her position and took it for the rest of the movie production and and uh and continued to to locate places around the valley to meet what the the production designer and the director wanted in their in their film. And it was it was great that the entire film was done here in the valley. And that's I it's my understanding that's kind of rare to to do an entire full-length movie in one small area. Usually you've got a second unit to if you if you needed mountains, you know, for a movie, you go to Vancouver or someplace like that for and uh for a second unit shot or something. But um and the fact that the the story written, you know, White Fang by Jack London was written about the Gold Rush and set basically in this same area, I mean, within a few hundred miles. And so it's it's kind of neat that that that movie was done here. And uh so how long were they when did they when did they wrap up production on that? Um I was laid I was uh I was the first one hired, the last one laid off. And uh so it was like first week of August, things were pretty much shut down. And I was my last job was to have the big town sets there at Sawmill Point demolished and burnt. And uh that led off. I failed.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

You did not do your final job, Tom. No, you still haven't gotten it completed, have you?

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Yeah. Well, Pluckwan Inc. owned the property. Yeah. And uh uh they they kind of said, well, you know, can can we, you know, not have that destroyed? And then the fair wound up uh pee pretty much the community said, Well, wait a second, you know, typical Alaskans.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

Yeah, we got something here, what can we make out of it?

Location Manager Logistics And Movie Chaos

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Yeah, we don't throw stuff away, you know, and and whereas with the production company, just like ah, we don't need it, get it out of here, you know, that kind of stuff. And um, so then the the fair secured that grant uh for uh make making Dalton City out of those sets. What year was it that those moved to Dalton City? It was they they did five years later? No, no, they they did a big fundraiser for like 750 bucks donation to pay uh Leo Smith to uh move them over to the to the fairgrounds. And I believe it was I'm pretty sure it was in the fall of that year of 1990 that those were it moved over to uh the fairgrounds, and then then over the winter they secured the hundred thousand dollar grant to to kind of finish them off or and so that next year, I believe it was ninety-one, okay, um, they started um assembling Dalton City and putting foundations under the buildings, putting actual roofs on on them. Um in fact my dad wound up being the project manager on that and um over oversaw all that. And uh they they wound up, mom and dad wound up t setting up a little gallery in one of the buildings there for a couple of years and a couple of seasons, and uh so yeah, it uh it was uh fun times.

Engineering Plans And A Job Denied

SPEAKER_01 40:05

So what gone from working for the chamber and now you're in the movie business? Right. What broad strokes? What what is your biggest memory of kind of was it just the chaotic all this stuff needs to happen in a short period of time? Was it some of the people you met?

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Was it well yeah I mean it you know I had a beer with Ethan Hawke at the Housing Land Hotel, you know, and it just like you know, the this young kid act he was the it actor because he'd come out of a Dead Poet Society and he was a up and coming young young actor.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

And now he's well established. Now well established a very well established actor.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

But um I remember when the the bear showed up in you know, dri driven up from Utah in the in a big trailer, you know, and it pulled up to the production office. Um and you you just look through, it was just steel bars and kind of dark in there, and and you just see this giant silhouette of a bear. And uh, yeah, Doug Seuss, the the uh his his owner, he was a bear of a man. He was great. I really enjoyed it. He was a big dude. He was a big dude, and he uh I wound up taking him around trying to find a place to to house the bear, and uh he had you know requirements of what he needed, and um uh wound up it was Joe Jorgellite's property there at one mile, and uh she just loved that.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

And well, that didn't that was right up Joe's alley.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

So I remember when I got back that summer from college going out when when Bart was here and Bart the Bear and going out and Doug was having him do tricks or whatever and showing them off.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

And it was it was it was fun to watch that and uh watch him train and then I was able to catch some of the filming out at 25 mile.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

But uh yeah, it it was Were you there for any of the filming at the at the set too? Yeah, yeah. So you got you're kind of in the Were you are you in the movie anywhere? Did you get burned in there?

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Well I I am in I'm I never was I got dressed up, costumed up one day out at first out there at the the town site set, but um I wound up getting called off to another emergency someplace else. I can't remember where, but um there was the nighttime scene at the camp, uh which was filmed out at Chilcat State Park. Um the director had me, uh or the the production um the AD, the assistant director, had me um stand back in the brush and stop uh the actor Seymour Cassell that played Skunker as he runs off to try and you know stop the dogs from getting killed. He he runs off into the woods, and so I had to be, and he's going from a lit area into the darkness, and so the AD had me in there to to catch him and slow him down so he didn't hurt himself. So technically I'm in the movie, but I'm behind a bunch of brush. So but that that's good because I've got a face for radio and a voice for silent movies.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

So now you got uh is this the start of your safety career? Was that your first like safety thing, or were you were you into the EMT stuff before that?

SPEAKER_00 43:31

I I was I I had been on the departments since I had started a couple years earlier. So but yeah, and then another scene where um the main Klaus Marina Brandauer was falls back into the fire. The eight the assistant director had me standing there with a bucket of water just in case he caught fire. And he goes, Tom, come over here. You're on the fire department. Like, okay. But usually I was my job as location manager. Manager was I had to be like securing places to film, so getting it okayed by the director and the production designer for uh signing, you know, getting paperwork signed with the property owners to use it. Um and then also making sure that every time the production company moved to the next filming location, that everything was set up, that the the craft service tent was there, the the mess tent was there, the there was restrooms brought in, um that the road in was good. Um just uh that there was security. Nighttime have I had I had a bunch of security guys that would um would stay at the different locations to make sure nobody messed with stuff. And so I'd have to run around and make sure everything was in place there. I I wound up putting 25,000 miles on my car in 10 months.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

25,000 in hay in hay 25 miles. That's gotta be a record. Never leaving the valley.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

You got 25 miles. Yeah. I wore my my vehicle out on that one, but because I I'd wound up having to go like check something at the Chilcoot uh State Park set while they're filming, I'd have to go find the AD there and then go up to 55 mile to check to make sure that you know we we had uh the the set was ready to go up there, and so and and then back into town again and and Nataga Creek. I mean all the way up above Mosquito Lake. That was that's 10 miles back in there. So um it was the I really like the Nataga Creek's uh set. Um it was you know, there was 135 people that would be on on that setup, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

And up in Nataga?

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Yeah. Holy cow. And it was, you know, at the the major filming locations, that's what it would be. And uh with the boardroom, makeup. Yeah, uh uh the the staff that the the mess, the catering.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Um should you have to have tents set up for that, for all of that?

One Winter That Turned Permanent

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Yeah, they they had trailers and tents. Trailers and tents. Yeah, and so they'd move back and forth, you know, and it was it was a real challenge.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

There's a lot of logistics going into that. Yeah, and uh because getting up to Nataga Creek with all of that stuff wasn't easy. No, no, it was not.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

Back then the road was in much better shape than it is now. It you know, they'd done a lot of still it was a login road. Yes, yeah, and it was with that much traffic too, that it got pretty potholy. Same with LuTac Road, which was dirt, you know.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

Yeah. That that I bet the residents out there hated you guys.

SPEAKER_00 46:48

It was not it wasn't very good. So but and then and then I'd have to go back, and once the the production companies said that we didn't need to hold a location, I had to, you know, turn it back over to the property owner and make sure it was cleaned up and that the property owner was satisfied with it. And um, and so but yeah, so I was I wound up being a lot of behind the scenes on stuff and uh uh never really did get in front of the camera in in a costume and as a character. So but uh I was able to get my dad in, which was pretty cool because you know, since he's passed, it's kind of fun to see him. Watch the movie and watch it. Oh yeah. But but so many Haynes I Haynes people were were in there, you know. It's kind of a a look back in in the past on that.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

So when that came out, I haven't watched it in a long time, but when it came out, I was at college and I invited some of my friends to go watch it with me. And the whole time I'm like, oh, that's that person. That's that's that's that there's Clifford Fossma. There's it, yeah. And then oh, that's in there, and this is at this spot, and you gotta kind of point out the things at the end of it. They're like, that movie wasn't that good. Uh, I don't care. First of all, shut up because I paid your way in. And since most of you guys won't come to Haynes, at least this is my opportunity. It's in a movie, but you can see the scenery around Haynes, yeah. But they'd all they'd give me a bad time. You know, the movie wasn't that good. You dragged us to this movie, wasn't it? I was like, again, shut up. It's free. You got a free movie out of it.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

I don't want to hear you complaining. It it did really showcase the valley. Um it we we live in a very spectacular place. Yeah, yes. That's something that I don't think I've ever have taken for granted and always have appreciated is that you you travel out of here and you you come back here and you go, yeah, this is a pretty nice place.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

Yeah, so and it is it is kind of cool too. With I don't know if you get this as much at Lutec, but here with people coming in, any tourists coming in, and when they've driven over the past. Yes. And you know, I've talked we talked about this with Marty when her and Greg kind of drove over the past, which is this bluebird day, and it's like, oh my god, this is this is magical. Yep, yep. And it is. Yep. Even even now, how I mean you've been here since early 70s, I've been here since 69. You get those days when you're coming back from Whitehorse or driving up there, clear blue sky, and it is phenomenal. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

It still hits you. You know, it my wife and I were up in Whitehorse two weekends ago, and and it was just it was spectacular, you know, and and you just never you can never take it for granted. And uh uh yeah, in fact, funny story, my my daughter Lydia had some friends coming down from Fairbanks a couple summers ago, and they were checking in as they were coming down, like, oh yeah, we're we're in Haynes Junction, and so we're going, okay, they'll be here in a couple hours. And a couple hours go by, and you know, not here, and another hour goes by, they're not here. And so they finally show up like three and a half hours later, and we're going, everything okay? Did you break down? And they go, No, we had to stop every once we got to Haynes Junction and started coming down this way, we had to stop and take pictures every couple of miles. It was fantastic. So, yeah. So it was yeah, so it I think too, you know, when you when you work in the tourism industry um here and like driving bus back in the 80s, um you I wound up learning a lot about the history of Haynes, and then you try and you know uh expound on that with the with the the your your clients and then um they you you also see how they see Haynes. You know, that that they because they go, wow, this is this is amazing, you know, and on a good day, and then on a rainy, low cloud day, it's like, yeah, really there are mountains here. But um you you can it it does always kind of keep you fresh on that, you know, that that you don't take it for granted.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

Exactly. One of the ones for me is when you know it's overcast, you can only see about half the mountains, and you have people come in like, oh my god, it is so beautiful here. You're like, really? Today it is? Today? Yeah, you have no idea what you're mean. But but it is that perspective sometimes, and it gets me catching myself, like, yeah, I do take that for granted. Yeah. That I just wait, I'm waiting for those bluebird days because I know how spectacular it can be. But these people that are like, man, this is awesome, and they're only getting half of it. Yep, yep, exactly. Well, maybe I should bracket, maybe I should appreciate half of it too.

SPEAKER_00 51:31

No, it's it's pretty cool. So, no, and but yeah, we um uh the the movie was a lot of fun. It I did I wound up going to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned uh one one day during the production, and and you know, it was six days a week, 12, 14 hours a day, and and I I fell asleep, slept through the entire thing. Yeah, nice getting my getting my teeth cleaned. It's just like she wakes me up, like, okay, Tom, I'm all done.

SPEAKER_01 52:01

You have to leave now.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

I'm sorry, but we're gonna have to leave. I gotta go back to work, uh but yeah, so that was that was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

Yeah, so 10 months, seven days, pretty much six, seven days a week for and that'll worry out.

SPEAKER_00 52:14

It was two two like six-week filming sessions with a hiatus in between. Uh but um everybody the the filming people were on hiatus.

SPEAKER_01 52:26

It was but you trying to get everything ready for the next set.

SPEAKER_00 52:29

You're the the set the set decorators, the the carpenters, they're they were building, building, you know, well like the uh Eagle Foundation that was building that was the interior uh of the cabin set. And so they were busy building that. And um it was um yeah, pretty much anybody that needed work in this town could find work doing something. There's a lot of locals got involved, um everything from special effects to costume to catering to just being drivers. Um, a lot of people were driving the the key actors to and from the sets. Um I had uh a safety crew that would go up and make sure the sets were safe from like the the um Chilcoot Trail, the golden staircase line going up and and setting safety ropes on that. And uh so it was uh it was pretty busy for that time period here.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

So it didn't it w it was exciting enough that you're like I need to follow this and make this a career.

SPEAKER_00 53:38

Well, I I did I did some location scouting for um a couple of commercials that fall. Um one was an Alaska tourism uh commercial um and pretty much filmed in in Haynes and Skagway and Juneau, so I I worked around with that and then I did some preliminary scouting or or tried to promote Haynes for a couple of other movies. Uh Bart Henderson was involved in that and uh a couple other uh the tourism director um in like this was in ninety-one, I think it was. Um but they wound up deciding to go to like uh Vancouver and uh Haider um uh because it was cheaper to film in Canada. So it's all about the money when it comes to production. And um Canadian mountain mountains look like Alaska Mountains. And it's to the people that haven't seen and it's a 30% change. 30% change change. Yeah, so uh so sadly we don't see a lot of productions. There the the state was very the state government was very um pro-movie production back in the 80s and the the early 90s. Right, so that's gone away and and so it's you you see a little bit of production. Uh usually it's the reality TV show stuff now, but um and it the just my little no uh novel or my um it the the whole production has changed so much, going to digital. I mean back back at White Fang. Oh they shoot they're shooting all that on film, film, yeah. And we'd have to fly fly that stuff out to get produced and then ship it back in to uh uh two days later we would go uh to the Chilcat Center and watch the the the films, the the dailies, and uh see how it came out, and uh they'd decide if they have to reshoot it or something something like that. So yeah. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

I didn't even think about that part of it.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

It it was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

I I shot Where Where would they send it to to get it produced?

SPEAKER_00 55:53

It was down in LA someplace. Okay. So it would it would get flown out, yeah, you know, gold streaked down to LA. Gold streak and then they'd gold streak it back so they could they set it up and we'd all, you know, anybody that wanted to uh from the production company in the uh would would be there and watch what what it was what the film looked like. And it was uh that was kind of that was kind of neat.

SPEAKER_01 56:17

Uh but uh that'd be cool to see that part of it too, just kind of on the daily basis. And hear the director and editor or whatever producers talking about why they don't like something or what yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:30

So um yeah, the and then the editing uh room was actually down underneath the stage. Um they had a whole editing uh table and equipment there to cut and splice together everything and uh the and the costume uh wardrobe was all in the Chilcat Center too. So but uh yeah, so it was just that kind of stuff. I would I would shoot 35mm film by the you know, I don't know, six, seven rolls a day, um, and then ship them down to Juno to get developed and brought back up here, and um then I'd cut and splice them into landscape, you know. And now with digital stuff, you don't it's not a big deal. Download on the laptop, here you go. Or even just show your phone. Yeah, you pay you paste it up and show the director, well, this is this is the view, and this is the reverse, and you know, and uh uh yeah, I I probably shot 60 or 70 rolls of film, you know, just just to try and to you know give them a perspective of what they're looking at. What they're looking at. And um, and of course it had it differed from winter to summer too. So but uh yeah, so that was part of the job. So but later on, like you know, Bell's had a a film development and I think King's store later on. King's had one too. So but yeah, like I say, the the digital age has really changed all that. So a lot less a lot less equipment required, and and uh yeah Sam doesn't have to send any of this out, he just downloads it.

SPEAKER_01 58:07

He just takes the cards out and downloads them to his computer.

SPEAKER_00 58:10

So yeah, like like you're saying, Marty, I mean Marty knows he's deep into that, and so but uh yeah, so it it you wouldn't have to have that large a group now to film uh even a major motion picture because it's just less stuff that you gotta do and and uh but yeah, it was it was uh that was quite a project. And uh and I I I would have it would have been fun to kind of do some more work, but it having traveled back and forth every year, it was kind of nice to just be able to stay in one spot all year round.

Volunteering As Firefighter EMT

SPEAKER_01 58:49

And uh so and uh but yeah, so so you'd you had mentioned when we were talking about the safety thing that a couple years before White Fang came here, you got on the ambulance to the fire department. What was that something that you looked at? Because I think your dad was on the department, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_00 59:06

Yeah, and was that kind of the reason you wanted to get into it, or is that another reason it yeah, it was just like you know, you're not part of the community if you're not volunte volunteering for something, you know, if you're not helping with hospice or if you're not you know running see what you know community youth group or something. Yeah, um so you know, we we were always like you guys, always involved in different things in town. And and uh in fact, dad joined the the fire department just through the um our first night in the cabin when we built it in 72. We wake up to the sirens going off and the black smoke when the elementary school had caught fire. Oh wow, and and dad yeah dad had been in the navy and had firefighter training, shipboard firefighting training. So he we we all drive down and he he knew some of the guys and they said grab a hose and so after that he was on the department and uh so his his first his first fire at Aynes was the old school. Oh the old school, yeah. So and he wound up getting his EMT uh certification, and um then uh so I mean that was kind of part of our life growing up with the Plektron and having it the tone out, and um, you know, I'd I'd ride on the fire trucks and the parades. And um, but uh so I just kind of I would when I was in high school I would I would go and train with them on training nights just uh pull hose and stuff like that. And and uh uh I I I joined in '88 just figuring why not?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:48

You'd move back and you said if I'm gonna be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:51

I may as well volunteer volunteer. So and uh yeah, I I got my EMT certification af just after I finished up with White Fang because I couldn't really break away during the the movie production to go take a two-week EMT course. So um, but uh by that time I'd started working with Chip and he's he uh he was always understanding of our involvement in the community. So I went down to Sitka and spent two weeks there and got my f EMT1 certification. And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

So I I I I hesitate I hesitate to ask this question, but I'm gonna ask it anyhow. I apologize if this makes you sound old.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:33

Are you the longest continuous serving? No, no, no. No, that's the thing. Al Al was here before you. Oh yeah, Al CJ.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:41

Um before you. Yeah. Um who is who is actively on right now? That's I mean, uh Scott Bradford was joined up a little bit before I did. Okay. Um there's kind of um the kind of the retiree people that are still here in town. They're still here. Alan Heinrich. Alan Heinrich, yeah. Um Rock Ahrens. Rock Ahrens. So um yeah, they it's but as far as can still active.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:15

Active responding. You you might be number three?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:18

Yeah, I I think so. Scott, well, Scott Bradford, he he shows up on on major okay, major fires and uh as as kind of a um icy initial icy. Um yeah, I I'm I'm starting to get get up there and the yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

That's a lot that that the the reason I bring it up, not to make you sound old, but or feel old, but that's a that's a lot of service. That's a lot of late night calls, middle of the day, interrupting your schedule and going out there.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:54

I'm starting to feel it. My that that's I don't bounce out of the bed as fast as I can.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:59

Quite as quickly as you did 38 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:01

I should hope not. You gotta run through and hit the bathroom and then you gotta find your glasses, and you know, it it's it's a little it's a little bit long. I'm I'm a takes me a little bit longer to get get rolling. Yeah. So and uh but yeah, it's it's but you know, everybody in this town pretty much is involved in stuff and volunteering doing stuff, but true.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:25

And some some people are gonna disagree, you you might disagree with me, but I look at the the people that are volunteering, the the EMTs, the firefighters and stuff that are that are showing up. It's it's one thing to volunteer for a nonprofit when you're doing a fundraiser, when you're showing up during the day, you know. Getting a call out at two o'clock in the morning in January, and there's a fire, or there's an automobile wreck, or something like that, that you're having to respond to in crappy conditions, you're interacting with people in the worst time of their lives at that moment. Yeah. And and doing that and answering the call over and over again.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:04

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:05

For as long as you've done that, and there's the people that keep doing it and doing it and doing it, is just I am so impressed with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:12

Well, it's it's also a case of you you become a team and you don't want to leave your let your team members down. No. And um you always have a little bit of guilt, like there was a call when I was up in Whitehorse two weeks ago, and I couldn't, I was out of town and couldn't. You couldn't get down from Whitehorse soon enough, Tom. Come on, no. But um, yeah, it yeah. Um it's it takes some dedication and um some dedication.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:43

It takes a lot of dedication, Tom. I I know you're I know you don't want the but you know, it's the same thing when I was talking to Al. You know, he's like, well, yeah, you know, you just you just show up, it's just what you do. But not everybody does it. Yeah. Well I mean you guys are at a point now where there's times when you're struggling to have enough people respond to some calls. Yeah. Um so it's it's not it everybody is showing up, everybody does something.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:06

But a lot of other organizations too are struggling to have members.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:12

That that giving back community spirit ethos or whatever that when we were growing up, that it was kind of like you our our parents showed us the way it's like you give back, you give back. These are the things that you do. It's it's not that way as much anymore.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:30

Yeah, I sadly I think you're right. Um uh it yeah, it's it's definitely changed. Yeah. But it is I it it's rewarding to be on the department. Um it it is um I I am starting to feel my age. Um uh especially with the firefighting side of things. I things seem a lot heavier and uh a lot more resistant to movement when I'm trying to drag something here or there. Um but uh no, um I I think the the department's pr pretty uh really a solid department too. I mean it um the the community has a lot of faith in us, which we appreciate and we hope that we bring some level of comfort when we show up and that we realize that we're showing up to people's worst day and uh we try and be as empathetic and have compassion and try to help as best we can. Um there's quite often there's not a lot we can do. Um stabilize and try and get them to a higher level of care. And uh we also live in a somewhat remote place. So um but yeah, so it's uh it's like I say, it's nice to be able to give back to the community.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:56

So I I know there's there's been a few instances where you guys have had to show up, whether it's a fire or medical, and the way that you guys have always treated our family. It's we always any chance we can get we always try and support the the department because yeah. I that just the ability and the desire to keep showing up day after day after day is very much appreciated. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:24

Well thanks. It yeah, I I mean I I stand on the shoulders of a lot of other guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:28

There's been a lot of people that have done it over the years.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:31

You know, I I think back to Pete Lapham and and Frank Wallace and Ray Lewis and then the the people that are still here, uh Alan Heinrich and um uh Rock Ahrens, they you know, put a lot of time into the department. And um early on the department built their own tankers out out of logging trucks. I mean, tanker five, tanker three, they were Peter built trucks, you know, with with split shift transmissions that very few people know how to drive anymore. So we wound up getting rid of them. And because well, they were also getting very tired.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:08

But um, that's kind of hard. Uh the tanker doesn't do nearly as well if you can't get it from the fire department to the nobody can drive it. Yeah. To the fire. Exactly. So it's becoming an impediment to the effectiveness of the department.

Meeting Lisa And Building A Life

SPEAKER_00 1:08:22

And and they were hauling, they were somewhat, I think, oh, too heavy, too. I think you can almost see the pavement rolling of the fire. Rolling up the fires. But uh it wasn't quite that bad. But yeah, so it it was uh, you know, I certainly um I've I've been a member, but there's been a lot of guys that have put in a lot of people a lot more uh work than I've done into it. So yeah. Um I she was she was the girl next door, actually. Yeah, yeah. I um she she got a job right out of college teaching here, which was I think it might have been the first time that there was a teaching position open for years that uh you know teachers came here and and they they retired here, you know. And uh uh so she showed up the following summer after white. You can see I I based things on white fang.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:24

Based things on white fang before pre pre or post-white fang.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:28

Yeah, and so um she she got a job teaching middle school here. Uh Nancy Billingsley offered her a job, and um uh she had actually flown up to Anchorage to a job fair up there and met Nancy Billingsley there, and um wound up she initially had a job in Huna, and then Nancy said, No, I think you should show up. We'd like to have you in Haynes. And so she she wound up, you know, got packed up her truck, drove from Michigan over to Seattle and caught on the ferry and came up and and moved into Flagel's apartments.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:01

And I was building a house over on Cemetery Hill, and I was living in my folks' workshop there on Beach Road because they still had the place on Beach Road, and I I noticed her chassis first, uh her pickup truck. Pickup truck, yeah. Yeah, she had a very nice looking chassis. Yeah, and uh uh little chassis envy there, Tom. Yeah, you in a in a small town. In a small town you know everybody's vehicles. Yes, you do. I I especially at the lumber yard, people pull in on you know exactly who it is, you know. And so you know it's like, oh, you know, new, new somebody's moving into Flagles apartments. And well, a couple days later I saw a very fetching young lady there. And so um I had Jeff Shields was in the apartment next next door, and I was I'd worked for him for a number of years with the Haynes Streetcar Company. So I just happened to stop in and and she was just talking to him, and it's like so I I met her there and and uh so yeah, the rest is hist history.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:01

So she got in quick before she met anybody else in town. Yeah, yeah. You kind of have to do that in Haynes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:08

Yeah. What's what's the uh the uh the odds are good and the goods are odd? The goods are odd.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:15

So is that that was fall of 91 or fall of 92? Fall of 91. Fall of 91.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:23

Yeah, so yeah, so she's uh and of course she's retiring now, so she's pretty much worked her job, her career here. So yeah, and got two kids. Two very talented young ladies, his daughters. The second one's graduate graduating in a couple of weeks, and yeah, so but yeah, it's uh it was uh worked out well.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:49

So after after White Fang, you go to work for Chip Lendy of Blue Tac Lumber.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:53

Yeah, yeah, he offered me a job. He said, you know, can you do two years? I said, I I can do two years.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:59

You can do two years. Yeah, it's kind of like I can do one win, I can do one year in Haynes. I survived one year in Haynes. So I'm I'm willing to double that as a j on the job.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:09

We'll give it a shot. Yeah, so two years look went for a few more years, and then uh you know, family started and kids showed up, and it's like pretty much you just keep going. Just keep going. Yeah, so yeah, it's it's been it's been good. So yeah.

Model Trains And Railroad Obsession

SPEAKER_01 1:12:29

So so what do you like? One of your passions is trains. Yeah. Am I correct on that?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:36

Yeah, yeah. I growing up as a kid, I I uh I always had a model train and always wanted to do more with it, but it's also you I always my hobbies I try and not let take over my life. So I I tend to, you know, I I have a lot of interests and and so I never really focus on any one thing. But um it was it was fun to actually start collecting the larger scale stuff as I became an adult. And um so I I do occasionally at Christmas time able to set it up at uh the museum and and stuff, and and and I occasionally will set some up around the house, but uh uh I don't really have a lot of space to do that. So but it well if the girls off, can't you just convert one of the bedrooms to a training?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:29

Is that been next by the by your wife? The rooms are off limits, so the girls would come back and visit.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:35

I was always I mean, growing growing up and and like you know, driving up to here from Seattle, you'd see the Canadian Canadian National Railroad, um, going through the Fraser Canyon. Um, you know, I see the White Pass and Yukon Railroad going and was fascinated with rail railroad history. And uh uh so it it just kind of my my dad had a a Lionel set that he wound up setting up and and uh I got a lineel set for Christmas one year when I was, I think, I don't know, in third grade or something. At Christmas time it was all set up and I spent hours playing with that and and uh so it it's it's uh somewhat of a hobby of mine, although I don't partake in I I haven't really expanded my my uh rail uh car collection too much.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:28

It's it's uh do you still have that original line all set?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:31

I do, actually. Yeah. I I'd probably have to clean up some of the track. It's it's gained gotten some moisture in it and stuff, but yeah. Um it was uh it was what railroad was it?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:44

Was it as particular or was it just generic?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:46

It was a combination of different stuff. Okay. So yeah, yeah. So but yeah, it was um it it was it was fun to it's it's a f kind of a fun hobby, and um I I don't do too much with it nowadays, but a lot of the stuff is just stored in my my workshop and until it's time to set it up for Christmas. So uh yeah. But it was it was fun. And you know, part part of it was just my enjoyment or what I liked about engineering too, is just yeah the the engineering behind building railroads was was always intriguing, you know, especially like the building the White Pass in Yukon, you know, I couldn't read enough of it. Yeah. Um so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:32

It was I remember back in the late 90s, early 2000s, I think it's probably early 2000s, there's two T two TV shows I watched. There's Monster Garage where they take the with Jesse James, they take the cars make it, and then they also had Monster House where they'd have you'd come in and you'd want a theme, and one of them they love Christmas, and so they had the suspended railroad track going through a couple different rooms, put holes in the wall. And it was before the sports shop was in here, and I wanted to do that so bad. And so I Scott Scott, I've got a lot of the White Pass and the Alaska Railroad cars. I never got an engine. I don't, I've only got a couple pieces of track, and I think you and I had talked about it at the time. I was trying to figure out how I can suspend like a railroad track in here and keep that running.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:18

It can be done, but man, it's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:20

That that's what you told me. And that was one of the usually when people say it can be done, but it's a lot of work, I'm like, all right, let's let's go do it. It can be done. Yeah, that was one of the ones as I started looking at. I was like, yeah, I don't know if I want to do this much work.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:32

Yeah. I because I've I've thought about it at my place, you know. It's just like I I look around going, dang, you know, if I didn't, you know, may maybe as I work into my retirement age when I actually have some more time. More time, you know, figure out a way to do it. But I was toying with the idea of somehow doing one outside my workshop so people going by could actually watch the train going through. But I I still haven't figured that one out. So but I it it was always interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:00

My dad would if you need some of the big white pass or Alaska Railroad cars when you do that, let me know. I've still got them new in the box. Oh, great. That's great. Never been out. So maybe we could do a joint project on this. Sure. We ought to do it in front here. I was trying to figure out some way to just do a loop either amongst the beams or something through here. I talked to because you remember Tom Belleschi was always building bridges. That he was amazing at that. I never saw any of those bridges. Everybody would always tell me these amazing bridges, and I never got up there until before he passed away to take a look at them.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:33

He he and I he'd come in the in the lumber yard and and buy up a bunch of eighth-inch dowels, like hundreds of them. Uh-huh. And and so I went over his place one day and and because and we'd talk about it with because I I that was part of my education was bridge design and and engineering and part of civil. And uh uh he it was truly amazing what he he knew he his engine he had a good engineering mind, and he would actually would load test these things, and they they functioned as a real bridge, but small. Yeah, and it was all out of eighth-inch dowel, and and he had a little table saw that he'd rip some certain pieces down to, but um yeah, he that's what he would do in the wintertime. Yeah, so but all a navy CB. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:25

So, but yeah, he's I'd talk to him and he'd his his eyes would light up and he'd start going, I'm like, hang on, Tom, I'm not ready to do this.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:33

Yeah, he's like, I can get you started. Yeah, yeah. He was all yeah, he was fun to talk to. And I just the bridges he did were amazing, and they were all all to scale and all different uh types of bridges too. It wasn't just simple uh winky bridges and and stuff, and and uh and he would actually put load on them to test them and and they would hold up. So but yeah, I don't I don't know whatever happened to all those bridges.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:03

Yeah, I don't know that I know his son was up and grabbed a bunch of stuff after he passed, and so I don't know if he I I hope they saved him and somebody's got him.

Retirement Plans And New Train Ideas

SPEAKER_00 1:19:12

But yeah, that was that was he was he was quite the guy on that. That was pretty neat. So but yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:21

So now with retirement coming up here, yeah. What's what's retirement gonna look like? Actually, I I don't see you slowing down much.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:29

Well, no, I well, yeah. I I I don't have any plans of leaving LuTac anytime soon, you know. Yeah with the wife retiring, we gotta you do one major life change at a time.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:39

At a time. So that that's gonna you're gonna let her do the major change first, and then you're gonna slowly work into that and see. We'll we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:47

We'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:47

But I have a feeling she's gonna talk you into a little more downtime than you've probably had before.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:51

Yeah, yeah. She's she's talking about some traveling. Some traveling. Yeah, yeah. No. I actually want to actually spend a little bit more time in the department, the fire department. I I haven't really been able to get down there lately as much as I should. And uh but uh yeah, no no real plans yet. Uh but uh it it uh one day at a time, I guess. So uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:17

So we we need to we need to collaborate here and figure out a way that we can do a really cool train display that people can see.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:27

We do have room here, or we could take it to another level.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:30

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:32

We need to take, go back to your your dad, yeah, come up with a train a little bit bigger than the one at the fair, a little more horsepower behind it, and have that as a tour. There, we can do a train tour. And so we just need to up that, go a little bit bigger scale than we're talking here, Tom, and have a have a train tour around town. I like that idea. Yeah, and start working on that. Yeah. That every every summer, my dad he loved watching RFD TV, which is Midwest, all farming shows and stuff. So he'd see different things and he'd call me up. Doug, I need to talk to you. Stop by the house. And so he'd been watching the show. He didn't he never knew how to use the DVR or anything, so he never recorded anything. And he'd talk about these things that and so I'd have to go look them up, trying to figure out with a brief description from him exactly what it is. He won we need to have lawnmower races at the fairgrounds, and we need to have all these other. And he had all these different things for a tour in town with all these crazy farm implements.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:36

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:37

Dad, nobody's gonna come here for a farm implement. It's not we've got to have something that's yeah. They've got they've got the White Pass Railroad in Skagway. We need to have like the Haynes Pass Railroad here, and just we can we don't need tracks anywhere, just put some wheels on it.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:52

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:54

Although we've just given our business secret out. If somebody steals it, we were talking about it here first. So we're we could we can always take we can always take them to a court on that.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:05

Yeah. No, it's that would be kind of cool. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:11

Maybe we could have a fire engine pulling it. Yeah, we could do that. Have it as a fundraiser for the fire department. Yeah. Have a train with the fire, or just have like a train and then have like a ambi. I don't know if you want people to want to hop on an ambulance when they're in Haynes, even if it's on a part of a fun train ride. It's always good to stay out of ambulance. It's always good to stay out of ambulances or or just have you know, you could have the moose car, you could have a bear car, you could have the different animals, yeah. And you take people on a tour around town. Yeah. Kind of like the old horse carriage ride, but with a train.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:48

Yeah. Man, I yeah, I I always just had a flashback to the horse carriage stuff that was going on around here. There are you think back, there's a lot of lot of stuff that had come and gone around here.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:59

Yeah, and I I I would like to think that I'm not that old, but the more memories I have of the stuff that has come and gone, yeah, yeah, the older I feel.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:07

Yep. I I was just thinking about the old Fort Seward Lodge, which was a totem bar and grill.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:13

With the the bowling alley. The bowling alley on the side. And uh go go bowling there.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:18

And uh and then uh you know, the s the salmon bake out in the parade grounds there in the summertime. That was great. And uh yeah. And uh and then I've I remember the cool one that I liked was and Sam used to drive for him, was the classic car. Classic car. Classic car. That was that was cool. That was really cool, those cars.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:41

That would still go over now, I think. So but uh yeah, it's a lot of things, a lot of things have come and gone. And yeah, back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:51

So I hope I hope Lisa doesn't see this and like, dang it, Doug, you're giving them all these ideas. I'm never gonna get him to retire. I apologize, Lisa, if this keeps Tom from any of his honey dudes at home. Just trying to keep him busy and out of out of trouble. Oh, she'll she'll keep me busy when you're gonna be able to get the floor. Yeah, I'm sure she's gonna I'm sure she's got a list for you. Yeah, and when she's not teaching kids for nine months, she'll have more time to work on that list. A lot more I'm I'm a little scared. Well, it's good that you're postponing your because you you sorry, honey, chip needs me. I've got to I can only do so many things on the other. 60 hours this week. I'm sorry, man. Short on staff. It's gonna be tough.

Tourism Growth Through Events

SPEAKER_00 1:24:31

Yeah, no, it'll be good. But uh yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:36

So speaking of, because you've been you've been in tourism a number of different ways. Yeah, from your parents' business, kind of selling stuff around the state. Yeah. Any ideas on how we can boost that in Haynes? How do we create more of like a I don't I don't know, more of a community profile or something that you know, we're the adventure capital of Alaska, we build ourselves that way, but then we don't want to do anything adventurous?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:04

Yeah, um I I think to try and be open to different things coming up, just be like, okay, let's give it a try, see if this'll work, you know. Um kind of saying no to everything kind of shuts shuts a lot of doors. And uh it it is difficult. I've always felt like we're kind of in a weird geographical position. You know, it you we're we're stuck amongst major cruise ship ports. Um we do have the road, and I I really think that if anything, we need to just go for uh event uh be an event town where you w which we're doing, you know, beer festival, bike race, state fair, the the heliskiing, the the Eagle Festival. Kind of have those weekend things happening on a more regular basis. People are gonna be coming into town, they're gonna be using restaurants, they're gonna be using hotels, uh Airbnbs. Um and kind of I I don't, you know, we'll we'll never be a Skagway or a Juno in the fact that we have one cruise ship dock. I don't think that that the community well the community generally doesn't like large numbers of tourists in here. But we just don't we're not situated far enough away from these major destinations that it works for the cruise ships. We have one cruise ship dock here in town. Um but we are great for independent travelers and just and and that was really what we started out as was independent travelers. There's um a lot there was um Chuck West and his bus tours that would come down here. Um West tour cruise ships would come in here, but those are small, you know, back in the 70s there were a few hundred people. And um in fact I remember as a teenager going out and tying those ships up, just Arnie and me and my dad and the harbor master because and and Southeast Stevedoring eventually shut us down because we were taking union jobs.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:14

But um we actually undercut this kind of a theme for you, isn't it? You're you're undercutting the longshoremen, you're running rides at the fair at twelve, you're just taking all the older people's jobs. You just do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:27

I mean, it you know, you gotta sweep the floor, so you gotta make it happen, you know. So but uh yeah, and you know it it uh uh it it's always with the road, with our connection to the Yukon. I I really like the connecting with the the Yukonners. I've I figure um the we're we have more in connection with them than really with Southeast, to be quite honest. Yep, I agree. Uh so many people have relatives up there, they the Canadians are crazy for salmon. Um they they like the fare, they like the bike race. Um, you know, when when they have the bike race and they come down here and we feed them free fish, they're like they love it, you know. Uh it's unfortunately our politics right now are not conducive to welcoming can Canadians, but hopefully that will change or but uh yeah, so I always thought building better connections with the Yukon would be would good would be good.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:30

So I'm just trying to think of who the next big thinker for Haynes is gonna be. Yeah, because you look at over the years, you know, your dad was in a lot of different things, trying to come up with different stuff. Arnie Olsen, he was very imaginative. Bart Henderson coming up with a ton of different things. My dad was always going out trying something different, and whatever it was, let's let's try this, let's try this. And it's you know, Duck Hess starting the river tour, and it was kind of funny. I was telling Karen this uh about a month or so ago. I think it was either 1972 or 1974 yearbook. A friend brought one by, and they had an advertisement for his jet boat service. Sure. Because he had tried that the first time, I think. I think it was out of ten mile going to Chilcat Lake and stuff. I think, but yeah, he did it for one or two summers, but there was in the yearbook for that, and I'm like, there's proof that he was doing it in the 70s, but then it didn't take off, but then 10 years later or whatever, 18, 15 years later, he tried it again and it took off great. Yeah, and so now it's kind of we're we're kind of keeping the same things going.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:39

But there's not a lot that's really new new. Right, right. It and maybe there isn't anything new new, but it seems like it seems like there is something there, but nobody's really taking a chance on it. It it's hard.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:52

Um it yeah, it it's it's tough. Yeah. But yeah. You know, I was just thinking back, you know, we there when I was driving tour bus, we would pick up uh for BART's operation, Chilcat Guides, they'd have a flotilla of LAB planes flying tourists from Skagway over, you know, and we'd pick them up at the airport and we'd I'd drive them up to the put-in on the circuit and and then take them back to the airport and they'd fly back over, you know. They'd have six, seven, eight of those airplanes all at once come flying in here. And the can the the transportation between the communities has changed a little bit, you know. Um there's the the fast ferry uh pulling people tourists out of the city.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:39

A lot more efficient than six cedar Cherokees.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:41

Yes. Yes. So um yeah, I don't know. Um certainly, I mean, we the next generation is gonna be bringing up some new ideas, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:54

Uh but no one I forgot it was Dale Mulford with the Oh yeah, the the Toxinook Mountains, mountain trail up there. Yeah. I mean, I think I remember when you first started that, everyone's like, that guy's crazy. Yeah. It's just a cool uh it's one of the best experiences. You can just go up there and the view you get from the top of that. But to have that foresight to think that, yeah, this is gonna be a cool event.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:16

And it's also hard to you have to you you have to take your your vision or or what you know of Haynes and you have to look at it from the eyes of people that aren't from Haynes. Yep. Because what we take for granted is spectacular or amazing for for people elsewhere, you know. Um just just you know, oh yeah, those those bears, you know. Like, oh you know. So um yeah, it it you you do have to kind of keep a fresh perspective. Um and I certainly I'm I'm not I didn't get the genes, I don't think, from my dad as to how to be creative and and start stuff up, you know. I I'm more of a keep things going, you know, the in in the process and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:09

But um yeah, it it I think I'm a lot more conservative than my dad on that as well. Yeah, it's and I I think for me it was just watching the looking back at it and seeing it's like holy crap, he just about lost it all. Yeah. Numerous different times. It's like you know, the yeah, there are times that he was telling me um before he passed it, you know, they were paying like 18, 19% interest on loans. But I'm like, holy crap, how did you make that work? Yeah, yeah, he's still young, he's got two young kids, got a wife, and he puts it all on the line, like quits teaching to open up a sporting goods store when there's already another sporting goods store, and everybody's like, Yeah, you're you're way out of town. He's like a block the next block down from the school. They're like, nobody's gonna go that far out of town. When somebody was telling me that when I was a kid, they're like, Yeah, when your dad first started this, we never thought of because it's so far out of town. I'm like, looking looking out the door, I was like, wait, it's only like four blocks. How are we that far out of town?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:15

That is, yeah, yeah. It uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:19

Um I don't know if I would have had that same strength to just like all right, chips go in.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:25

Yep, yeah. I I'm not much of a gambling guy, and I don't think my dad was either, but um yeah, I I think too, my my mom shielded a lot of that stuff from him. He was able to just all right, this year we're gonna do this, and it's like meanwhile, my mom's kind of going okay, okay, okay. So, but yeah, I mean we all it also seemed like we were always working, doing something, you know, like it was up, up early doing stuff, all the way to you know, these long days of the summer, you know, till eight, nine o'clock at night, and then we'd take a drive out to Chilcoot or something like that just to to kind of relax and then start and do it all over again. So but yeah, it was it was one of the funniest one of one of my memories was being a salesman for the comp for the family business. That well, I think it was the same year I messed my hand up. My folks just put me on the ferry to sitka. I went down with a briefcase, I went to all the stores on Lincoln Street and pedaled our wares, you know, cribbage boards and cocktail glasses with my dad's artwork on them, note cards, and and that was just like nowadays it's like people freak out if you send a kid off on their own on, you know, and it was just like, oh, you just get on the get on the ferry, and you know, when you get down there and call us, and and uh we st I stayed at the Catholic Church and went went around, hit all the stores, went up, then came back, went up to Skagway, did the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:07

Did you did had you negotiated a commission on all your sales? Or was that was that you got to food room and board?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:13

I got room and board. That's exactly what it was.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:15

So but were you were you a successful salesperson?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:18

Yeah, actually I did pretty good. Yeah, yeah. It uh which was a good learning experience. So but yeah, no, it was uh my my kids kind of went when I told them that story, they just kind of went, What?

SPEAKER_01 1:35:32

It's like yeah, he's you know, and just a few years later than that, but I remember distinctly when my uh so it was 85, we're going to National Jamboree. My dad had known Hans Fuller for a few years. He was the one that helped put the Eagle Center together, the commemorative rifle. He was one of my dad's really good friends, and he was Swiss Canadian. And that summer my sister went on a basketball, went with Juno Douglas girls, had asked her to go with them on a trip to Europe to play basketball over the summer. And so Hans thought that that was very unfair that Sarah got to go to Europe and I didn't. He didn't realize I was going on like this two and a half, three-week scout trip to National Jamboree. Sure, sure. And he thought I still need to do that. So I left like a day and a half early from Jamboree. Sam's dad, Steve, gets me in a bus. We go to, we're at Fort Apey Hill, Virginia. They drive us, he drives me into town with some other people. I have no idea how, but drops me off at this place, watches me get on like this airporter style bus, and he's like, see ya. So I get, I think it's Reagan National now, but going to I had six, seven hours before my flight, so I'm just wandering the airport until my flight.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:55

And the one distinct memory I have of that is this one lady had these just two giant white, they look like giant poodles, but they're just huge. The heads were up like four and a half feet off the ground, just these tall, huge dogs walking. I'm like, how are you taking those on the plane? But anyhow, so I I get on my flight there, go to LaGuardia, have a couple hour layover, fly to Zurich, Switzerland, and people, one guy there, he'd been hunting a year the year before he'd been here hunting with Ron Martin.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:23

But the people that I was gonna go with, I'd never met him before.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:26

And so that he was an executive uh uh the Allemand family, who's uh executive of Swiss Air. Okay. They meet me at the gate, and there I am in Switzerland, and my parents like, you know, no cell phone, like, have a good time, let us know when you can get it was a different time. It just and then and then when I was coming back, they just put me on a plane to Boston. Hans met me in Boston, went up to his place in Montreal, and I think it was Montreal to Toronto, had a I think I had to switch planes in Toronto and then Vancouver, and my parents and sister picked me up in Whitehorse and down to Haynes.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:02

Like, who would do that? Yeah, yeah. No, it it uh it it was definitely a different time. But you know, I remember the Alaska Airlines, you know, you'd fly Seattle to Juneau and you'd have silverware, a hot meal. Oh, yeah. It was it was comfortable, yeah and uh it and they're smoking. They were smoking, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:23

So that always cracked me up the smoking section, the non-smoking section. It's all the same air. You're in this tube. Really? The further back that you are from the smoking, the less smoke you get. Right. It's just like if the smoking section goes to row eight, row nine is still the smoking section.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:41

Well, yeah, I still remember you know, at restaurants in Seattle as a kid playing with the cigarette dispensing machines, you know. Okay, yeah. Put a couple quarters in and you can get, you know, and it's just they're right there in the lobby, you know. Yep. It's like, huh, times have changed. So but no, it was uh it was always interesting growing up here and getting involved in things like the Catholic Church too. Dad oversaw the make building of that, and he designed that church and the the existing church. Because at that time the there was a lot of people in the Catholic Church.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:18

There was the big original Catholic Church was tiny.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:22

It was tiny.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:22

There was hardly any space in that at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:25

The the priest when we first came here was um my my grandmother had been his housekeeper in Seattle.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:33

Really?

SPEAKER_00 1:39:34

And and he recognized my mom, and you know, when we first showed up, he said, Oh, Claire Mustasich is, you know, Father McHugh. And and uh so we yeah, we we were involved with that. And that was I spent one summer helping build that sh the the existing church. But um, yeah, it was pretty we there were some big families back then too, the Price family, the Hannon family, uh the Taylors. I mean it just the Hertz's too, you know, it was like you'd show up for Sunday service, Sunday Mass, and it was a packed house. Yeah, so we wound up uh doing building that. We actually went over to the old Indian school that was over in Skagway and harvested a lot of stuff. Typical Alaskan thing. Yeah. You know, it w it had been closed down in the early 60s, and so the archbishop had authorized allowed us to go over and take doors and um bunch of stuff, the pews from there and and bring them over and use it here in this church. So we uh the the stained glass windows uh in the sanctuary there are from are they they're from Skagway. From Skagway. I had no idea. That was one of the adventures of the the summer was going over there several times on the ferry and uh Harold Hannon. Yeah, the Hannon family, that was another big family, but um yeah, so we uh we the he had a big flatbed truck and we'd go over there and grab grab what we what my dad thought we needed to help build the church. So but uh we did find the safe and uh we were authorized to take the little little safe and it was the funniest thing. It's just you know plastic, you know, gold filigree design on it, and and uh it the inner the inner door was key lock was shut, but the door was open, and you could it was you you could shake it. I mean it was 300 pounds, but you could move it and you hear all this rattling. So we push it up onto the truck and get it over here and push it off the truck and drill out the lock and thinking, man, I wonder what's in there. It was toothbrushes. So obviously, dental care was priority.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:49

Priority, we got to put the toothbrushes in the safe.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:52

But uh, yeah, it was hundreds of toothbrushes. Seriously, yeah. So, but I I still have the safe actually. I we took the back of the door off and were able to figure out the combination. And uh so yeah, it was that was kind of kind of fun, but yeah, but yeah, for some reason, somebody when the school was shut down decided that better better safeguard the toothbrushes. So but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:21

This is gonna this is way off topic, totally changing the subject here. You're a train guy, grew up on Mercer Island. What do you think about the train going across light rail going across I-90 now? Pretty cool. You're gonna take a trip down to just go across on I-90 on that?

SPEAKER_00 1:42:37

Yeah, I I I'm thinking about doing that. I I'm I've got a I've got friends there still and and uh from childhood that are still on the island there. And I might I might have to make a run over there.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:49

I've thought about that. If I get down to Seattle, yeah, I might have to take a run across on on that. Or even if you got a long layover at the airport just kind of timing I was like, okay, can I get to Bellevue and back? Yeah and on that.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:01

And I had never really understood, never really given much thought to the fact, yeah, that bridge is is moving all the time. So yeah, having a fixed rail on it is not really gonna work very well, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:15

But a train needs a fixed rail. First one ever on a floating bridge. So it uh so far it seems like it's been what two weeks now that it's been running? And it seems like it's been fairly steady. Of course, it's not the middle of winter either when you got high winds and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:32

Well, I mean, I still think back to the time when that bridge went down, it was sunk.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:36

I was in college when that thing sunk.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:39

So I would I I rem it it's funny. I was actually at Providence Hospital getting my final surgery done and uh on my hand, and it was a November storm, and um the news came on that the Hood Canal floating bridge sunk. And I never really considered that the I-90. And then you would think and so I'm up here. I when when was that? It must have been like 90.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:03

90 or 90. I can't. Yeah, 89, 90. Yeah. I can't remember what year it was I was in college, but yeah, because they're putting the new lanes across, they're building a new one and refurbishing the other one.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:13

Refurbishing the other one, and then yep. And and I I heard on the news, I was like, holy crap, that's the one I used to take to high school every day, you know? But yeah, so it it's yeah, it it it is much different than when I used to drive that. But uh, it's it's plush now.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:31

Yeah, I mean and I and that was the thing, you know, at the 520 right by campus, yeah. That's the one we usually took if we're going to the east side anyhow. Yeah, that was brand new. Yeah, like you said, it's brand new. And so, but I was hesitant. There's times it would have been quicker to take 90 and then come north on I5 back to the UW before over in Bellevue or whatever. I was like, yeah, we can take four or five up to 520. I don't know if I need to have it's like this thing sank once. I'm sure they're on top of it, but let them check it out a little bit longer before it trusts it again.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:03

Yeah, no, it's it it's been it it's really changed down there. A lot, a lot of a lot of improvements, yeah, but uh a lot more traffic too. So I I flew into one time flying into Seattle. I look at and I go, why are we that far out from downtown Seattle? And I realized, oh, that's Bellevue. It's Bellevue, you know. Back in the day when I was a kid, we'd be picking uh pumpkins for Halloween off of I-90 there just south of Bellevue, and that ain't the case anymore. So a lot of change. Yeah. So yeah, it that's that's pretty much my life.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:40

What what what what have I missed? What should have I what should have I asked you and I didn't, Tom? I don't know. It's a good Is there are there any deep dark secrets there that just looking to unburden yourself with? Really? Fun new facts that we've forgotten.

City Council Consolidation And Change

SPEAKER_00 1:45:53

Other than I I was briefly in politics here, but I You were. We served together on the city council. Yep, that's right. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:00

The final council before the final council before consolidation, we voted ourselves out of a job.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:06

And uh we were complimented on doing that, and to this day I kind of wonder if maybe it wasn't such a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:15

I I think what it when people ask me that if I thought uh if I still think it was a good idea, yeah, I'm hesitant as well on whether it was the best idea. But I I think one of the things that really set us back was when Marco Pinalberry, who was our city manager, became borough manager, he passed away like within two months of after consolidation started, and and then just trying to find a new borough manager took a while. There was a lot of lag there, and you're trying to consolidate everything and not having that strong direct leadership during that process, I think, really set us back on that, and I don't think we've recovered since then.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:56

And it's like like the whole um I didn't think that the naming of the new borough was going to be that critical. You know, yep. This I I never realized that the city and borough would be a better naming than just doing Haynesborough. I you know um and I I naively thought things would be more efficient, but that doesn't happen with with bureaucracy.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:20

But the the one advantage is we're no longer suing ourselves. Yes, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:25

But we're we are getting sued by a lot more.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:27

We're getting sued by other people, but we're not being we're not suing ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:32

Because that was that was the thing, I think there was when I was in office on the assembly, I know there's the one with Hain Sanitation where the borough, but I thought there was somebody mentioned there was a second, I can't remember which one it what it was. But I just remember going back and forth and because the borough and the city were suing each other over yeah, and it's like this is yeah, no ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:53

I it you know, and having having two levels of government for 2,500 people did seem a little ridiculous, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:02

Um but like what most people have we've we haven't cut back the level of government, it's kind of expanded, it's just under one roof now instead of two.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:14

But um, yeah, so yeah, it it uh it needed to be done. We just need to keep keep working it out.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:26

So there you there's a retirement job for you. Oh yeah, Tom Andreessen for mayor. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You were great. Yeah, no, I got the utmost respect for what you went through. You had a tough time. Tom Andreessen for assembly. Tom, we can get you back in there. You did a good job.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:43

Oh, I I I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:45

I thank you, but it's it's it's not a lot of fun though, oftentimes, is it? No, I I mean it's inju I I've always enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:54

Every every time I've enjoyed it, but for me, it just each time that I've either been on the city council, planning commission briefly, mayor, it just if you I think if you care about it, yeah, it takes a toll. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:08

And you know, you you you uh get informed on the on whatever the topic is, and you look at it and you say these are the pros. You think you know what's the pros, what's the cons? This is my decision. And uh that that's the best you can do, you know. And let's m let's move on to the next thing. And and um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:33

But not everybody wants to that I think one of the issues is not everybody wants to move on. Yeah. There's things that we just keep relitigating, relitigating, relitigating. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:42

Yeah. It um I I think human nature fears change too. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I think that's the only concrete thing in life is that change. Everything's gonna change. Everything's gonna change.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:57

It's the one constant, it's the one thing we fear the most.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:59

Yep. Yeah. And if you you gotta be able to be f flexible to adjust to it or else you you're not gonna you're not gonna thrive. You're not gonna yeah, it it um you gotta you gotta change you gotta be willing to accept change and and work work through it.

Old Haines Stories Roads And Industry

SPEAKER_01 1:50:22

So I mean you've seen it in in real real real um resale here with uh how things change and um well and just just the the demographics in the community yeah compared to what it was when my dad first started in the 70s and yeah I remember there with the sawmills and stuff there's uh a new gun would come out and he'd have it on the way and and the guys would put their name in for drawing to draw who got to buy the first one that came in. Oh yeah yeah because there's limited on how soon he could get it in and sure there's so many people that wanted to buy them that and so the store the old store you know that 24 by 40 building that thing would just be packed with all these guys from the sawmill and the loggers and stuff yeah I remember being there and the just before he'd closed to draw the name because waiting for them to get off work yeah draw who got to and then the guys are like oh dang it Joe or whatever just yeah it'd be all ticked off that he was the one that got it but yeah so or or the you know talking about Chilcoot um 70s 80s campers lined up on both sides you know down by the bridge is totally packed with RVs that are there for weeks or months at a time and just people fishing all summer long down there and and people talk crowding out there now and it's I when you bring a tour bus out there it gets crowded yeah yeah but otherwise the amount of visitors that are out of Chilku compared to what they were 30, 40 years ago it's it's yeah nothing.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:54

Hardly anybody out there.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:56

Yeah I always enjoyed driving up up to the head of the lake too that was always fun. But oh going back on the the logging road behind there. Oh yeah that was yeah yeah yeah yeah you start thinking back of what changes have happened around here you know I I use the tank farm at Tanini Point as as a reference and people go what tank farm and it's just like well that was the fuel pipeline to Fairbanks.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:19

There was a fuel pipeline you mean the Alaska pipeline and it's like my cousin Scott gave um my mom a DVD of when him and his sister came to Alaska when I think he was eight years old. Okay. So 68 I think was when they came up here and so a couple summer a couple Sundays ago we're at Sarah's and we're we're watching it and they they were taking a flight to Skagway and they had the film of the tank farm and all the kids all the kids are like so that's why they call it the tank farm was like yep a whole bunch of big tank petroleum tank it was always the first thing you'd see coming up from Juno you you'd be on the ferry and that's what you'd see is big white tanks. It was the first thing you'd see and uh uh yeah yeah but yeah it's it's yeah it's funny how things are no longer here that were just commonplace the the tanks down by the uh tasted daishu the the fuel fuel depot there and and the barges that would come in there to offload fuel and um and even across from the post office those just got removed recently just a couple years ago but for yeah that was big time fuel depot for a long time as well and those headers were out on the old port chilcue dock coming up to it yeah but yeah and you know I I remember when they were building the breakwater for the harbor we were watching that I'd as a as a young kid it was always fun to watch heavy I still like watching heavy equipment I was but I I'd run down there with my lunch and sit there and watch him you know dumping dumping rock and and uh building the breakwater so we we had a a guy that was uh younger guy with the A-frame up above our old house where DeWitts are at now um my parents rented out to him that summer apparently because he was working for Southeast Robo's world because I think they're bringing the rock out a four mile there for it I think I could be wrong but um you know my grandpa hub and so that he got fired and my grandpa was asking him and he was like well you know he'd had two something happened with the truck and then the second time a rock came down and hit the truck and he's like it's not my fault and my grandpa just went off on him about you're the driver you're supposed to be looking for these things you know grandpa didn't have any he's he was looking for some sympathy I think he's like yeah you're not getting it here I was just a little so that was what 75 or 76 they built that? Yep yep something six seven years old seventy six yeah yeah some seven years old and and I'm looking at that I was like oh you poor dude you don't understand what you were getting into when you came in here with that complaint I remember hub in fact hub dug the foundation for our our little house there on Beach Road yeah he uh you know we we got some creosote piling and he dug some trenches there for us and yeah one armed one armed back up backhoe operator right he did a lot with one arm yeah it always amazed me the the things that I thought my mom and I we I interviewed my mom and when we're talking about him as there's so many things that I thought would be easy in life because watching my grandpa do it with one arm. Yeah and then when I tried doing it was like the hell how this is really hard I got two arms how he makes it look so easy.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:31

So easy and then you know I'm sure you kind of remember is like it seemed like there was a lot of characters back then. I mean you know that that the people had they they they were very individual and um you know like like duck I mean he was he's one of a kind you know and hub and and uh Carl Heinmiller I mean you know World War II veteran with you know missing fingers and an eye from from World War II. It's just like it was there were some real character people here and uh and everybody was missing fingers.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:08

I mean they're missing something yeah they're missing body parts you know my grandpa's losing arm but yeah fingers parts there that was not uncommon no not uncommon at all I I fit right in you're just trying to you're just trying that's why you did that this wasn't an accent you wanted to fit in with everybody peer pressure Tom it was all peer pressure well that that's another one Carl Heinmiller you look at the different things that he did you know he was a magistrate but with Alaska Indian arts and the Chilcat dancers and the stuff that they that he was promoting kind of reinvigorating the negative culture but then also looking at the tourism aspect of that on bringing them thing bringing things in and it we're I forget who I was talking to the other day about you know the Chilcat Center um well I was with Michael Marks and stuff we're interviewing him and about how much you the use of the Chilcat Center used to be because during the summer you'd have the Chilcat dancers there at least once a week you'd have the Lust for Dust a few nights a week and so it's just like all summer long there's something going on uh performance of some kind at the Chilcat Center.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:14

Yeah yeah I I was in Lust for Dust for several seasons would do that my sister and I and Matt Jones and who who what role did you have? I I did uh um Sergeant Justin Time Sergeant Justin Time yeah the Royal Canadian mounted police yeah so bunch bunch of our friends were my sister and I and our friends were kind of in that group for a couple of seasons I think if I remember right and and uh but yeah yeah it was uh yeah it it was my favorite part I don't know if he was doing it when you did it but kind of when my age group was going through and we'd go watch all the time watch our friends but Ray Menecker oh yeah he re reading beforehand reciting yep um and then the sing along too yep yeah yep yeah that was that was classic Ray was just such a character and and you could see it even in in White Fang you know because he's he's in that too but uh yeah he he was he was great I I enjoyed working with him but yeah my yeah my my dad was involved he he wound up dancing with the dance chill cat dancers for several several okay towards towards the late eighties he was dancing uh he was the the Koustica the so in fact I still have his mask but yeah mom and him got adopted into the clan through uh Charlie Jimmy so and and that was something my dad was always really interested in it was the the native art the the form line and he really liked he really studied that a lot and and and would produce pieces too of that so but uh yeah so but yeah it Carl Heinmiller man that that guy was that that's some history there so yeah he's he was really involved in scouts too and it it was kind of intimidating because you'd have for certain merit badges we'd go see him like some of the citizenship ones and stuff and you'd go meet in the courthouse.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:16

Oh yeah and so you know after school you'd have an appointment with Carl Heinmeller you go in and whoever's clerk is it's kind of it's like you're going into the judge's chambers here to work on a merit badge and you just kind of feel guilty that hope nobody saw me come in here think I'm in trouble with the law.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:33

Yeah what wasn't Mimi Gregg the clerk I think it probably was Mimi.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:37

I think she was yeah yeah I'm sure I don't I don't remember who the clerk was but I remember checking in and then and then Carl would come on in and go into his office there and and he'd quiz you on the stuff that you're supposed to know give you you need to work on this or this needs to be better or something and come back in two weeks and that's great. Go back there but going into the judge's office.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:02

Yeah. And that was it that was fun with the driving tour bus we'd always stop at Alaska in Indian Arts and check out the what was going on in there with the carving and people loved that was a great great stop but and and the museum the museum was great gig gave me a chance to look at more history here so but yeah yeah it's uh yeah they they wound up paving LUTAC the next year after we did the film and uh it's just like why can't they have done that you know the year before you could look at this that you're responsible for it because you bringing all that traffic out there got enough complaints that they're like we're gonna have to pave this.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:46

It got bad it it was really bad. Well it was never the greatest to begin with regardless of how much traffic I mean you'd go out there unless they had recently bladed it.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:57

Yeah it was bad. It was bad. So but yeah we you know we wound up filming spent two weeks filming the the night scenes there up in the Chilcoot uh lake campground and uh uh of course it was a it was an early spring the it was a warm February and we had to have Kenny Waldo come in and start blowing snow in because it was melting so fast and it's like really meanwhile when they're building the sets in December and January it was you know blizzard cold and but yeah that was and so we had to wind up having to regrade that campground and um obviously we also took out some of the little signed site posts and had to put in a whole new set of those you know that was kind of the stuff I wound up having to uh make sure happened is that the the areas were put back the way they were supposed to be and and that whoever the landowner was was was satisfied with with everything. Yeah. But no it yeah it uh and then just like another change is is the current highway I mean n very few people remember the hairpin turn at Rainy Hollow and um and how much the road is so much nicer than it used to be you know porcupine spur. Gravel all the way to Whitehorse. I mean that was but I I remember I when it must have been seven I think it was 1980 we're driving to Whitehorse we have a flat tire at Munkastor Creek and I kind of thought to myself man we're a long ways out of this is pretty quiet out here. And now it's like oh no big deal you know yeah Muncaster's not that far anyway no it's yeah there's a bunch of homes around there and yeah so but yeah it was it was a different time for sure so but yeah well we had the we had the privilege of living through it. Yeah we survived we survived made it through so but you you were thinking you were saying too about the demographics yeah I mean it it's the demographics have definitely changed um but it used to be a logging and fishing town yeah yeah I mean it was you look at the timber industry here for a long time that was huge and the fishing industry those are the two main drivers of the economy. And it it um you know there was there there's always been the government stuff with you know the border station and the the tank farm going and and uh at the time and but um um you know the dot maintenance with the highway and um the but it it uh it was yeah it's it's amazing that there was that much stuff going on and it was still a very small population too.

Preserving Pete Andreessen Art Legacy

SPEAKER_01 2:03:52

I mean the um I I do miss all the old fishing boats along Beach Road you know yeah my that was that was they're all the all of them that rove and pulled up there and your dad did a lot of artwork with those a lot of artwork with them we had a lot of those that were you see those occasionally the one we've got from your dad I think my mom's got a couple but I think the one because he did one with the papy frost in front of Beach Road there.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:15

And since that was my dad's boat and Scott Patterson was fishing it at the time and so I think we all have a uh my mom and dad still have that at the house with the your dad steal the papy frost for many seasons they the the Pacific Queen would be in front of our place there and pitching fish you know and my dad did a great one of of that with all the different boats boats around it going around it and I don't see that anymore. But uh yeah that was the yeah my dad did a lot of those and I still go into people's homes here and it's just like oh yeah there's one of his and the there's some of his prints at 33 mile and the the menu cover of the bamboo room was one of his. Yeah it it's the artwork is still out there so I've still got quite a bit of his prints in my workshop which I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with him but uh that's probably what my retirement is going to be is going to be the clean clean out my workshop of decades of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:15

Make a return trip to Sitka yeah to Skagway go around to the shops like you know a couple years ago I was here yeah I talked talked to Joe is he still here no he's been dead for 40 years. Oh who who should I talk to now we had a great relationship back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:36

I've got I've got some updated product here for you you're probably familiar with a lot of salesmen that come through it's like oh yeah I got this great thing to sell you you know so but no it uh yeah he yeah he definitely I th his artwork really kind of captured a particular time too in in at least in this community that um is but uh he did a lot of the can pictures of the cannery too the bunk houses that were at the right by the turn there uh by the cannery and um yeah definitely encapsulated uh that time period so here here's a thought for you uh do you have enough prints to put together a book yeah actually I probably do I probably should do something like that trying to find like a coffee table book or something like that the the works of Pete Andreessen yeah my my daughters actually when they're in high school were were kind of doing the business they they put together the some of the note cards and would sell them to the some of the gift shops around town and um and they were doing pretty well with it. But um yeah yeah I I'd like to actually um try and put together something like that. And uh but yeah that yeah that'll be a good retirement thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:55

I'll I'll when you when you start digging into the prints let me know I'd like to come over because there might be some that because that that was that's I think Sam would probably attest to this too that our childhood there weren't many houses you went into that that didn't have a Pete Andreessen print yeah of or more.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:12

Yeah yeah yeah it was uh yeah he he keep kept he did a lot of a lot of stuff he he kept pretty busy yeah yeah it uh he kept going so and he he wound up he continued to do drawings uh artwork you know when they finally moved down to anacortus and re you know we're we're there finally and because they they left here and moved to hider because haynes was getting too big getting too big so and then so they it was one of those things where I just happened to stop by for dinner with with Lisa by that time we were we were dating and so we've stopped by and the place on Beach Road and and they said they said well we found a buyer for the house and I went you mean this house house and because they they'd always been saying once dad retired they're gonna live here year round and uh I I said didn't you think about offering either my sister or or me an opportunity to step into this this property I was like oh I didn't you you've got your place over on Cemetery Hill and Karen's established down in Seattle you guys wouldn't be interested in this like come on you know water waterfront view you know and no this would suck to live here this is so um the the the built his house in our yard and before printed up here kind of been involved there's some history here I put a I put a lot of sweat equity with the dad in on this property you know and uh and he and they go why are you interested in I said well I don't know how I'd swing it you know I've got a mortgage on the other place and stuff like that and so we uh I said is there any way that the guy that put escrow you know escrow payment down would be willing to step out of it I'll I'll offer you match what he's doing and and they go well we'll talk to him and the guy was nice enough to back out but and uh so I wound up selling my selling my place to my girlfriend actually because if her mortgage payment was less than it was at that time less than her rent. Okay you know back in the day when that actually penciled out and and uh so she she was living there and I was able to put a down payment on on that on our place now and as things turned out I wound up marrying my girlfriend and marrying the girlfriend so got that house back brilliant real estate I was gonna say this I don't know if this real estate venture of yours works for everybody Tom it really works one it worked it worked well for you so but anyways yeah so it it it um yeah so you know and then I was like well where are you guys gonna go and it's like oh Haynes is too big for us we're gonna go down to Hyder and it's just like really they they increased the population there by two percent I think so but yeah I never did make it down there when they were alive they they would spend summers there and then go back to down to Annacortis for the winters but um we we wound up my wife and daughter we did a a trip down the Alcan and then came up to Cassiar a couple summers ago and dropped into Hyder and uh I could definitely see that his he built two places down he was a serial builder he he loved building things so I there was two little small cabins that he had built down there and and it's like I I I know his style so it's like yeah that's one of his one of his that's one of his stopped into the gift shop and and uh did they have some cards there from him well yeah the they I actually had stuck the magnetic sign their business Silver Bear Sales on the side of the car and uh for the trip up because we it was after my dad had passed and so we were down in Seattle that my sister's going through all their stuff and and take bringing some stuff back with us and and so that the owner went silver Silver Bear sales is Pete and Claire and it's like well I'm I'm their son and it's like oh they were such great people it's sorry I heard that they passed away and stuff like that I was like small town small town small towns they they liked they liked the little small town but man I Haider was not some place I'd like to wind up in. That was a little too small for your days a little a little dark and gloomy but it was also kind of a rainy day so but um yeah yeah so they they eventually did have to leave Alaska permanently and and be down in Annachortis but full time but yeah yeah so yeah it uh yeah but he continued they they were starting to Tourism down there in Hyder too, you know. When I first started going there, the the ferry would go in there. And then uh once in a while one of the cruise west little boats would pop in there and stuff like that. And then of course mom helped at the gift shop there. And um they got involved in various fundraising things too. So so yeah, you grow growing up like you and like you, it's like your family's got involved in the stuff going on in the community, and you were just expected to get in there and help out too, you know. So but uh yeah, it's good good learning experience. So yeah, Matt, I I think I've become a I'm knowledgeable in a lot of things, but a master of nothing. So nothing wrong with that. Yeah. Uh yeah, so that's pretty much my life.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:59

I think it's great to people get to see another time maybe that they haven't seen before.

SPEAKER_00 2:13:03

Yeah, yeah, just the lumberyard guy.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:06

Just the lumberyard guy that's got a really cool backstory.

SPEAKER_00 2:13:09

The helpful hardware guy. Yeah, yeah, we can we can help you out. Which way did you come in? I'm appreciated. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:25

Thanks for watching this episode of DuckCast Questions. Just a reminder: if you've enjoyed the conversation today, please like, subscribe. We're available on YouTube if you want to watch us, if you just want to listen. Uh, it's on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and we have new uh episodes being launched every Thursday. So thanks again for watching or listening and following us. We appreciate your support.