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T HE C OAST NEWS
OCT. 10, 2014
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When the mountain is out With luck and timing, this is the view of Mount McKinley (Denali) that visitors see as they approach the town of Talkeetna, a two-and-a-half hour drive north of Anchorage. At 20,320 feet, the mountain is the highest peak in North America. At this point on the road, visitors are actually closer to the mountain than at the entrance to Denali National Park, another 150 miles north of Talkeetna. Photos by Jerry Ondash
hit the road e’louise ondash
W
e are driving north on the Talkeetna Spur when we come over a gentle slope and there it is — a snow-shrouded Mount McKinley, rising regally to 20,320 feet and dwarfing the surrounding peaks. It’s a vision you can’t see from a cruise ship, and my cousin, Panu Lucier, who is at the wheel, can’t pull over fast enough. “The mountain is out!” she exclaims with enthusiasm that belies the fact that she has lived in Alaska all her life. It’s a phrase not heard that often because Mount McKinley, or Denali as the locals call it, is usually hidden by clouds. “It’s so big that it has its own weather system,” says Panu’s partner, Mark Ransom. In planning our 12-day stay in South Central Alaska, Mount McKinley was not on the itinerary. We just didn’t expect to get this lucky, but here it is: the view of a lifetime. After 20 minutes, I’m still reluctant to leave it, but we must continue to Talkeetna (population 800-something). A two-anda-half-hour drive north, the town is a popular weekend destination for Anchorage residents and the halfway
Panu Lucier of Anchorage visits her first home in Talkeetna, Alaska. Her father, Charles Lucier, was a teacher in this one-room schoolhouse in the mid-1950s, and her family lived in the apartment above. Today the schoolhouse is the Talkeetna Historical Society Museum and features artifacts from pre-statehood days.
point between Anchorage and Denali National Park. The picturesque downtown is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and many say it’s the town after which the 1990s television series “Northern Exposure” was modeled. For Panu and me, however, Talkeetna represents
a bit of family history (our fathers were first cousins). Panu’s father, Charles Lucier, was the only teacher in the town’s one-room schoolhouse for a while during the mid-1950s. He and her mother, Grace, a Native Alaskan from a tiny Inupiaq settlement on the Bering Sea, lived in the apartment
above the school room. It was Panu’s first home. Charles eventually decided to leave because of “safety concerns,” according to records. The school sits next to the old village airstrip, and with no barrier between the two, he was afraid for both his daughter and the students. Today, the apartment can be rented by the day through the historic Talkeetna Roadhouse (built in 1917), a half-block away. The owner was kind enough to let us into the apartment, and we try to imagine Panu’s family living there. The former classroom below now serves as the Talkeetna Historical Society Museum, and a report card TURN TO HIT THE ROAD ON B15