The Blue Tarp: Archive
The complete archive of The Blue Tarp is now available, featuring every episode from Seasons 1 through 5 in one place. You can also access the show in the local programs catalog page.
The Blue Tarp covers the stories of the people and places of Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley. From old-timers to newcomers, there’s room for everyone under the Blue Tarp.
Season 1
Launched in January of 2020, and ended the year with eight episodes and two holiday specials. The first season’s theme was historical buildings which served as the stages for stories about people.
Episode 0: Coming Soon The Blue Tarp
In this teaser, you get a taste of KTNA’s newest program (and first podcast), The Blue Tarp! The Blue Tarp covers the stories of the Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. In Season One, we’ll be taking a look at some of the area’s iconic and historic buildings, and hearing some of the stories that unfolded inside.
The Blue Tarp theme music was written and performed by Larry Zarella.
Episode 1: The Talkeetna Schoolhouse
For more than eighty years, the territorial schoolhouse building has stood in Downtown Talkeetna, Alaska. Built to be essentially identical to other federally funded schools throughout Alaska in the territorial days, it has served many purposes over the decades beyond hosting classes. It has been a residence, a community gathering place, and, today, a museum to Talkeetna’s past. On this episode of the Blue Tarp, we hear from people who learned, lived, and labored inside one of Talkeetna’s most historic buildings.
Episode 2: The Fairview Inn
The Fairview Inn is referred to by some as “Talkeetna’s living room.” On this episode of the Blue Tarp, we hear from people for whom the Fairview has been a major part of their life. We also hear about some brushes with fame, and even some brushes with the other side.
Episode 3: The Talkeetna Roadhouse
Since being built by Frank Lee around 1916 and later moved to its current location, the Talkeetna Roadhouse has been a staple of local life. Like many of the Northern Susitna Valley’s historic buildings, it has changed hands many times, and the feel of the Roadhouse has changed along with those who ran it. Today, we’re going to take a look at three eras of the Roadhouse through the eyes of Northern Susitna Valley locals.
Episode 4: Nagley's Gernal Store
This is the Blue Tarp, sharing the stories of the Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Whether you’re an old-timer or a newcomer, there’s room under the Blue Tarp for everyone. Today, we’re visiting one of the first buildings you see as you turn onto Talkeetna’s Main Street, Nagley’s General Store. Since it was built, the store has had two names, multiple owners, and at least a handful of cat residents.
Episode 5: Curry
Today, we’re headed to Curry, a place “up the tracks” from Talkeetna that has been the site of a luxury hotel, a thriving small town, and many homesteaders. Today, only the barest remains of its former glory poke through the forest along the tracks and the river. Join us as we head up the tracks and back in time. Whether you’re an old timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 6: Forks Roadhouse
Thus far, most of our stories have centered on historic places in Talkeetna. Today, we head across the river, past Trapper Creek, and toward the Petersville mining district, where we find the Forks Roadhouse miles away from any paved roads. Built in the early 1930s, the roadhouse has been a vital place to find shelter and supplies for those who mine and trap in the area. It has been home to pies made from bear fat, famous holiday gatherings, and has literally risen from the ashes in recent years. Most of our stories today will come from two siblings, Eric Poole and Ginger Jones. The Forks Roadhouse has played a major role in both of their lives since their childhood. Join us as we visit the Forks Roadhouse.
Epsiode 7: Cabins
Thus far in season one, we’ve been focusing on single places like iconic roadhouses, ghost towns, and the old school house. Today, we change things up a little bit and take a tour of some the humble yet vital cabins that sheltered miners and trappers in the area, many of which still stand today. Our tour won’t quite be a road trip, as some cabins aren’t on a road, but we’ll get there. Just remember that when you pass a cabin in the Northern Susitna Valley, there’s guaranteed to be a story inside.
Episode 8: Bucket of Blood and Belle McDonald
This is the Blue Tarp, stories of Alaska’s Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Join us today as we wrap up our first season with two buildings that used to form part of daily life for many in Downtown Talkeetna, but today have been lost to time. Whether you’re an old timer or a newcomer, there’s room under the Blue Tarp for everyone.
Unlike last episode, where our journey back in time also took us west across the Susitna River, today we stay on Main Street in Talkeetna. The first location we’ll be visiting that’s no longer around would have been on your left as you walk down the street toward the river, near where B Street leads to the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station. Once, a place that locals referred to as “The Bucket of Blood” stood there.
Season 1 Special: Blue Tarp Halloween 2020
If you’ve listened to season one of our show, you know the Susitna Valley is full of stories. Many of them are happy, some are sad, and some are downright spooky. Today, we’re taking a look at that last group of stories. In a small town with as much history as Talkeetna has, there are bound to be tales of haunted places. In today’s special Halloween episode, we’ll revisit some stories from season one of The Blue Tarp and dip into the archives for spooky stories that didn’t quite make the cut.
Season 1 Special: The Blue Tarp 2020 Christmas Special
This episode of The Blue Tarp is our second seasonal special. The Editorial Board and KTNA staff have started working on season two of the show, which we will be bringing to you in 2021. For today, we’re taking a look at the holiday season in the Northern Susitna Valley. You’ll hear from folks that were featured in Season One of The Blue Tarp as well as some new voices and tape from KTNA’s archives.
Season 2
Launched March 20, 2021 with the theme of annual events from the past and today that take place in the Northern Susitna Valley.
Episode 1: Wilderness Woman Contest
One of the more common questions visitors ask Talkeetna residents is what we do in the winter. We’re starting off our second season by answering part of that question. The first Saturday in December is typically bustling on Talkeetna’s Main Street for the Wilderness Woman Contest.
Episode 2: The Talkeetna Bachelor Auction and Ball
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. In this episode, we’re taking a look at the event that has turned the darkest time of year into the biggest party for the last forty years, the Talkeetna Bachelor Auction. Whether you’re an old-timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 3: Moose Dropping Festival
This is The Blue Tarp, stories of Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Today, we’re looking at an event…or rather two events with very similar names and themes having to do with…moose excrement. Come along as we hear about the Moose Dropping Festival…not to be confused with the Moose Drop. Whether you’re an old-timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 4: Miner’s Day
This is The Blue Tarp, stories of Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Today, we’re exploring another festival from Talkeetna’s recent past, Miner’s Day. It’s another example of the sort of celebration that took place before large-scale tourism moved into the area, and just like Moose Dropping in Episode 3, elements of it continue through to today. Join us as we take a closer look at the Miner’s Day festival.
Episode 5: Oosik Classic Ski Race and Tour
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. This season has been focused on events unique to the area. Today, we’re looking at another annual gathering that brings hundreds of people to Talkeetna each March. In most years, it is a reminder that Spring is right around the corner, and in 2020, its cancelation served as one of the first indicators of how significant the COVID-19 pandemic would be for life in the area. Join us as we hear about the Oosik Classic Ski Race and Tour. Remember, whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
The stories featured in The Blue Tarp took place on the border of the traditional homeland of the Upper Inlet Dena’ina and the Western Ahtna, and more specifically the Mountain People and Talkeetna Tribes. The Blue Tarp is committed to honoring the land, culture and language of the Dena’ina people. We recognize and respect the continuing connection, by all Indigenous people, to the land, the waters and their communities.
Episode 6: Local Mushing Events
This is The Blue Tarp, stories of Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Today, we’ll hear about Alaska’s state sport, dog mushing, and how mushing events have played a role in life in the area. Mushing races can be as short as a few miles or as long as a thousand. We’ll cover the whole range in the next half hour. Whether you’re an old timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 7: Trapper Creek Festivals
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. This season, we’ve been looking at events in the area, and today we’ll be focusing on two annual festivals across the river from Talkeetna in Trapper Creek. If you’re looking for summer fun, or if you want to cure winter cabin fever, these events have you covered. Whether you’re an old timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 8: Green Light Circus and Complexities of Love
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. As we wrap up our second season focused on events in the Northern Susitna Valley, we are coming back to Talkeetna. Specifically to the Sheldon Community Arts Hangar just off Main Street to hear about when the circus comes to town and how complex love can be. Whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Season 3
Launched on March 19th, 2022 with the theme of women in aviation.
Episode 1: Women in Alaska Aviation History
This is The Blue Tarp, stories of Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Thank you for listening to this episode, which marks the beginning of our third season, which will focus on women in aviation.
Episode 2: Flying in the Susitna Valley
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. For this season, we’re focusing on aviation in the area, particularly the stories told by and about women in the field. The first episode of season three was less focused on the Susitna Valley than usual, but we felt it necessary to provide some context as to how a large influx of women got into aviation in the first half of the twentieth century. For this episode, we’re going to bring things back to the Northern Valley and talk about both the early days of aviation in the area and what it means to fly in this special place. As always, whether you’re an old-timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 3: Air Taxis
This is The Blue Tarp, stories of Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. On this episode, we’re going to begin our look at local air services and the various roles that women have played in making aviation in the area what it is today. Whether you’re an old-timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 4: Women In Aviation
This week on The Blue Tarp, we'll hear stories from women on the business side of aviation in the Northern Susitna Valley. Some flew the planes themselves, and others did basically everything else to keep a business and family going.
Episode 5: Denali Base Camp
This is The Blue Tarp, stories of Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. In this season, we’ve been focusing on women in aviation. For this episode, we’re going to focus on a job unique to the area, effectively running a small airport seven thousand feet up North America’s highest mountain. Whether you’re an old-timer or a newcomer, there’s room under the blue tarp for everyone.
Episode 6: Scary Moments
This is The Blue Tarp, stories of Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. This season has focused on women in aviation. Thus far, we’ve heard stories of triumph, adversity, and everything in between. Today, we’re going to hear about what happens when things go wrong in an airplane. Whether you’re an old timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 7: Best Moments
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. In our last episode, we heard stories about some of the scariest moments our interviewees experienced in their time within the aviation community. This time, we want to flip that around and hear about the good times–their proudest moments and favorite memories. Whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 8: The Present and the Future
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. This will be our last episode for season three, which has focused on women in aviation. As we wind down this season, we want to take a look at the very recent past, as well as how women are shaping the future of flying in this part of Alaska. Whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Season 4
Launched on March 18th, 2023 with the theme of origins: upper Susitna Valley residents past and present.
Episode 1: Susitna Valley Origins
This is the Blue Tarp, stories from the Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them.
Our fourth season focuses on Susitna Valley origin stories. Everyone who lives here today got here, somehow. To begin this season, we hear about the people who lived here for centuries before the first person of European descent arrived.
Episode 2: Newcomers
This is The Blue Tarp, stories of Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Our fourth season is focusing on Northern Valley origin stories, how people found themselves here at various points in history. In episode one, we heard about the first peoples to live in the area. For this episode, we’re switching things around and speaking to folks who moved here very recently and what their first winter here was like.
Whether you’re an old timer or a newcomer, there’s room under the Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 3: Just Visiting Part 1
This is The Blue Tarp, stories of Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Our fourth season is focusing on Northern Valley origin stories, how people found themselves here at various points in history. In our first two episodes, we heard about the first peoples to live in the area and the most recent. This episode starts a two-part series about those who came up intending for a short stay, but ended up staying for a long while.
Whether you’re an old timer or a newcomer, there’s room under the Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 4: Just Visiting, Part 2
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. In this episode, we’re continuing our exploration of stories from locals who thought they were coming here temporarily, but ended up calling the Valley home. Whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 5: Oldtimers
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. So far in this season about arrivals in the Susitna Valley, we have covered the first people to arrive here, whose ancestors are still here, all the way up to people who have recently finished their first winter in the area. There have been many waves of immigration to Alaska, and today we want to take a look at some of the folks who we refer to when we use the term old-timers. Join us as we hear the stories of people who became Alaskans before Alaska became a state. Whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 6: Homesteaders
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Today, we’ll hear about people who came to the area to live a remote lifestyle. Whether they came as part of the Homestead Act, other agricultural programs, or simply on their own, they have made the Susitna Valley their home. We invite you to join us as we hear their stories. Whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 7: Up The Tracks
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Today, we’ll hear stories from people for whom even Talkeetna was too crowded. Instead of the hustle and bustle of the booming metropolis of Talkeetna, they opted to live in the communities further north alongside the Alaska Railroad, or, as the locals call it, Up The Tracks. Whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 8: Growing Up Here
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. This is the last episode of our fourth season, which we have dubbed Susitna Valley origin stories. Over the course of the season, we have explored a variety of reasons that led people to relocate to the area. To close out the season, we wanted to highlight those who didn’t choose to move here, but were either born in the Susitna Valley or moved here with their families as children. Some have been here ever since, and others have left and returned later. We invite you to join us as we hear their stories, because whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Season 5
Launched on March 16th, 2024 with the theme of mountaineering on Denali.
Episode 1: Climbing Denali Today
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Thank you for joining us as we kick off season five. This year, our theme is climbing Denali. North America’s highest mountain is a constant presence in the lives of the folks who live here, and most years more than a thousand people come here to attempt to reach the summit.
Episode 2: Early Attempts to Climb Denali
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as usually told by those who lived them. Today, most of our stories will not be first-hand, since we are delving into the early history of documented attempts to climb Denali. That said, they form an important chapter in the history of mountaineering and its ties to the area. Whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 3: Early Firsts on Denali
In this episode, we’ve covered many firsts. The first team to summit, the first airplane used as part of an expedition, the first team to reach both summits, and, unfortunately, the first known fatalities on Denali. In our next episode, we’re going to move forward in history to a time when airplanes were much more common, and the discovery of a new route would change the course of mountaineering history in the Alaska Range.
Episode 4: Climbing in the ’40s and ’50s
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. Unlike previous seasons of this program, the episodes so far have been primarily a chronological history lesson of mountaineering on Denali. Today, we’ll continue to tell some of that history by looking at a period of innovation in routes to climb Denali in the 1940s and 50s. Some of those attempts were successful, while others resulted in tragedy. Whether you’re an old timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 5: Triumph and Tragedy in 1967
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. We are now past the halfway point in our season about mountaineering on Denali, North America’s tallest peak. Today, we’re jumping forward in time once again, but instead of covering an entire era of climbing in the Alaska Range as we have with previous episodes, we’re going focus on the year that saw the largest tragedy to date on the mountain as well as its first winter ascent. Whether you’re an oldtimer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 6: Women on Denali
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. This season, we’ve heard many stories about climbing Denali. Whether they were stories of triumph, tragedy, or something in between, one thing has been true about nearly all of them. They are stories of men on Denali. Today, we will change that. While mountaineering was, and to an extent still is, a male-dominated activity, plenty of women have made an impact in the Alaska Range. Today, we will hear from a few of them. Whether you’re an old-timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 7: Close Calls on Denali
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. So far this season, we’ve covered many aspects of climbing Denali, including how harrowing expeditions can be when they go wrong. Today, we’re going to hear from Alaskan climbers, most of whom have been on the mountain many times, about some of the scarier situations they’ve faced while on North America’s highest peak. We welcome you to join us as we hear about bad weather, rescues, and close calls. Whether you’re an old timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
Episode 8: Season 5 Finale
This is The Blue Tarp, stories from Alaska’s Northern Susitna Valley as told by those who lived them. This will be our last episode for season five. As is often the case, we are going to close out the season with a few topics that we wanted to make sure we covered. Today, we’ll discuss solo winter climbing, changes on Denali, and advice for aspiring mountaineers from experts. Whether you’re an old timer or a newcomer, there’s room under The Blue Tarp for everyone.
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