10 YEARS AGO

Jan. 4, 2000 — A Tanana elder’s life-threatening illness and runway lights rendered useless by extreme cold weather combined for an emergency air medical evacuation Monday evening which the villagers of Tanana will not soon forget.

About 30 residents of the Athabascan community braved temperatures of 45 below to illuminate the village airstrip with their car and snowmachine headlights to guide in a Frontier Flying Service King Air 200 turbine airplane which transported Whistler Bifelt to Fairbanks.

“The pilot said, ‘It was a beautiful runway,’ and thanked the community for coming out,” said Mary Starr, an FAA weather observer at the village airport.

“It was really a sight,” said Starr. “It’s an amazing and beautiful thing to see the village come together. I got a big lump (in my throat) when I looked out at it.”

Tanana, at the confluence of the Yukon and Tanana rivers about 145 miles northwest of Fairbanks, has been without plane service since early last week when frigid weather enveloped the Interior. On Sunday, the temperature had fallen to 55 below. Early Monday morning, airport workers first noticed the runway lights weren’t functioning, Starr said.

About 5:15 p.m., Vicky Aldridge, nurse practitioner at the village health center, realized that Bifelt, 61, needed medical attention the clinic could not provide. “We had a person who was bleeding and had to get him out tonight,” Aldridge said.

The sun was already down when the emergency call came into Frontier Flying Service, said Bob Hajdukovich, company president. “We told them the only situation we could fly was if they could find enough vehicles and snowmachines and get them coordinated so we could land.

“The trick was we had to have all the logistics prepared before we launched into the wild blue yonder,” Hajdukovich added.

Aldridge’s next calls went to Starr at the airport, Ada Jordan, who handles runway maintenance, Steve Cochran, public safety officer, and Jennifer Johnson at the village Native Council office, who started calling villagers to ask them to start any vehicle engines they could.

During that time, Aldridge was aided in Bifelt’s care by Curtis Sommer, a health care practitioner. “He started the ball rolling getting all the medical necessities together,” she said.

Within 30-45 minutes of the initial calls, the runway was lit and ready, said Cochran, who with the help of Paul Starr, cleared the reflective panels at either end of the runway.

The wide assortment of vehicles, cars, trucks, minivans and snowmachines were lined up on either side of the runway, situated about a mile from the village proper.

“We divided them up evenly and spread them out along the outside edges of runway, and as more people came in, they filled in the gaps,” Cochran explained.

Jesse Fliris, a seventh-grader, brought his old black Skidoo nicknamed the “Tundra Tank.” Fliris also helped Cochran clear the collar cones around each of the disabled runway lights to expose the reflective tape.

With a hand-held aviation-band radio, Cochran was able to talk to the Frontier pilots, Nate Thompson and David Fowler, and tell them what the runway setup was like.

“He did a fly-over and said everything looked great,” recalled Cochran a few hours later. Flares were used to mark the runway center line.

The plane landed without incident and was on the ground about 45 minutes before airlifting Bifelt to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

From start to the landing in Fairbanks at 7:30 p.m., the whole episode took approximately two hours and 15 minutes.

“There is this wonderful caring atmosphere in the village,” said Aldridge Monday night. “If anyone needs anything, all I have to do is call one or two people and everything will get taken care of.”

Cochran marveled at the tenacity of the people who turned out to help, sitting in 45-below weather for an hour and a half.

“That is a long time to sit without moving around. All were real champions about it.”

The runway light outage has been reported to airport maintenance in Fairbanks, said Mary Starr.

25 YEARS AGO

Jan. 4, 1985 — Jesse Carr, the powerful leader of the Teamsters Union in Alaska, died today at his home in Indian Wells, Calif., apparently of natural causes, according to the coroner’s office in nearby Palm Springs. He was 59.

Carr, who headed Teamsters Local 959 since 1956, reportedly had been suffering from heart problems.

“We don’t have much information now. Our investigator is out there,” said Sabas Rosas, deputy supervising coroner in Palm Springs.

As head of the Teamsters, Carr rose to unprecedented power in the 1970s with the construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Although the union’s strength has declined in recent years, Carr was still by far the state’s most powerful labor leader.

A native of Upland, Calif., Carr moved to Alaska in 1951 as a truck driver. He worked his way up the union ladder, finally consolidating five independent unions into one powerful local.

Besides truckers, the Teamsters later branched out to represent workers in almost every industry in Alaska, from telephone operators to Anchorage police.

“They represent almost everything from the womb to the tomb,” said Larry Cotter, president of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, Local 200.

50 YEARS AGO

Jan. 4, 1960 — Dave Dalrymple, 1958 preliminary dog mushing champion, yesterday achieved the goal for which he had been striving six years!

Setting a pace of over 15 miles per hour on the 8 1/2-mile trail, Dalrymple herded his nine-dog team to a 33-second margin over the second-place team.

For Dave, 20th out of the chute, it was the first win in six years of racing, though he was always a strong contender and two years ago won the preliminary championship for the total elapsed time over the various preliminary races to the North American Classic.

Dalrymple copped the Arctic Insulation and Early Plumbing & Heating race yesterday in 32:47, with Jacky Edwin second on the strength of his 33:10 as ninth man to start.

Edwin, driving his first race in Fairbanks, lost his chance on the way home as, leading sixth-out Gary Atwood and eighth-out Betty brewer into the chute, Jacky lost control of his Brewer-entry seven-dog team when it broke toward the crowd. He lost nearly a minute before coming back to the trail.

Meanwhile, Atwood finished, kicking snow in the faces of Brewer’s lead dogs. Edwin trailed the two to the finish line.

For over 20 minutes, it looked like the break would do no damage, as time after time was chaled up, all higher than Edwin’s.

But 1:11:47 after the race started, Dalrymple came in — the 18th team to cross the finish line — and Edwin’s dream was shattered.

Holding third spot was the fast-closing Andy Jimmy with a 33:26, while Godfrey Joseph netted fourth with a 33:39, just three seconds off third spot.

With the trail in good condition despite a new fall of snow, second to 10th place times were contained in the 3:43 margin.

Racing a new string of seven dogs this year, the eight-mile winner of a year ago, Bob Loveless, finished eighth, over three minutes off the pace.

Two seconds ahead of Loveless was late entry Ken Pitka, sponsored by the Nenana Lodge and driving a seven-dog team headed by Jenny, the famous old lead dog of Gareth Wright’s championship days.

All entries completed the course, with 11th-starting Charles Nottingham and 10th-starting Buck Mylon both in the chute at once in a race to the finish line. Nottingham posted a 62:28, while Mylon’s red lantern time was 65:08.

75 YEARS AGO

Jan. 4, 1935 — Financing with United States funds the construction of that part of the International Highway remaining to be built in Canada is proposed by Delegate Anthony J. Dimond, and he also has urged the immediate establishment of military units in Alaska and the strengthening of fortifications at ports in the Territory.

In connection with the International Highway project, the Delegate explained today that of the 2,256 miles of the entire length of the road from Seattle to Fairbanks, 1,185 are still incompleted.

Of this incompleted portion, 1,000 miles are in Canada, namely 520 miles in the 570-mile stretch from Hazelton, B.C. to the boundary of Yukon Territory, and 480 miles in the 530-mile stretch from the Yukon Territory boundary to the Alaska boundary.

To build this 1,000 miles of incompleted highway in Canada, $12,000,000 is the estimated requirement.

The delegate explained that he hopes to gain the approval of the United States and Canadian governments of a plan by which the United States will advance the money for construction of at least a portion of the highway through British Columbia province and Yukon Territory and by which this advance will be repaid by Canada to the United States from proceeds of taxes collected by Canada on the sales of gasoline on her part of the highway.

If, however, approval cannot be obtained for construction of that part of the incompleted highway in Canada, the delegate declared he would not relax his efforts for the enactment of the bill which he introduced in Congress on Thursday authorizing construction of the 183 miles of the highway under United States jurisdiction. This 183 miles is in the 274-mile stretch between the Yukon Territory boundary and Fairbanks. The cost of building this 183 miles is estimated at $2,000,000.

With respect to military units and fortification of ports in Alaska, the delegate today asserted these are covered in bills he introduced in Congress last Thursday. He insisted the present Army post at Haines should be augmented and that other Army posts, including Air Corps bases, should be established in the territory. He stressed the necessity of strengthening fortifications at ports in Alaska as well as in ports of Pacific Coast states.

100 YEARS AGO

Jan. 4, 1910 — Starting Sunday next, no trains will be run on the Tanana Valley Railway on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays during the months of January and February. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays only will trains run, and on those days there will be one train each way over the line.

The object of the new schedule is to save expense — to keep the road from losing more money than is necessary. The railway company can do all the business offered it in four days of the week, and the extra service is only a losing game.

Between Ester City and Fairbanks the railway company will run stages on the days that no trains run — fare each way $1.

Commencing Sunday, January 9th, the Chena-Fairbanks service will run on the present time card on the days above named. The train for the creeks will leave Fairbanks at 9:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, returning from Chatanika at 1:50 p.m. the same days.

The stage for Ester City will connect with trains Nos. 1 and 2 at Ester Siding on those days, and on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays the stage will leave Ester City at 9 a.m. for Fairbanks direct, leaving the Fairbanks depot at 3 p.m. on the return trip.

Baggage allowance on all trains and stages will be 50 pounds. The warehouse at Fairbanks will be open every day except Sunday, as heretofore, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the receipt and delivery of freight. Sunday hours, 10 a.m. to noon and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

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