In 1962 the Federal Government provided an opportunity
for a man or woman and family to stake up to 160 acres of
unoccupied land in Alaska. The Bureau of Land Management
identified acreage that was comparable with growing an agricultural
product in an area where access could be had to market
your product. You were required to file your paperwork,
clear forty of the 160 acres, plant, and harvest a crop. A habitable
dwelling was required to be constructed as well as a “live
on the land” rule.
When our homestead was purchased from the Freeman
estate in 2000 we discovered a nametag with “Jack Warden” on
an old yellow toolbox sitting on a 1942 Caterpillar ‘dozer. My
friends and I were making an effort to bring the old Cat back
to life. We noticed the nametag and said, “If old Jack were here,
what story would he tell?”
Well, I later learned that one Jack Warden had staked the
property in 1962, landing on the property in his Citabria float-
plane. He built a 10-by-10 log cabin with a flat roof. Working
alone, he used vertical log construction. You usually can’t lift
more than four rows of logs into your wall. From there, shorter
logs are placed vertically.
Locals had told us it was the Freeman homestead, creating
some confusion. Then a local pilot told me Jack Warden used
to fly out of Talkeetna, and he’d heard Jack was retired now, living
in Homer. I called the operator and suddenly the toolbox had a voice.
I got Jack on the phone and this was his story.
Jack Warden came to Alaska in 1962 with a dream to become
a missionary pilot. He learned of the homestead opportunity
and got the map from the BLM. Jack then flew to the
lake where he landed and staked this wilderness paradise, 160
acres with a thirty-three acre, spring-fed lake with an actual
rock shoreline, not just a large bog. This lake was his own, as it
was entirely inside his homestead boundaries.
While camped on the lake, constructing the required
habitable dwelling, he stepped into the cool, clear evening air
where he said he heard the voice of the Lord say, “Jack, preach
the Gospel.” Jack asked the Lord if he could finish the cabin
first, and did not receive an answer, thus he quickly finished
the cabin with the inconvenient flat roof. That fall Jack left for
Bible school.
Jack sold these minimal improvements to Gordon
Freeman. The Freeman family pursued the patent, receiving it
after the survey was completed in 1964.
Jack went on to the Assembly of God Bible School in
Minnesota, returning to Alaska in 1964. He replaced the pastor
of the Assembly of God Church in Valdez who had been
killed in the tidal wave caused by the big 9.2 1964 earthquake
in Alaska. Jack spent the rest of his productive years flying and
preaching throughout Alaska.
When Gordon Freeman’s wife Charlette passed, the two
daughters did not desire to keep the homestead. It was offered
for sale and we purchased it in April 2000. Gordon Freeman
told me Jack’s dream was “to have a lawn with children playing
by the lake.” That dream has come to pass.
The lake is known as Freeman Lake. The hill just to the
southwest end of the lake is known as Jack Warden’s Hill.
Yukon and Beverly Tanner have an intense love for the
wilderness and the pursuit of adventures offered in this final
frontier. We purchased this wilderness homestead with the
idea that we could establish a wilderness sanctuary for ourselves,
our children and grandchildren. Our first cabin burnt
to the ground (in our absence). An immeasurable amount of
labor, logs, and planning went up in smoke! But the desire to
dwell in the wilderness compelled us to make new plans, acquire
new logs, and provide new labor to rebuild our 30-by30
hand scribed white spruce log cabin. The first cabin’s logs
were transported by snowmachine and sled. The second cabin’s
logs were transported by Huey Helicopter, necessitating 39
lifts from Talkeetna Airport to our homestead. The rebuilding
took three summer seasons to complete.
Our goal is to remain here until we can no longer meet
the strenuous requirements for bush living. Our homestead is
not accessible by car or truck, only by six wheelers, or snowmachines,
fifteen miles in the summer, and five miles in the winter,
when the frozen Talkeetna River provides a shortcut. Our
homestead is a paradise for us.
