Talkeetna's centennial planning begins with a 'timeline party'

Talkeetna’s centennial is next year, and preparations are already underway.  The first big planning event was a timeline party held over the weekend by the Talkeetna Historical Society.  KTNA’s Phillip Manning was there, and has this report.

The first Talkeetna Historical Society timeline party drew well over fifty area residents who wrote down the dates of important events they remember, identified people in photographs, or were just there to learn more.   Sue Deyoe is with the Historical Society, and says the idea came from early planning meetings for Talkeetna’s centennial.

“Let’s get everybody involved in it; let’s have a community event.  Have people add their own time:  when they got here, what they did, how they got here, things they remember.”

Ed Craver, who has lived in Talkeetna for more than forty years, attended the party, and hopes to both contribute to and learn from the centennial preparations.

“I’ve been talking to people about different events and have a few questions of my own, so I thought maybe I could get some answers.  It’s interesting.”

A consistent theme of the evening was change.  Pat Pratt grew up in downtown Talkeetna, and still lives there.  She says growth and change are inevitable, but many things about Talkeetna have remained the same.

“Of course it’s changed, but I still live in the same little corner that I lived in all my life.  So, I still live in the same little cabin, still have the same perception of town.”

One of the tables is covered in photographs that attendees have brought with them.  Robin Song has photographs of her days with the Gold Dust Girls dance group.

“This is Miner’s Day, and there was snow on the ground when we were practicing.  We did our dress-rehearsal downtown.  We had to wear warm clothes.  We had to wade through snow to get to the stage.”

At the same table, Suzy Kellard shows me pictures of the Su-Valley High marching band from the 1970s.  She says the band was quite good, and even got an invite to a very special event.

“They went to Washington, D.C. [in] January, 1977 and marched in the inaugural parade for President Jimmy Carter.  They had to raise all the money for their uniforms, their hats, and just about the whole school went, because just about every kid was in the band.”

The timeline party was full of scenes like this, with people swapping stories, writing down dates of important events, and sharing their memories.  At the front of the room a number of video clips looped.  One video shows the events of January 1st, 1997, the day that the store now known as Nagley’s burned.  The video evoked strong memories from many in attendance, including Robert Sheldon.

“It just makes your stomach sink, seeing the footage, but it’s also a good…reference for what it meant to the community and those sorts of things, but that’s just hard to even look at.”

Part of what keeps Talkeetna’s history alive are the many buildings from the early days that are still around, including the Talkeetna Roadhouse.  Trisha Costello owns the Roadhouse, and says it represents a living piece of Talkeetna’s history.

“I celebrate its history and it’s length of time, and I try to honor that every day just by keeping the doors open.  It’s always been my long-term goal to get more information, more pictures, more stories, and just share that with people.”

Like Trisha Costello, many area residents are interested in the timelines of individual buildings, families, or industries.  Sue Deyoe says that those sorts of contributions are welcome as part of the greater timeline project.

“There are things that happened in Talkeetna–there’s the tourism timeline, air taxi timeline, mountaineering timeline…and if there’s anybody out there who wants to do that, I would love it.”

Sue Deyoe says that the Talkeetna Historical Society plans to take submissions for the timeline throughout the year both in person at the museum and on Facebook.  She says any memories, stories, and photos are welcome.

In the spirit of the timeline party, I’ll end with a bit of Talkeetna trivia.  The party was held on January 17th, which is the 22nd ‘birthday’ of what community non-profit?