Mona Painter/Turnagain Times
Clark Fair, left, and Brent Johnson autograph copies of “Snapshots At Statehood,” during the Cooper Landing Historical Society meeting Jan. 16. Standing are Bonnie Golden, Tammy Robinson, Mayme Ohnemus, Catherine Cassidy, and Judy Johnson.
By Mona Painter
Turnagain Times
Cooper Landing Correspondent
Historical Society Welcomes Bob Baldwin and Book Writers
Bob Baldwin was elected to the Cooper Landing Historical Society board during the Jan. 16 business meeting. Bob, Jane, and Mike Baldwin often visit the museum, and have kept an eye on the operation since the museum opened in 2003.
Business was followed by a panel of “Snapshots At Statehood” writers with Bonnie Golden who was the Kenai Peninsula Borough Staff person for the book committee during the early months of work. Bonnie, a resident for over 25 years, is now in charge of Congressman Don Young's office in Kenai.
Book committee chair and project coordinator Brent Johnson described the year-and-a-half long process that led to the publication of the book by the Kenai Peninsula Historical Association. Brent is a commercial fisherman; long time, if not lifetime, Alaska resident; member of the KPB Planning Commission, president of the Kenai Peninsula Historical Assoc, as well as a writer. Brent's chapter, A Borough Tour, is fun reading and filled with information not found in the community chapters.
Diane Olthuis wrote the Hope chapter. She probably knows more about that community that just about anyone. Diane is president of the Hope Sunrise Historical Society. She moved to Alaska in 1977 to teach school on St. Paul Island and had written several Alaska history books including “It Happened in Alaska,” and “Historic Building Survey in Hope.”Clark Fair is another long time Kenai Peninsula resident. He's a retired English teacher who had several Cooper Landing students in his Soldotna High School and Skyview High School classes. He currently writes for the Redoubt Reporter.
To prepare for writing his chapter, Clark got a group of early Soldotna settlers together and with everyone's input a map of the area was drawn with all sorts of information jotted down on various locations.
Catherine Cassidy wrote about Tustemena. She and Gary Titus published the popular biography of Andrew Berg, “Alaska's No. 1 Guide.” Catherine writes for several publications and her book “Living and Playing on the Kenai Peninsula” contains information about the geology, ecology, and history of the area.
So there I was, the Cooper Landing chapter author, in pretty good company!
Cooper Landing Community Club Starts Earlier
The new time for the Cooper Landing Community Club meeting is 7 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 28 at the community hall on Bean Creek Road. Following the general meeting, Christine Huber will give a short presentation on the maintenance projects scheduled for this summer on the Sterling Highway. Everyone interested will have a chance to ask questions.
If you have any items to add to the agenda. Please email Gary Galbraith at info@alaskariverscompany.com by noon on Jan. 27 to get on the schedule.
Carter Lake Offers Great Ice Fishing and Snow Machining
Carter Lake is the hot place for catching rainbow trout through the ice and the Lost Lake bowl seems pretty popular with snowmachiners judging by the trailers loaded with machines going up Snug Harbor Road. Now that I drive to Senior Haven several times a week, I've been able to keep an eye on Kenai Lake. I've watched it freeze over in plates, or pieces, be covered with snow, thaw and become open again–all this below, Porcupine Island. Looking up that way, I can see what looks like a thin layer of ice. In the early 1970's we used to snow machine up the lake from the bridge to near the power plant where we could come off the lake onto the road near the intersection of the Cooper Lake cut off.
