HomeMy WebLinkAboutCultural Resources Invest for Fire Island Wind Power 2005Cultural Resource Investigations
for the
Fire Island
Wind Power and Transmission Line Project,
Cook Inlet,Alaska
a ee a ee
Charles M.Mobley &Associates
200 W.34th Avenue #534,Anchorage,Alaska 99503
Archaeological Survey Cultural Resource Inventory Historic Building Evaluation Archival and Oral History Research
Cover:By the time this August 15,1962,aerial photograph of the U.S.Air Force's Aircraft Control and Warning(AC&W)station was taken,the base had been in operation for 11 years.Airmen were stationed at Fire Island ontwelve-month assignments,typically with no off-island leave for the duration.At far right below the radome is oneoftheFAAhousingunits.At exact center is the building housing the water tanks --the only building left in 2005otherthanthoseassociatedwiththerecreationalskihill.In the distance,looking west across Cook Inlet,are thesnow-covered peaks of the Alaska Range.Anchorage Museum of History and Art FAA collection,B86.28,218
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
REPRESENTATIVE
BERTA GARDNER
HOUSE DISTRICT 24
JANUARY-MaAY
STATE CAPITAL BUILDING
JUNEAU,ALASKA 99801
(907)465-4930 PHONE
(907)465-3834 FAX
JUNE-DECEMBER
716 WEST 4TH AVENUE
ANCHORAGE,ALASKA 99501
PHONE (907)269-:0174
FAX (907)269-0177
REP_BERTA_GARDNER@LEGIS.STATE.AK.US
1 (800)331-4930
Cultural Resource Investigations
for the
Fire Island
Wind Power and Transmission Line Project,
Cook Inlet,Alaska
by
Charles M.Mobley
2005
Report prepared by Charles M.Mobley &Associates,Anchorage,Alaska,under contract to URS Corporation,
Anchorage,Alaska,for Chugach Electric Association,Anchorage,Alaska.
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Abstract
Abstract
Chugach Electric Association,Inc.(CEA)is proposing to develop Fire Island in upper
Cook Inlet as a wind power generation site.The Area ofPotential Effect (APE)consists of:a)a
barge landing,staging area,powerhouse,substation,one experimental turbine bank of four small
towers,four turbine banks totaling 33 large towers,access roads,powerlines,and three material
sources --all on Fire Island;b)a buried cable across the channel and mud flats;and c)the entry of
the buried cable into the existing Point Woronzof transformer station.CEA contracted Tryck
Nyman Hayes Inc.as their engineering contractor,who in turn contracted URS Corporation to
conduct environmental studies,who in turn engaged my firm,Charles M.Mobley &Associates,to
conduct a cultural resource investigation.The cultural resource study included archaeological
survey,archival research,and oral history,all assembled into this report to be submitted to the
Alaska State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO)in support of the Section 106 consultation
process under the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act.
Charles M.Mobley conducted an on-site cultural resource investigation ofthe Fire Island
and Point WoronzofAPEs on July 25-29 and August 4,2005,in conjunction with oral history and
archival research,to reconstruct the land use in the APEs and assemble an historic context for any
cultural features found there.No prehistoric remains were confirmed on Fire Island,but it's
history includes traditional Dena'ina Athabaskan fishing camps on the north shore,commercial
fishing during the last half ofthe twentieth century,a U.S.Air Force Aircraft Control and Warning
(AC&W)site in operation from 1951 through 1959,and an FAA station in operation from about
1960 to 1979.
The on-site observation resulted in the recording of several features associated with the
old AC&W station (TYO-095),which was otherwise demolished by the U.S.Army Corps of
Engineers in 1985;the features are a building housing two water tanks,a buried fallout shelter,a
foundation for a garage or shop,a sewer outfall,and buildings and rope tow features for a recre-
ational ski hill.All are in or very close to the APE.Also located in or near the APE is the site oftwo
former FAA apartment buildings demolished in 1979.Discovered outside the APE was a World
War II observation post (TYO-102),with a view down Cook Inlet.Oral history and archival
information was collected about four historic fish camps:the Alex family camp (TYO-104),the
Theodore family camp (TYO-105),the Peter King camp (TYO-106),and the MacDonald family
camp (TYO-107).All are outside the APE.The material source sites have not been identified yet,
and weren't surveyed.Oral history and archival sources suggest that the remains of other AC&W
features could have escaped demolition and may remain undiscovered,obscured by Fire Island's
dense vegetation cover.
Pedestrian survey at the Point WoronzofAPE revealed no cultural resources;the project's
impacts are 1000'north of the historic and prehistoric site of Nuti'ctunt (TYO-030).
The pedestrian survey,oral history,and archival research turned up no cultural features
eligible to the National Register in either APE;if such indications are noted during the undertaking,
work should be suspended until the landowner and SHPO are consulted.
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Acknowledgements
Until this project my experience of Fire Island was like that of most people
--peering through an airplane window while taking off or landing at Anchorage
International Airport,or eyeing the low gray mass from the Tony Knowles Coastal
Trail.SoI was pleased to have the opportunity to investigate the island and learn
something about its history.Thank you everyone for your help.David Erikson
was my able liaison with URS Corporation.Steve Gilbert of Chugach Electric
Association gave me a grand tour of Fire Island.Leo Stephan's 1993 conversa-
tion with me about his experiences as a young boy at the Point Woronzof fish
camp,Nuti 'ctunt,was again pertinent and useful to my research.Alberta Stephan's
two conversations with me were equally valuable,especially with the aid of her
written version of our first meeting.Allen Wernberg was generous with his time
and family photographs,and the taped interview we completed (H2005-17,on
file at the University ofAlaska-Fairbanks Rasmuson Library oral history archives)
contains much information about his rich life.Stephen Braund,a fellow anthro-
pologist and a Fire Island setnetter since 1980,graciously contributed anecdotal
information for the report and reviewed several subsections.Tim Kelley,who
assembled an excellent set ofwebpages devoted to the history and remains ofthe
Fire Island Ski Area (http:/Awww.alsap.org/Firelsland/FireIsland.htm),generously
allowed me use oftextual and photograph materials from that site.Equally useful
was material posted on the Online Air-Defense Radar Museum (http://
www.radomes.org/museum/).James A.Short,Records Manager for the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers,Alaska District,provided me with the 1968 plan map
of the AC&W facility (Figure 24).Without the assistance and goodwill of so
many people,this report would be much less useful and interesting.I am grateful
to all mentioned as well as those who are not.Thanks to you,Chugach Electric
Association will be better able to consider Fire Island and Point Woronzof's cul-
tural resources in planning the Fire Island Wind Power and Transmission Line
project.
Charles M.Mobley is a Registered Professional Archaeologist (R.P.A.)and has spent over 25 years as anAlaskaarchaeologist.He holds a Ph.D.in Anthropology with specialization in Archaeology from SouthernMethodistUniversity(1981),an M.A.in cultural resource management from Southern Methodist University(1978),and a B.A.in Anthropology from Case Western Reserve University (1974).
ii
Table of Contents
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
List ofFigures
Introduction
Previous Archaeological Research
Area of Potential Effect
Methods and Logistics
Pedestrian survey
Archival and Oral History Research
Background
Natural Environment
Cultural Environment
Prehistory
Historic Native Use
Commercial Fishing
Military Use
FAA Use
Results
Point Woronzof
Fire Island
Barge Landing
Staging Area
Powerhouse
Substation
Central Turbine Bank
Northeast Turbine Bank
Southeast Turbine Bank
Northwest Turbine Bank
Southwest Turbine Bank
Access Roads
Powerlines
Material Sources
Pedestrian Survey Summary
Evaluations and Recommendations
National Register Status of TYO-095
Sites Outside the APE
Recommendations
Bibliography
Oral History AppendixA:Native Use
Oral History Appendix B:Commercial Set-Net Fishing
Oral History Appendix C:FAA Station Use
iii
Table of Contents
AnNUABRRRARREREREWWWWWWWHYNNNNNEYEEeeorINBOSBAAAHWNSMHAROCOCOINIGDAANOCBRHHSMONNAANY<BEo.
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
iv
List of Figures
List of Figures
Cover.Aerial view ofAC&W station,Fire Island (1962).cover
Figure 1.Map ofFire Island and vicinity.2
Figure 2.Computer simulation ofFire Island with installed turbines.3
Figure 3.Plan ofproposed Fire Island wind power project.4-5
Figure 4.Allen Wernberg with salvaged AC&W magnet.7
Figure 5.Point Woronzof fish camp (about 1942).12
Figure 6.Leslie Wernberg and wife Eileen with dory (1948).15
Figure 7.Eileen and Allen Wermberg in dory (about 1949),15
Figure 8.Leslie Wernberg at drift net camp,Fire Island (1949).16
Figure 9.L.Wernberg and W.Sherping at drift net camp,Fire Island(1949).16
Figure 10.Al Riesoff/Wernberg fish camp (late 1950s).17
Figure 11,Peter King/Wemberg fish camp (1966-1967).18
Figure 12.MacDonald/Wemberg fish camp (about 1986).18
Figure 13.Peter King/Wernberg fish camp (1988).19
Figure 14.Insignia of 626th AC&W Squadron,Fire Island.20
Figure 15.AC&W troops skiing,Fire Island (1951-1969).20
Figure 16.AC&W troops at Fire Island ski cabin (1965).21
Figure 17.Fire Island AC&W site (1959).22
Figure 18.Damage from 1964 earthquake,Fire Island (1964).22
Figure 19.H-21 helicopter at Fire Island (1951-1969).22
Figure 20.Aerial view ofNorth Point airstrip (1969).23
Figure 21.Aerial view of Point Woronzof.26
Figure 22.Electrical substation at Point Woronzof.26
Figure 23.View of Fire Island from Point Woronzof.27
Figure 24.Map ofAC&W station (1968).28
Figure 25.Aerial view of North Point airstrip.29
Figure 26.Windsock and Toyota Land Cruiser at end of North Point airstrip.29
Figure 27.Tim Kelley and anchor tower for ski rope tow,Fire Island (2004).30
Figure 28.Aerial view ofAC&W site,Fire Island.31
Figure 29.Exterior of water tank building,AC&W site,Fire Island.32
Figure 30.Exterior of water tank building,AC&W site,Fire Island.32
Figure 31.Interior of water tank building,AC&W site,Fire Island.33
Figure 32.Interior of water tank building,AC&W site,Fire Island.33
Figure 33.AC&W helipad,Fire Island.34
Figure 34.Entrance toAC&W fallout shelter,Fire Island.34
Figure 35.Ski cabin,Fire Island (2004).35
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Figure 36.
Figure 37.
Figure 38.
Figure 39.
Figure 40.
Figure 41.
Figure 42.
Figure 43.
Figure 44.
Figure 45.
Figure 46.
Figure 47.
Figure 48.
Interior of ski storage shed,Fire Island (2004).
Exterior of ski winch shed,Fire Island (2004).
Interior of ski winch shed,Fire Island (2004).
Sewer pipe in bluff,Fire Island.
Sewer pipe and concrete on beach,Fire Island.
World War II observation post,West Point,Fire Island.
World War II observation post,West Point,Fire Island.
Speed limit sign,Fire Island.
Non-directional beacon site,Fire Island.
Concrete building foundation,Fire Island.
Allen Wernberg with salvaged AC&W range table and bench.
Map of new Fire Island AHRS sites.
Birch bark roof on old Alex camp net shed.
Vi
35
35
36
37
37
38
39
40
41
41
42
47
48
Introduction
Introduction
Chugach Electric Association,Inc.,
(CEA)is proposing to develop Fire Island,in
upper Cook Inlet (Figure 1),as a wind power
generation site (Figure 2),with several banks
of wind turbines,associated roads and build-
ings,and a buried cable across the channel
and mud flats to their existing Point Woronzof
transformer station.CEA contracted Tryck
Nyman Hayes Inc.as their engineering con-
tractor,who in turn contracted URS Corpo-
ration to conduct environmental studies,who
in turn engaged my firm,Charles M.Mobley
&Associates,to conduct a cultural resource
investigation.The cultural resource study in-
cluded archaeological survey,archival re-
search,and oral history,all assembled into
this report to be submitted to the Alaska State
Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO)in sup-
port of the Section 106 consultation process
under the 1966 National Historic Preserva-
tion Act.
The development will involve con-
struction of a barge landing,staging area,
access roads,electrical lines,a substation,and
33 large wind turbines (Figure 3).A subma-
rine cable will be laid from North Point on
Fire Island to Point Woronzof.The system is
expected to provide up to 7%of the Anchor-
age area's power needs.
No prehistoric sites are known on Fire
Island,although the renowned local Native
elder "Shem Pete said that before contact with
non-Natives,the Knik Arm Dena'ina had a
tanik'edi or fishing dock on the west shore
of Fire Island”(Kari and Fall 2003:339).Tra-
ditional and commercial Native fishing on the
island as early as 1918 has been reported (Kari
and Fall 2003:339).During World War II
Army observers watched for Japanese sub-
marines from Fire Island (McDonnough
1967:12;Air Force Times 1969),and the is-
land was used as an artillery target (Mobley
1993:10).During the first half of the Cold
War (1950-1969)the U.S.Air Force built and
maintained an Aircraft Control and Warning
Fire Island...5.5 mi long,in head of Cook
Inlet,9 mi SW of Anchorage....Var.
Mushukli Island,Ostrov Mushukhli,
Turnagain Island.Name published in
1895 by USC&GS.Named "Turnagain
Island”on April 20,1794,by Capt.George
Vancouver.The Tanaina Indian name was
published in 1847 as "Os{trov}
Mushukhli,”or "Mushukhli Island,”on
Russian Hydrog.Dept.Chart 1378.
Woronzof,Point...on S coast of
Knik Arm....Var.Mys Vorontsova,Point
Woronzo,Point Woronzow.Named by Lt.
Joseph Whidbey,RN,a member of Capt.
George Vancouver's expedition,on May
4,1794,"after the Russian Ambassador
at St.James {the English court}.”
Orth (1967:334,1060)
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
BACT Sie TRONSRyCOHN:S Thoin Island 3)ae AS Eeneuby)ge fod "=Wien hove:&:ies "\<a
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Figure 1.Map of Fire Island and vicinity,fro USGS 1:250,000 Anchorage and Tyonek quad-rangles.Each square is six miles on a side;north is at the top of the map.
(AC&W)site on Fire Island (Denfeld
1994:153),later overlapping with a commu-
nications center managed by the Federal Avia-
tion Administration (FAA).Fire Island has
also had a role in the salmon fishing industry,
with commercial set-net sites on the north and
west shores by the 1930s.These historical
uses,and needed cultural resource investiga-
tion,were identified in a planning document
for the 2005 investigation (Mobley 2004).
Previous Archaeological Research
Frederica de Laguna conducted the
first archaeological survey in Cook Inlet in
1930,relying in part on local Natives to tell
her where old sites were.A man identified
only as Theodore of Eklutna (that would be
Nick Theodore,according to Alberta
Stephan)told her about several sites on Knik
Arm,commenting that the occupied Dena'ina
as \
Introduction
Courtesy of Chugach Electric Association,Inc.
Figure 2.In this computer simulation ofthe proposed Fire Island wind power project,looking north-east,the southwest turbine alignment is in the foreground,the southeast alignment is in the distance to
the right,and the northwest alignments are in the distance to the left.
village of Tucgant at Point Possession was
founded by survivors of an epidemic that de-
stroyed their village on Fire Island,or Nutul iy
(de Laguna 1975:136).Though she didn't
see it,she mentions the summer fishing camp
of Nuti'ctunt just south of Point Woronzof,
and was told of house pits on the north bank
of Ship Creek (de Laguna 1975:140).Her
field notes (de Laguna 1930:64)are more de-
tailed than the published volume,and they
seem to attribute the story of Point Posses-
sion being settled by Fire Island refugees not
to Theodore of Eklutna but to Tony Martin
of Seldovia.Her notes go on to say that Tony
Martin told her "that in modern times there is
supposed to have beena village on the north
shore [of Fire Island],with a graveyard be-
tween the lake and the two hills.”About
Theodore of Eklutna,in the same paragraph
of her (1930)notes,de Laguna writes "he
told me that there was once a fish
camp....about at the place where the north
light is placed [on Fire Island],which seems
to be a very unlikely place for a camp.”
Fire Island has not been previously
surveyed for cultural resources,although an
AHRS number (TYO-095)was obtained for
the old AC&W site by U.S.Army Corps of
Engineers historian D.Colt Denfeld in 1994.
However,the area around Point Woronzof
has received some attention,focusing on the
features from Native occupation at Nuti'ctunt
(TYO-030).In 1967 Douglas Reger and
other students from Alaska Methodist Uni-
versity excavated a house pit at Nuti'ctunt
(the northern-most one,according to Reger
and Hanable (1975)),under the direction of
Frederick Hadleigh-West,but no report was
written.In 1975 state archaeologists Dou-
glas Reger and William Hanable surveyed the
proposed Tesoro natural gas pipeline ROW,
walking the coastal bluff from Point Campbell
north to the sewage treatment plant and then
east along the section line.They described
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
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|photographsriadonaerimposetsupeecFigure3.Plan of proposed proj
Introduction
interristional Alrport™
TRYCK NYMAN HAYES
FIRE ISLAND WIND AND TRANSMISSION LINE FEASIBILITY STUDY
PROJECT OVERVIEW
ANCHORAGE,ALASKA
JOB NO:26219665.03000)DRAWN:TEK/KMM
FILE:M/PROJECTS/2004/267 19665-FIRE ISLAND FIGURE 1-1DATE:DECEMBER 1,2004)MAXOFIRE ISI AND OVERVIEW MXO-
Figure 3 (continued).Routes numbered 1 and 2 are no longer being considered;the primaryrouteislabeled"Route 3.”
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Nuti'ctunt as having a north area consisting
of graves scattered along the bluff with a
banya (steam bath)and midden (garbage
dump)below,and an area on the bluff one-
quarter mile south consisting of eight house
pits and eight cache pits (Reger and Hanable
1975).Photographs and a site map of the
north area accompany another first-hand de-
scription of the site in the Historic Sites and
Cemeteries inventory that Cook Inlet Re-
gional Corporation (CIRI)prepared in 1975
(Brelsford 1975:84-89).The CIRI investi-
gation included a visit to Nuti'ctunt with
Eklutna elder Leo Stephan,who lived and
fished there with his family during his child-
hood summers (Rabich 1976:3).
Other surveys in the vicinity have pro-
duced limited information.Rabich (1976:3)
describes a survey ofthe airport runway ROW
(excluding access roads and material sources)
by state archaeologist Karen Workman in
1974,in which nothing cultural was found.
And in 1993 I surveyed a 2.5-mile utility line
for Enstar Natural Gas Company from the
sewage treatment facility on Point Woronzof
south to the Clitheroe Center;though it passed
within 300'of known features at TYO-030,I
didn't see any features in the ROW,and the
report is interesting primarily for its descrip-
tion of a grafitti-covered outhouse dating to
the early 1960s when the Clitheroe Center
was a minimum-security corrections facility,
and a first-hand account by Eklutna elder Leo
Stephan of seasonal fishing at Nuti'ctunt dur-
ing the early 1940s (Mobley 1993).Dena'ina
elders have recently described Nuti'ctunt in
more detail (Kari and Fall 2003:334-339).
Area of Potential Effect
The Area of Potential Effect (APE)
can be divided into Fire Island and Point
Woronzof for purposes of Section 106 com-
pliance (Figure 3).A buried powerline will
connect the two,but the mud flat it transects
is a dynamic intertidal environment in which
no cultural resources --aside from ship-
wrecks,of which none are known --would
be expected.The terminus of the powerline
at Point Woronzof will be the existing
Chugach Electric Association substation abut-
ting the sewage treatment plant,and the APE
there consists of a short segment where the
cable comes out of the mud flat and ascends
the bluff to the existing substation.Once it
reaches the bluff the cable will travel along
the south edge of the existing substation and
enter the compound near the southeast cor-
ner.
At Fire Island the main components
of the proposed project are:a barge landing
at the north end of the existing North Point
airstrip,a five-acre staging area where the
existing road meets the airstrip,a powerhouse
of about 18 acres,a five-acre substation site,
four banks of commercial wind turbines
amounting to about three miles of alignment
--mostly accessible from existing but over-
grown roads,a short bank of smaller experi-
mental wind turbines,and both overhead and
underground power distribution lines (Figure
3).Most of these facilities are in the island's
uplands;the only developments immediately
along the shore are a barge landing and a stag-
ing area at the existing North Point runway.
Methods and Logistics
Fire Island has no road access,but it
does have an airstrip at North Point (as well
as an old helicopter landing pad at the former
military station),so I flew there in a char-
tered airplane from Anchorage every day for
a week,July 25-29.CEA's Steve Gilbert,in
charge of their wind power project,accom-
panied me the first day and showed me the
layout of the proposed turbine alignments and
other components forming the Area of Po-
tential Effect (APE).A truck is kept at the
airstrip by CEA for project investigations.
Pedestrian Survey
Pedestrian survey of all project com-
ponents was accomplished,but the heavy
brush was an impediment not only to walk-
ing but to seeing anything on the ground.
Vegetation in most places consisted either of
dense alder thickets growing in disturbed ar-
eas,or --in the undisturbed areas --spruce/
birch forest in which large beetle-killed spruce
trees had fallen several years ago,giving
ample time for extensive groves of devil's club
and elderberry to grow through the horizon-
tal barriers and create a formidable tangle.
The turbine alignments and most of the roads
were not brushed for surveying purposes,and
they were marked only by a single stake and
flag posted every 200'.Overcast skies
throughout most of the week made the sun's
position undetectable,so it was only with con-
stant compass consultation that I was able to
walk a straight line approximating the vari-
ous component alignments.I took notes in
the field,as well as photographs in color and
black-and-white.
I dug several shovel tests in the APE
but there was fair soil exposure from old bull-
dozer scars and erosion as well as upturned
rootwads from fallen trees.The soil revealed
in natural exposures and shovel tests was al-
ways aeolian silt and sand beneath a thin sod
zone.I also was able to look at parts of the
APE from the air,and take photographs,but
the flight-seeing was necessarily brief and
controlled because Fire Island is in the flight
path of commercial aircraft landing and tak-
ing off from Anchorage International Airport.
Archival and Oral History Research
The archival effort included research
at Loussac Library and the Anchorage Mu-
seum of History and Art.The oral history
Introduction
Figure 4.Allen Wernberg,shown here at his
Talkeetna home with a powerful magnet salvagedfromtheAC&W base,contributed photographs
and oral history about his family's commercial
fishing history on Fire Island.
effort was particularly fruitful,and local indi-
viduals were very helpful and interested in
contributing historical information to the
project.I taped an interview with Allen
Wernberg ofTalkeetna (Figure 4),whose fam-
ily has fished from Fire Island since 1949,and
he also graciously provided personal photo-
graphs for this report.The audiotape is filed
in the University of Alaska-Fairbanks
Rasmuson Library's oral history archives as
H2005-17.I also interviewed Eklutna elder
Alberta E.Stephan in Muldoon on two occa-
sions,and she graciously typed up some of
her comments.Stephen Braund,an anthro-
pologist and Fire Island set-netter,provided
anecdotal material and commented on por-
tions of the draft report.
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
In the '50s there were airplanes flying off that point [West Point]over there,and they
patroled the beaches.Once or twice a week you'd see the trucks.They'd come by and
interrogate the fishermen.I remember planes flying out of there.Big ones....After the
earthquake the island dropped nine feet,I believe,and the next thing you know the
military kind offaded out of there.And just FAA were left,and then they faded out.
Then it was all abandoned....They didnt really have to tear that base down -the alder
was doing that,encroaching on the buildings and collapsing them,and stuff.After they
left that was kind of an interesting place to explore.But they buried a lot of stuff....1
found a big magnet,had a radioactive sign on it.I took the magnet.Still got it.When
I burn up a bunch ofold wood I use that thing to get the nails out ofthe ash.I burned up
an old dory here not too long ago,man there was a lot ofnails in that thing.I got afive-
gallon bucketfull ofnails out ofthat dory....I took one oftheir old [rifle range]tables out
of there.I've got it right down below the hill there in my own rifle range.I dont know
what happened to all the tables.It's all growed up in alders.They had a bank to shoot
up against.Allen Wernberg
Background
Background
Natural Environment
Fire Island is located about three miles
offshore ofAnchorage International Airport,
in upper Cook Inlet,across a mud flat that on
most low tides bares completely but for a 60'-
wide channel just off the east shore of the
island (Figure 1).It is over five miles long
and two miles wide,amounting to 4,240 acres
(Municipality ofAnchorage 1982).Maximum
elevation is 88 meters,or about 286 feet,and
most of that elevation is gained immediately
around the island's perimeter in the form of
bluffs made of sand,gravel,clay,and silt.
These deposits were contributed by succes-
sive Pleistocene glaciers and then sorted in
an upper Cook Inlet lake impounded by large
ice lobes during the Knik Glaciation,called
Glacial Lake Cook,between 110,000 and
25,000 years ago (Pewe'et al.1965:134-139;
Municipality ofAnchorage 1982).Wind-born
silt and sand blown down Turnagain Arm has
covered most of the island to various depths,
with dune formation on the southeast shore.
The island's uplands are an undulating sur-
face of hills and swales with three small lakes.
Fire Island's climate is in keeping with
that elsewhere in Cook Inlet --a maritime/
continental regime with average summer tem-
peratures in the high 50s (F)and average win-
ter temperatures in the low 10s (F);annual
precipitation is about 15”,of which less than
half falls as snow (Municipality of Anchor-
age 1982).Winds are strong and predomi-
nately from the east,funneled by the moun-
tains fringing Turnagain Arm.
Vegetation on Fire Island is like that
of the mainland --including Point Woronzof,
with a canopy of white spruce,birch,and pop-
lar and an understory of willow,alder,elder-
berry,and devil's club.Grasses,shrubs,and
other ground-covering flora are found in
meadows and the sand dunes at the south end
of the island (URS Corporation 2004:2/9-10).
Terrestrial animals on Fire Island par-
allel those on the mainland,even though it is
an island,because the channel is swimmable
and the connecting tidal flat is passable to a
degree.Moose,wolves,black and brown
bears (a brown bear was prowling the island
when I conducted the survey),squirrels,
snowshoe hares,coyotes,weasels,and ro-
dents are all present (URS Corporation
2004:2/16).Waterfowl of various species can
be found on the inland lakes and tidal marshes
during certain seasons.
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
..there was dozens of belugas coming up with darts in them,rotting on the beaches.
They'd harpoon them,and it's kind of a wire with a harpoon that turns sidewise and
pulls back.Some were modern but some were old type,of bone.Those were a good
find.I never found one,but some of the guys I had there working for me did.Kids.A
dart,made out ofbone.It was an old one.Wefound some others that were modern-day,
made out ofsteel....We had at one time as many as about seventeen of them [carcasses]
between the two camps....We don't see many of them [belugas]anymore.We see little
pods of them once in awhile,but not like they used to be.They used to take sometimes
a half-hour for a herd to come through,move by the point there.I used to like them
when I was low-water fishing -man,the nets wouldjust get active as hell!The fish
would be about five minutes ahead of them -and here come the belugas!
They [belugas]used to fish the kings on the low water,right on that bar on the
point there?They used to chase kings right out onto the beach.They'd come in so close
that they couldnt dive,because there's no water -they'd be in four,five foot of water.
And the kings would come right up on the beach,flopping.Ifyou were quick,you could
jump on one and grab one....After awhile,the killer whale discovered they could trap
the belugas up against that bar.That was funny as hell!You'd see like a four-foot surf
on the beach,and these belugas would be packed right up against the point....And out
there 200 yards out you see a dorsal fin,the heada little bit out of the water,and you
could see it watching the belugas....All they had to do wasjust ram the beach with their
mouth open and bite something,and they'd a had one!...That pod of killer whale,they
disappeared,too.I think they got stuck up in Turnagain Armflats,didn't they?Three or
four ofthem,and drowned?Ihaventseen them ina couple years now.Allen Wernberg
All five species of Pacific salmon mi-
grate on either side (west and east)of Fire
Island,with the greater number traveling the
narrow channel on the east side,according
to fisherman Allen Wernberg.Migrating
salmon also swim close to Point Woronzof.
No salmon streams occur on Fire Island,
though the small lake at the south end of the
island used to be stocked with Rainbow trout
in the 1950s,according to Allen Wernberg.
Beluga whales and killer whales feed close to
the island's west shore,although not in the
numbers of just a decade or so ago.
Fire Island's proximity to the main-
land provides it with similar climate,vegeta-
tion,and animal species,but some personal
observations are of note.Welcome was the
absence of slugs,for example,which are pro-
liferating on the mainland.I saw a couple
small frogs.Allen Wernberg describes sev-
eral environmental changes he's witnessed in
the last five decades,including the loss of bank
swallows,loss of green algae in the tide flats,
and depletion of beluga and killer whales.
Cultural Environment
To the frequent flyer peering down
from acommercial flight into Anchorage In-
ternational Airport,Fire Island seems a rela-
tively untouched place of forest and brush,
but the place has seen a succession of activi-
ties through history.Prehistoric use is likely,
though no prehistoric sites are known on the
island.A site at Point Woronzof (TYO-030),
used by the Athabaskan Natives of upper
Cook Inlet as a fish camp and village,does
have house pits of likely prehistoric age.His-
toric use has included Native fishing,com-
mercial fishing,World War II military activ-
ity,a Cold War military communications base,
and an FAA station.
10
Prehistory
Generally,the prehistory of Cook In-
let is one of Eskimo occupation from about
3000 years until 1000 years ago,when
Athabaskans from Alaska's interior displaced
them (Mobley et al.2003:9-12).Limited evi-
dence for earlier occupation in the region in-
cludes radiocarbon dates over 5000 years old
from SEW-214 at the Kenai River-Russian
River junction (Holmes et al.1985:197,248),
and microblade and burin technology in the
stone working assemblages from Beluga Point
on Turnagain Arm (Reger 1981,1996)and
Round Mountain on the upper Kenai River
(Reger and Pipkin 1996).The Point
Woronzof site (TYO-030)contains house pits
that former Native inhabitant Leo Stephan
says were considered old in the 1940s (Mob-
ley 1993:5),so there might be a prehistoric
component to that site,but a 1967 excava-
tion did not confirm it (Reger and Hanable
1975).Frederica de Laguna in 1930 was told
of housepits on the high north bank of Ship
Creek,but she didn't see them (de Laguna
1930:51,1975:140).Removed in 1981 from
the Cook Inlet Bluff east of Point Campbell,
in South Anchorage,was an isolated seven-
inch long slate point assigned AHRS number
TYO-058.Despite the limited evidence for
prehistoric activity in the immediate Anchor-
age/Fire Island area,its inhabitants are as-
sumed to have participated in the regional
cultural pattern as reflected by known ar-
chaeological sites on the western Kenai Pen-
insula (Reger and Boraas 1996;Reger 1998;
Mobley et al.2003).
Historic Native Use
In 1778 when Captain James Cook
visited Point Possession,upper Cook Inlet
was occupied by Athabaskan Indians known
as the Tanaina,or Dena'ina.Neither his visit
nor the subsequent one of Captain George
Background
When they {Nulchina clan}were living in
the sky on the frozen clouds,they stayed
on an island they called hagi {basket}.
That island was a basket,they say.When
they landed on Mt.Susitna,on top of the
mountain,a whirlwind struck the basket-
island they lived on,and it was blown off
the mountain and landed in Cook Inlet,
where it turned into Nutul'iy {Fire Island}.
Peter Kalifornsky (1991:205)
Vancouver in 1794 had much immediate ef-
fect on the Dena'ina of upper Cook Inlet,
though Vancouver's expedition did name
Point Woronzof,Point Campbell,and Fire Is-
land (he called it "Turnagain Island”).The
traditional Dena'ina settlement pattern ap-
pears to have been one of small dispersed
settlements and camps,but in the late 1800s
Natives in the Matanuska and Susitna drain-
ages --like those on the Kenai Peninsula
(Boraas 2002:10-11)--were consolidating
into larger coastal villages.In 1930 Frederica
de Laguna (1975:136),for example,was told
that the Dena'ina village of Tucqant at Point
Possession had been founded by the remnants
of an epidemic-ravaged village on Fire Island.
Knik,Eklutna,and Tyonek are today recog-
nizable communities resulting from this cen-
tralization process in upper Cook Inlet.
The historic settlement pattern in-
cluded seasonal subsistence camps such as fish
camps on marine beaches,and people came
from as far as Tyone Lake and elsewhere in
the Copper River valley,over 35 miles (200
on foot)northeast up the Matanuska River,
to catch salmon in Cook Inlet (Stephan
2001:8;Tyone 2003).Point Woronzof and
Fire Island were familiar territory to local Na-
tives;the Russians in 1847 mapped Fire Is-
land by it's Dena'ina name of Mushukhli (Orth
1967:334).Dena'ina elders knew it as
Nutul'iy;with a beautiful story about the
island's origin (Kalifornsky 1991:205),and
Shem Pete tells of Captain Cook building a
11
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Counesy of Aiberta Stephan
.Figure 5.Pete Ezi,child Margie Ezi,child Peter
Ezi,Jr.,and Knik Printz pose at their fish camp
at Point Woronzof in about 1942.An Army ob-
servation post can be seen on the bluff at back.
[In 1885]there was a big glacier broke up
fat Lake George},and all the houses at
Niteh [a Dena'ina village between the Knik
and Matanuska rivers]and the store [be-
longing to George Palmer]washed away.
They had a big flood.That store drifted
up on Fire Island.The Eklutna and Knik
people were down at Fire Island putting
upfishfor themselves.And theyfound that
big store on the beach.Nothing had
washed awayfrom inside the store.It was
just full.Some of those people wore two
sets ofsuspenders,and everybody wore two
or three neckties.Those women wore neck-
ties too.And some of them wore big cow-
boy hats,the men and the women.Any
color hat they wanted....That safe that had
been in the store washed out somehow and
drifted away.....the big medicine
man....gave Old Man Ezi a staff.He told
him,"Take that staffandpoke it in the sand
here and there all over.”...And that medi-
cine man told him "you're getting a little
closer”....and one day he found that
bank....And he dug it up andfilled his pock-
ets with a bunch of 20-dollar gold
pieces....That's how he got rich,fromfind-
ing all that gold.Maybe two or three years
later he made a big potlatch at Niteh.
Shem Pete (2003:293-294)
fire on the island and giving it its present En-
glish name (Pete 2003:348).Campbell Point
is said to have been the scene of the "final
battle in a war story”in which an Alutig party
from Prince William Sound,retreating after a
raid on a Dena'ina village up Knik Arm,were
in turn attacked by the Dena'ina (Kari and
Fall 2003:338;Stephan 1996a:29).
In 1880 Cook Inlet was estimated to
have a Native population of 168 families com-
prising about 800 individuals,and "each of
these families prepares at least 750 pounds
of dried salmon for winter provision”(Petroff
1884:70-71).When the king salmon run be-
gan in June,the Dena'ina of Knik Arm tradi-
tionally camped at the site of Nuti'ctunt at
Point Woronzof (Figure 5),Point Campbell,
Chester Creek,and Ship Creek (Fall 1981:17-
18).According to Alberta Stephan (2001:8),
her great-grandparents from Tyone Lake oc-
cupied a summer fish camp at Point Woronzof
as early as about 1875.The site passed to
their daughter Olga and her husband Simeon
Ezi,then to their three sons Bill,Pete,and
Jack Ezi (Stephan 2003:295),then to Pete's
daughter Alberta Stephan and husband Leo.
During the early decades ofthe 1900s,
when Simeon Ezi and his three sons were fish-
ing at Point Woronzof,the shores of upper
Cook Inlet were peppered with Native fish
camps.Each consisted of "a smokehouse,
one or two tent frames,a steam bath,and a
net shed,”according to Alberta Stephan (see
sidebars and Oral History Appendix A).But
the growth of Anchorage forced some Na-
tive fishermen to move their sites;Eklutna
Alex moved from Chester Creek to North
Point on Fire Island (he'd been fishing at Fish
Creek according to Carberry and Lane
(1986:176),but Alberta Stephan told me that
everybody fished at Fish Creek in the spring
for trout).Bailey Theodore of Knik also
fished at Fire Island from a camp west of the
Alex's (Stephan 1996b:149,2001:12).
People from Eklutna and Knik had fished on
12
Background
I growed up around there [Point Woronzof].We come from the Matanuska area.We
used to put up our winter salmon there,and that was myfirst commercialfishing site.I
inherited it from my uncle,Jack Ezi....The reason we had the fish camp there was be-
cause they taste better when they're caught in saltwater,rather than the Susitna or other
streams....They used to make 20 kings to a dried bundle --enough salmon for a whole
tribe was kept track ofthat way.That's why the smokehouse was so big,to get our winter
food....The smokehouse was huge,made of huge logs.When it was built it was put
together with pegs --no nails init.I'm 64,and it was there when I was small.
I was twelve years old when I started fishing there....At the beginning of the
sandspit,out into the mud flat,there would be tents.Four or five families lived out
there.All were commercialfishermen.
The sweat house was a little to the east of the smokehouse,right below the
draw....The first thing I remember about the sweathouse was going in with my grandfa-
ther and putting water on the rocks.Ijumped up and ran out.They couldnt make me
Stay.
When I was a boy there were a lot of burned tree stumps --there must have been
a big fire because it was a wilderness area.I was there during the war years,and the
Army had all sorts offoxholes in the hills.You might see bunkers in the woods.They put
a target on Fire Island and we'd sit on Point Woronzofand watch the columns of water
jump up when the big guns shot at it.
That was a real good place.There was no pollution then.We'd use sails and
oars to get there,in our canoe.Mooseskin for the outside,and a frame of light stuff on
the inside.We'd hunt moose in the hills,ducks on the flat.Got our firewoodfrom the
spruce in the hills.I'd snare rabbits.We got our water about 1/4 mile south,from a
Life was more simpler then.
draw where there was a spring.I remember,because I had to pack it in buckets.
Leo Stephan in Mobley (1993:10)
Fire Island at least since 1885,according toa
story Shem Pete (2003)told about George
Palmer's store floating away in a flood and
washing up there.
In the mid-1930s Native fishing took
on a commercial aspect,according to Alberta
Stephan,with long nets strung perpendicular
to shore for salmon that were then sold to
canneries in Anchorage and elsewhere.The
major Anchorage cannery of the time was that
of Henry J.Emard,who began operation in
1924 with a cannery at Moose Point just
southwest of Point Possession,then moved
it into the old Gorman &Company plant at
Ship Creek in Anchorage the following year
(MacDonald 1951:78).
During World War II the Native fish
camp at Point Woronzof was overlooked by
observation posts and other defensive facili-
ties along the bluff above (Figure 5).Fire
Island was sometimes used as an artillery tar-
get during those years,according to Leo
Stephan (Mobley 1993:10).Then,in 1945
or 1946,according to Alberta Stephan,Point
Woronzof was closed to fishing,and the ten
Native fishermen setting nets there had to fish
elsewhere or quit fishing altogether (Stephan
2001:29,2003:295).According to Fall
(1981:17-18),it was the urban growth and
military land withdrawals of the 1940s that
forced Native fishermen to move their camps
to Fire Island and Point Possession,but people
from Knik and Eklutna were fishing there as
early as 1885 (Pete 2003).
13
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Commercial Fishing
Cook Inlet was an early participant in
the Pacific salmon canning industry,with
Alaska's third cannery (actually containing the
machinery ofthe first Alaska cannery at Sitka)
built at Kasilof in 1882 (Moser 1899:141).
Several dozen canneries were built in Cook
Inlet during the following decades
(MacDonald 1951),and fish were supplied
by cannery boats and independent fishermen
using drift nets,as well as pile-driven station-
ary commercial fish traps (Moser 1899:140-
143).The set-netters,many if not most of
whom were Native,fished for subsistence as
well as commercial sale,and in the Northern
District of Upper Cook Inlet the territorial
government in about 1949 imposed a ban on
drift fishing in favor of the set-netters.
This posed a problem for fishermen
like Leslie Wernberg (Figures 6-7),who had
just built a large dory in his Chester Creek
yard to drift net north of Fire Island.In 1949
he and partner Wally Sherping established a
camp on Fire Island,on the beach near the
north end of the present-day North Point air-
strip,and fished with the dory (Figures 8-9).
The general relationship between drift-netters
and set-netters was much like that reputedly
between sheepherders and cattle ranchers,ac-
cording to Allen Wernberg,who goes on to
say that political pressure from the Northern
District set-netters was responsible for the
closed drift fishery from that year onward.
By that time the north and west sides
of Fire Island held about eight sites while all
of the east side was closed to fishing (accord-
ing to Allen Wernberg),primarily because so
many of upper Cook Inlet's fish travel the
narrow channel and nets strung across would
be too effective and risk wiping out particu-
lar runs of fish.The Natives of upper Cook
Inlet were already fishing from Fire Island
(Carberry and Lane 1986:173),but now two
Iremember old [Mr.]Emard.I was a little kid.The old man [Leslie Wernberg]went to
get paid.Walked up the stairs into his office.Like a god to me,then,you know,and
he'd give the old man his money.Back then a guy could get an advance.Grubstake,
you know.He used to borrow money from him.I remember he [Emard]had a boat
named after him -it was called Henry J.It used to tender ourfish off the island....One
time I watched a movie,"The History ofAnchorage,”and they never mentioned a thing
about it -Emard's cannery down there.All they talked about was cab drivers,and
bartenders,and the Alaska Railroad.All Iremember is Emard's cannery.That was the
big thing,Ship Creek and Emard's.The Tidewater was down there -hada little hand
cannery.Allen Wernberg
Currently there arefourfish camps on the island.The net sites begin near the windsock
for the runway on North Point and extend all the way to Al Wernberg's site at West
Point,with maybe some gaps in the mudflats ofShelter Bay.I own the old Knik Dena'ina
fish camp.Bailey Theodore sold it to an entrepreneurfrom New York who had itfor two
years,then I bought itfrom him in 1981.The Alex camp at North Point was the Eklutna
camp.Roy Alex told me the smokehouse there was built in 1918.I don't think there are
likely to be prehistoric sites on Fire Island,because there are no fresh water spawning
streams and it would have been harder to get to than more accessible places like Ship
Creek and Chester Creek.Probably the main reason Dena'inafished Fire Island was
because non-Native people settled Anchorage and built the railroad and town in the
midst of Dena'ina traditional fishing locations.Stephen Braund
14
Background
EECourtesy ofAllen L.Wemberg,
Figure 6.In 1948 Leslie Wernberg,shown here with his wife Ilene,built a wood dory at their homeonChesterCreek(before it was dammed and made a lagoon).
one meneiN E
Courtesy ofAllen L.Wemberg,
Figure 7.Equipped with two outboard motors,the Wernberg's new dory was immediately put intoservicefishingatFireIsland(in back;1949).Ilene and a young Allen Wemberg are at left.
15
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Courtesy of Allen L.Wemberg,
Figure 8.In 1949 Leslie Wernberg (by tent)and Wally Sherping,while drift-net fishing north of FireIsland,set up camp on the beach where the north end of the North Point airstrip is now.
eg
Courtesy of Allen L.Wemberg,
Figure 9.Wally Sherping (left)stands with Leslie Wernberg (right)at their 1949 drift-net camp onFireIsland.Behind them at left is Point Woronzof.
16
elders held recognized sites on the north end:
Eklutna Alex,and Bailey Theodore (Stephan
2001:8).The first non-Native set-netter on
Fire Island was Al Riesoff,who had a site on
Shelter Bay,according to Allen Wernberg.
Leslie Wernberg purchased the Riesoff site in
about 1954 or 1955 and began set-netting,
then bought the adjacent site of Peter King
(Figures 10-11).At West Point the
MacDonald brothers --Art,Doug,and Jim -
-had a successful site,which Allen Wernberg
purchased in about 1984 (Figure 12).By then
the 1964 earthquake had destroyed the old
Riesoff camp,but the Wernbergs used Peter
King's old camp for storage and crew shelter
(Figure 13).The Alex family continued to
fish at North Point (Carberry and Lane
1986:177;see Figure 25),and Race Point (ac-
cording to Stephen Braund),until they sold
out to John Light in the early 1990s (see
sidebars and Oral History Appendix B).The
Theodore family fished their site until its sale
Background
in 1978 or 1979 to a man from New York,
who in 1981 sold to Stephen Braund,current
president of the Northern District Set Netters
Association of Cook Inlet.
Commercial fishing is significant in
Fire Island's history,but during the 1950s and
early 1960s military patrols kept set-netters
out of the uplands and confined to the beach.
Allen Wermberg told me that he was once held
at gunpoint during training exercises,and that
the fishermen were allowed no more than 50'
inside the treeline.It wasn't until the late
1960s that he was permitted to go inland to
get domestic water from the small lake at the
south end of the island (an angle-iron appa-
ratus I saw at the lake margin was part of his
old pump,he told me).Like the Native fish-
ermen before them,the commercial fishermen
of the 1950s and 1960s spent most of their
time on the beach,and consequently Allen
Wernberg had little familiarity with the mili-
tary facility during its years of operation.
Courtesy ofAllen L.Wermberg,
Figure 10.Al Riesoff,reportedly the first non-Native set-netter on Fire Island,based his fishing outofthiscabin(here in the late 1950s).It was destroyed by a landslide in the 1964 earthquake.
17
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
meee
.2 ae ae 4 ;ae .pt SMa SiressPays4.tale ht eat 4,2 ae :
....Courtesy of Allen L.Wemberg,Figure 11.Smoke puffs out of the chimney of Peter King's cabin on the beach at Shelter Bay,around1966-1967.His net shed stands at right.
Courtesy ofAllen L.Wemberg,
Figure 12.After Allen Wernberg bought the West Point set-net site from the MacDonald family,hecontinuedtousethebuildingsfromMacDonald's old camp (shown here in about 1986).
18
Background
aah SE osees s,
wie beep ie er,eee taisepatis,1 ie
Courtesy ofAllen L.Wemberg,
Figure 13.The Wernbergs used the buildings at Peter King's camp for storage and crew quarters.Here their crew from Talkeetna enjoy the former net shed in 1988.
Military Use
During World War II,Anchorage and
it's military facilities were protected by con-
crete pillboxes and anti-aircraft emplacements
built at strategic overlooks along Cook Inlet
(Carberry and Lane 1986:208).A simple
bunker was built immediately overlooking the
Native fish camp at Point Woronzof (Figure
5),and an artillery target was made at Fire
Island (Mobley 1993:10).Fire Island was "a
lookout site for U.S.Army Artillery for sight-
ing submarines,”according to an article in the
Air Force Times (1969).Anti-personnel
mines and other ordnance found on the west
shore of Fire Island in the 1950s and 1960s
by Allen Wernberg probably date to WWII.
But it wasn't until 1950,when it was
selected as one of Alaska's first Aircraft Con-
trol and Warning (AC&W)sites,that Fire Is-
land had a permanent military garrison --the
U.S.Air Force's 626th AC&W Squadron
(Figure 14).The AC&W system was a radar
and communications installation intended to
help track enemy aircraft and guide friendly
planes.Eventually it became "one of four
NORAD Control Centers in Alaska,”intended
to "feed air defense data into the Alaskan
NORAD Region Headquarters at Elmendorf
AFB and control both fighter-interceptors and
NIKE missiles in its sector”(Air Force Times
1969).Each installation originally included
three round-topped radar towers (radomes),
a power plant,weather station,airstrip,and
10 to 15 one-and two-story frame buildings
(Denfeld 1994:60);ultimately the Fire Island
complex contained 33.
The first two AC&W sites constructed
(begun in 1950 and completed in 1951)were
at Fire Island and Murphy Dome near
Fairbanks,because they were to be the com-
mand posts linking the 16 other stations built
across the state;Fire Island was the South-
ern Region Control Center for the AC&W
19
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Courtesy of The Online Air-Defense Radar Museum
Figure 14.The insignia of the 626th AC&W
Squadron,stationed at Fire Island,featured a fa-
miliar-looking cartoon cat.
system (Denfeld 1994:153-154).The crew
consisted of between 100 and 200 men whose
mission was "to detect,identify,and ifneces-
sary,direct the interception and destruction
of any airborne object within its sphere of re-
sponsibility”(McDonnough 1967:12).Be-
cause the Army was in charge of ground de-
fenses,a small contingent of Army personnel
(about 15 or 20 men)were also stationed at
Fire Island to interface with the military's
NIKE rocket sites.
A history of the Fire Island AC&W
base has been assembled on the web-site "The
Courtesy of The Online Air-Defense Radar Museum
Figure 15.The AC&W crew skied the slope alongthefueloilpipeline,and eventually in 1965 con-
structed a rope tow and warming cabin.
Online Air-Defense Radar Museum,”from
which excerpts and photographs have been
obtained for this report.Personnel were sta-
tioned there for 12-month assignments and
rarely left the base,which is why the briefing
statement for prospective assignees touted the
availability of two television stations,"a wide
range of local radio entertainment...recreation
facilities (including)a 90-seat theater,a ski
slope with instructors on duty,ice-skating
rinks,and an archery range”(Figures 15-16).
Entertainment was considered a necessary el-
ement of station life;crafts such as lapidary
and leather-working were supported,and a
large slot-car track was maintained in the rec-
reation building (McDonnough 1967:13).
Boats were kept for use on the island's lakes,
and according to Allen Wernberg the south
lake was stocked with rainbow trout for rec-
reational fishing;a photograph on the Radar
Museum web-site shows a modest frame
"fishing cabin”there.
An airstrip with a cross-wind runway
was built at West Point,and the island was
laced with roads connecting various service
areas supporting the main installation on a
central hilltop (Figure 17,cover).Fire Island
was an important Cold War post in North
America's strategic defense system,and
guards regularly patrolled the roads and
beaches --always stopping to talk with the
set-netters,according to Allen Wernberg.
Between 1959 until it's closure Fire Island
handled microwave communications for the
three NIKE bases:Site Point at Point
Campbell,now used in part as a ski chalet in
Kincaid Park;Site Bay at Goose Bay across
Knik Arm,later reused as a State correctional
facility and now partly demolished;and Site
Summit on top of the mountain overlooking
Arctic Valley ski slope --one of only two
NIKE sites in North America to fire missiles
and arguably the best-preserved example re-
maining in the entire NIKE missile system
(Denfeld 1994:274-276),.
20
Background
"py
2 -'alia Ne ahs.siti J
Courtesy of the Fire Island webpage;photograph by Dave Gross
Figure 16.In 1965 airmen from the 626th AC&W Squadron built this warm-up cabin as part of thebase's new ski rope tow.Left to right are:Jay McIntyre,Bill Norton,Dave Gross,and Mike Guerin.
The 1964 earthquake (Figure 18)low-
ered the airstrip at West Point by six feet (Mu-
nicipality of Anchorage 1982),and when the
tides flooded the runway the U.S.Air Force
abandoned it in favor of a concrete helipad at
the main facility (Figure 19)and a small run-
way just east of North Point (Figure 20).
Communication towers on the bluff overlook-
ing Shelter Bay tumbled down during the
quake,according to Allen Wernberg (and one
of the two NIKE batteries at Site Point was
permanently disabled).The damage to the
Fire Island facility was repaired and the sta-
tion continued to operate,but in 1969 the base
I used to find,beach-combing,all kinds of ordnance along the beaches there....Ifound
several cases of anti-personnel land mines along the beaches out there.They come
down the banks.They were in boxes -wood crates -said right on them,"ANTI-
PERSONNEL LAND MINES.”....And all kinds of cans of stuff -I believe they're
detonators in them.They come ina can.You open the can and here's these -I dont
know what they were.We'd pick them up and give them to the military and some guys
they'd pick them up real nervously and some guys wouldnt want nothing to do with
it....Jt was before the earthquake.And then I'dfind these big cans of Clorox.I think it
was Clorox.[don't know where they comefrom but there were a lot ofthose around,too.
On the beach.Allen Wernberg
21
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
of The Online"Air-Defease Radar Museum
Figure 17.The layout of the Fire Island AC&W
station can be seen in this 1959 aerial view to the
north.The water tank building is at right
was closed;some communications functions
were continued by the Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration (Air Force Times 1969).
FAA Use
When the Federal Aviation Adminis-
tration (FAA)was established in 1958 to man-
age civilian air traffic and certify airports,air-
craft,and pilots,the existing military radar
sites were shared to avoid redundancy.At
Fire Island,two apartment buildings were
built on a loop road east of the existing
AC&W facility,facing Turnagain Arm.FAA
personnel,amounting to about 11 civilian
Courtesy of The Online Air-Defense Radar Museum
Figure 18.The 1964 earthquake toppled towersandcrackedroadsonFireIsland.
employees,were allowed to bring their fami-
lies,and this changed the complexion of the
Fire Island installation.Recreational facili-
ties were shared between the two agencies,
and likely the AC&W staff appreciated hav-
ing women and children on the island.Former
FAA employees and their children contributed
numerous anecdotes to the Fire Island
webpage assembled by Tim Kelley.
The U.S.Air Force left the island in
1969,but the FAA contingent stayed,con-
tinuing to use some of the military buildings
and maintaining the radar and other commu-
Courtesy of The Online Air-Defense Radar Museum
Figure 19.Large H-21 helicopters,affectionately
known as "flying bananas,”shuttled personnel andfreighttoFireIsland.
nication facilities (see sidebars and Oral His-
tory Appendix C).The old NDB (non-direc-
tional beacon)system was kept in service,as
well as the newer VOR (very high omnidi-
rectional range)system.Unneeded AC&W
buildings were allowed to lapse into ruin.The
ski tow and ski cabin were used seasonally,
but most of the families preferred to tobog-
gan down the old ski hill.Some personnel
had their own airplanes,flying from the North
Point airstrip to destinations like Anchorage
or the Kenai Peninsula.The relative isola-
tion of the Fire Island FAA community after
the AC&W Squadron left was almost as
unique among Alaska FAA stations as was
the symbiosis between the two groups before
the U.S.Air Force staff left,and without a
broader social environment on a day-to-day
22
Background
Pag
Anchorage MuseumofHistory and An FAA collection B86.28.12040
Figure 20.This 1969 aerial view of the airstrip at North Point,looking south,shows the runway initslocationbeforebeingshiftedabout80”to the west (compare with Figure 25).
basis the Fire Island FAA Field Station fit
neither the "insular enclave”nor the "inte-
grated outpost”profile as described by
Wisniewski (n.d.:120-146
For almost a decade the FAA person-
nel and their families had Fire Island to them-
selves,with the seasonal addition of the set-
netters on the west and north shores.Then
in 1978 a new radar system was installed at
the old Wildwood Air Force base near Kenai,
The FAA Complement on Fire Island when I was there was 11:one VOR/Comm Techni-
cian,one Radar SET,one Mechanic,and eight Radar Technicians.The USAF had
somewhere around 100,and the Army 15 or 20 (The Army people were there to mana
part of the control center usedfor early warning in connection with the Nike batteries at
Site Summit,Goose Bay,and Anchorage International Airport)....the USAF had a regu-
lar mail service using the old "Flying Banana"helicopters,I'm not sure of the designa-
tion -I think it was an H-21 or H-19 or something like that....I hitched rides with them
occasionally when I first got out there.Mainly we flew chartered aircraft,Barton Air
Service,Alaska Aeronautical,and Wilbur's mainly.A few FAA people had their own
aircraftfrom time to time -Harold Prater,a relieftech,had a Luscombe,later bought by
Jack Huffman,another relief;and Jim Cartwright,SET in the period around '65 -'66,
had an aircraft -I don't recall what it was....Back then there was an airstrip at the S.W.
end ofthe island,destroyed by the '64 earthquake and subsequent high tides;they had to
use the beach at North point at low tide in summertime and the bigger ofthe lakes on the
island on skis in wintertime to land fixed wing aircraft for a year or so after that,and
helicopters at breakup andfreezeup.Jerry Brookman,from the Fire Island web page
23
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
and the FAA staff at Fire Island were phased
-t.Delays in the installation kept some
-.ployees at Fire Island until 1979,but by
80 they were gone.Thereafter the com-
munications equipment was maintained by
technicians flying over from Anchorage,and
"ire Island was again left to the fishermen.
In 1985 the U.S.Army Corps of En-
=ineers destroyed the remnants of the AC&W
base (Allen Wernberg says it was deteriorat-
ing badly by then)under the FUDS (formerly
used defense sites)clean-up program,and
buried most of the debris east,southeast,and
southwest of the base.The FAA facilities
were removed in 1979,according to a letter
on the Fire Island webpage contributed by
Dave Hanneman,who participated in the re-
moval.The clean-up at Fire Island is consid-
ered complete by the U.S.Army Corps of
Engineers,but the Alaska Department of En-
vironmental Conservation (ADEC)disagrees
(URS Corporation 2004:2/29).
24
Results
Results
The oral history and archival material
is primary information that not only helps
develop an historic context but also helps in-
ventory and evaluate discoveries made in the
field.This chapter focuses on the results of
the field observations.
Point Woronzof
The APE for the Point Woronzof
component consists of a narrow section of
beach and bluff where the submarine electri-
cal cable exits the mud flats and travels up
the bluff to enter the existing substation on
the bluff (Figure 3).Adjacent to the south is
the sewage plant (Figure 21),with the two
lots separated by a narrow strip of trees.Af-
ter the powerline reaches the bluff it contin-
ues through these trees to enter the substa-
tion from the east.The sewage plant lot has
been radically regraded to the water's edge,
with boulder rip-rap in the beach zone,but
the substation property has been leveled only
to the bluff.A security fence encircling the
substation extends almost to the bluff's edge,
where a large billboard sign announcing the
existing submarine cable faces Cook Inlet and
Fire Island (Figure 22).Fire Island is easily
visible from the bluff (Figure 23).
I walked the perimeter of the substa-
tion outside the security fence --including the
strip of trees on the south,meandered along
the bluff edge to the north and south,and
scrambled down a steep ravine to the beach.
I didn't see anything of archaeological inter-
est.From the substation south to the sewage
plant the bluff edge retains little original land
surface,most of it looks lightly bulldozed.
From the substation northI first encountered
a steep drainage ditch that makes the same
right angles that the security fence around the
property makes,and then beyond that are
several jumbled mounds among large birch
trees that look like soil pushed by a bulldozer.
The slope and beach below the substation
showed no features other than those from
natural erosion and deposition;I looked fora
small terrace matching Bill Ezi's tent site that
Alberta Stephan described to me as located
on the beach-less portion of Point Woronzof,
north of the others in the fish camp,but I
didn't see anything like that.To summarize,
I didn't find anything of archaeological inter-
est in the APE at Point Woronzof.The his-
toric fish camp of Nuti'ctunt (TYO-030)is
well south of the APE.
Fire Island
Archival material to aid the inventory
on Fire Island included photographs from the
FAA collection at the Anchorage Museum of
History and Art (Figure 20,cover),but prior
to the survey I wasn't able to procure any
maps of the AC&W station;they were likely
classified during the period of operation.Sub-
sequently I did obtain a 1968 map,with the
assistance of U.S.Army Corps of Engineers
records manager James A.Short,from the
Bill Ezi put in his own smokehouse on the
point [Point Woronzof],away [north]from
us,but there's no beach there,so the
smokehouse was on pilings and he had a
tent in a little cut-out area above tideline.
Alberta E.Stephan
25
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Figure 21.In this aerial view of Point Woronzof,looking north-northeast,the runway for AnchorageInternationalAirportisatupperrightwithKnikArmbeyond.The rectangular scar at water's edge,left of center,is the sewage plant,and just north of that is the existing electrical substation.errr?"fyz ae
L
fg EE
Figure 22.The existing Point Woronzof electrical substation consists of a developed and fenced padwithalargebillboardsignfacingCookInlet.
26
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Pa,a
c.:yoo &7ӎFOEalaibod Leder Si pS
Figure 23.Viewed at low tide from Point Woronzof on a calm day,Fire Island appears just a shortjauntaway.
archives of the Corps'1985 clean-up effort
on Fire Island (Figure 24).Though it only
covers the south half of the island,that's
where most of the U.S.Air Force facilities
were,and the map is useful for determining
where former military features were located
and for identifying those remaining.
Barge Landing
The barge landing will be at tidewa-
ter off the north end of the North Point air-
strip (Figure 20);two alternate barge landing
sites at West Point are no longer being con-
sidered.The area is a dynamic beach gravel
zone (Figure 25)where no cultural resources
(other than perhaps a shipwreck)would be
expected.A derelict Toyota Land Cruiser is
parked at the end of the runway by the
windsock (Figure 26),but otherwise I saw
nothing of interest.It would seem from com-
paring aerial photographs that sometime af-
ter 1969 (Figure 20)the runway was shifted
about 80'to the west and thereby made
longer.West of the runway and parallel to it
in the intertidal marsh is a long and low linear
depression,maybe two of them,which are
likely drainage features bulldozed in conjunc-
tion with the runway construction.
Staging Area
The staging area is to be a five-acre
pad located just north of where CEA and the
FAA park vehicles and equipment at the North
Point airstrip (Figure 25).A small area near
the northeast edge shows evidence of having
been quarried for gravel in years past,and a
couple of dozer scars lead from that quarry
into the woods towards the proposed stag-
ing area.I walked through the parcel several
times and didn't see anything of cultural re-
source interest.Hidden by brush along the
access road are some creosoted utility poles.
27
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
i hij asfid.ior ho:giEfeldatEflies :ae a,fabibeea jos t TEEoYfafleck!A BE 8 a 7 i i.¢&4 aw .hee pecs,ran tee sie ee!=Noe EN :oddsaPER pian cg!78 i t 3 g-eez}i a ee ag!ctla #4 Fs <!£°F g ff wo fa.aiBpepidupge
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Courtesy of U.S.Army Corps of Engineers,Alaska District
Figure 24.This 1968 map of the AC&W site shows the abandoned airstrip at West Point,offshore wharf (astationarybarge),and the fuel line from the wharf to the base.
28
Results
os ee e5sansretiesiisiti ee
.
;
ss a
Figure 25.In this aerial photograph of the North Point airstrip,looking south at low tide,the narrowchannelalongtheeastsideofFireIslandisvisibleatupperleft.The barge landing will be at the end
of the runway.The old Alex fish camp is outside the right edge of the photograph.
es s;ae
teak
Figure 26.A derelict Toyoto Land Cruiser is parked by the windsock (upper left)at the end of theNorthPointairstrip.In the distance at far right is Point McKenzie.
29
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
ourtesy of the Fire Isiand itd
Figure 27.Tim Kelley poses with one of the two
pylons for the old military ski rope tow that will
likely be destroyed by substation construction.
There used to be at least one and per-
haps three buildings where the road met the
runway.The USGS Tyonek A-1 1:63,360
map (based on a 1950 aerial photograph)
shows one building,the Tyonek A-1/NE
1:25,000 map (based on 1972 aerial photog-
raphy)shows one building,but an obsolete
"Alaska Road &Recreation Map”seems to
show three.A 1969 aerial photograph (Fig-
ure 18)shows one small building with what
appears to be an antenna sticking out of it,
with a smaller shed across the road and an-
other antenna sticking out of it.From their
position relative to the road and airstrip,the
building(s)were destroyed sometime after
1969 when the airstrip was shifted west by
80'or so.
Powerhouse
The powerhouse (labeled "Future
Generation Site”on Figure 3)will be located
about two miles from the airstrip on the north
side of the road.The pad will be about 18
acres in size.Though the parcel is forested
in birch and spruce,an old overgrown mili-
tary road cuts through to make about two
equal halves.This is a northeast extension of
the overgrown track that will be reopened as
the access road to the turbine alignments and
other components to increase the distance
from the FAA's active VOR antennas,replac-
ing a section of the central spine road.I
walked the parcel and didn't see anything
cultural except for the old road scar.
Substation
Labeled as "Substation Rural/Urban
OBM Training Facility”on the plan map,this
five-acre parcel is located southwest of the
old AC&W station where the new bypass road
will join the existing spine road (Figure 3).
The pad's northwest margin would be about
where the military's six-inch fuel pipeline used
to run (Figure 24).I saw no sign of the pipe-
line except for a vague swath of alders trend-
ing southwest,but the substation will likely
impact two pylons for the old ski rope tow -
-including the anchor pylon.These are simple
steel pipes buried in the ground with discarded
tire rims welded to them for pulleys (Figure
27).The vicinity is mostly vegetated in grass
and second-growth spruce,indicating clear-
ing during the military period (1950-1969),
but otherwise I saw nothing of cultural inter-
est in the APE for the substation.
Central Turbine Bank
The central turbine bank will consist
of four smaller towers and turbines located
in the vicinity of the former AC&W station
(labeled "Training Turbines”on Figure 3);
CEA's Steve Gilbert told me that the exact
location has not been identified yet.The bank
is intended to serve as a prototype and train-
30
Results
Figure 28.Geometric alder patches indicate the former location of the AC&W site,looking northeastinthisaerialphotograph.The helipad is at lower left,and right of center is the building housing thetwowatertanks.At upper center is the loop road that accessed the two FAA apartments.At upperrightistheCookInletshoreline,with a road to it that follows the old sewer line.The grown-over scartotheleftofthatroadistheoldsewagelagoon,while the grown-over scar to the right is where some
of the station's debris was buried during the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers'1985 demolition project.
dat
ing facility for remote village systems.Most
of the AC&W site was demolished in 1985,
and the two FAA apartments were demolished
in 1979 (Figure 28).Steve Gilbert showed
me several features including the one remain-
ing building housing a couple of water tanks,
and I spent some time photographing them,
but otherwise I didn't thoroughly explore the
site.
The water tank building is a flat-
roofed structure with three frame walls and a
fourth of concrete that separates the building
from a concrete pad with a short retaining
wall.The concrete wall is partly demolished
(Figure 29),suggesting an abutting concrete
building was demolished.However,historic
photographs on the Online Air-Defense Ra-
dar Museum web-site seem to show the build-
ing in its existing form,with the pad and re-
taining wall open to the elements (Figure 17).
The remaining exterior walls are of wood
frame,with 2”x6”studs and 1”x8”tongue-
in-groove diagonal siding (Figure 30).En-
closed by the building are two large water
tanks,each about 10'in diameter and 30'long
(Figure 31).At the north end of the building
is a pump room,with pipes and valves intact
but the pump and engine removed (Figure 32).
That room's interior is variously finished with
sheetrock,1”x6”shiplap,and 1”x4”s.An of-
fice chair held an original log book contain-
ing daily engine records ("Run Engine 30
min,”for example)by G.Hansen for the
months of July through December of 1977.
Another conspicuous feature is the
AC&W helipad (Figures 28,33),a concrete
pad located a couple hundred feet west of
the station's main building complex.It was
31
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
aire Mes
Figure 29.The west wall of the building housing the AC&W water tanks was of concrete,with aconcretepadandretainingwallsoutsidethebuilding.
Figure 30.Most of the building housing the water tanks was of wood frame construction,herelookingsouthwest.The smaller room at right housed the pumps.
32
Figure 31.Inside the building are two large wa-
ter tanks,here looking north.
Results
poured in 20'-square sections to make a 100'-
square pad.A couple of 55-gallon drums cut
in half and filled with cement for helicopter
tie-downs are still in place.After the U.S.
Air Force left,FAA personnel used the heli-
pad as a tennis court.
The last feature of note at the former
AC&W station is a fallout shelter.Steve Gil-
bert pointed out a debris-clogged concrete
hole in the ground to me,into which I even-
tually crawled.The underground bunker is
small,measuring only about six feet wide,
eight feet tall,and 30 feet long,with earth in-
filling almost completely obscuring an en-
trance on each end (Figure 34).I didn't see
any doors --]couldn't even tell if there were
once stairs or a ramp under the washed-in
soil.Inside the shelter were indications ofa
hot-water baseboard heater and electric lights.
A central drain is still working.In addition
to a first aid placard,the walls contained an
exposure control placard and two stenciled
Figure 32.The pumps have been removed from the pumphouse,but the valves and pipes are intact.At upper right is a chair holding a maintenance log in which the last entry is from December of 1977.
33
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
poate "e4coohy
Figure 33.The old AC&W helipad,a 100'x100'surface made of 20'x20'poured sections,is cracked
but servicable.The families of FAA personnel used it as a tennis court.
a iy.at
command protocols for what was identified
as "Shelter No 2.”
Demolition left the components ofthe
old AC&W ski hill,later used for skiing and
sledding by FAA families,relatively intact.
The rope tow apparatus was discussed under
the Substation subheading.Remaining at the
SHELTER NO 2.THE SENIOR MEMBER OF
THE CONTROL TEAM IS IN CHARGE OF THE
SHELTER.IF NO TEAM MEMBER IS
PRESENT,THE SENIOR PERSON PRESENT
TS IN CHARGE.INSTRUCTIONS ON CLIP-
BOARD.
EXPOSURE CONTROL FORMULA
X T X RN =DOSAGE INSIDE2SHELTER
Ry Ry XT =DOSAGE OUTSIDE SHELTER
RI =INTENSITY AT START OF EXPLOSION
:rr Th ohih een et 'R2 =INTENSITYAT END OF EXPLOSIONFigure34.ou e two entrances are almos T =TIME EXPOSEDobscuredbybrushandsoil,(Fallout)Shelter #2 _
is still accessible.RN =RESIDUAL NUMBER .008
See OeieWadesoan
34
Courtesy of the Fire Island webpage
Figure 35.In 2004 Tim Kelley and friends re-
corded the Fire Island ski cabin for the internet.
top of the rope tow,at the south end of the
former AC&W hilltop,are three small build-
ings:the log warm-up cabin (Figures 16,35),
the motor shed,and a storage shed.This area
is heavily overgrown with alder,and --though
I spent 20 minutes looking for them --I didn't
see the buildings.Fortunately,they were am-
ply photographed inside and out by Tim
Kelley and Tommy Thiele in 2004 and de-
scribed on the Fire Island webpage.
The warm-up cabin measures about
12'x14'with an additional 12'x6'porch,both
covered by a gabled roof with metal roofing.
A metal plaque outside the half-log door reads
"205”(Figure 35)Inside,the space for a
wood stove is now vacant,and a few cans
remain on two shelves along one wall.Tim
Kelley noted a packing box with "Fire Island”
stenciled on it in 2004.Near the warm-up
cabin is a small frame shed with a deteriorat-
ing roof containing racks that likely once held
skis and poles (Figure 36).In 2004 Tim
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-cae!
Courtesy of the Fire Island webpage
Figure 36.A small frame shed has racks on the
walls that likely once held skis and poles.
.7 amaSelgk
Courtesy of the Fire Island webpage
Figure 37.A small metal building holds the en-gine,windlass,and other gear for the rope tow.
35
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Courtesy of the Fire Island webpage
Figure 38.Inside the motor shed is the old engine (lower right),pulleys for the rope (center left),and
a reel on which to store the rope (upper right).
Kelley found a padded leather leg splint in
the shed.To complete the trio of buildings
"a windowless metal shed houses the rope
tow engine,windlass rope pulleys,and a large
reel for summer storage of the tow rope,”
according to Tim Kelley (Figures 37-38).
Northeast Turbine Bank
The northeast turbine bank is an 1800”
alignment containing five towers,located a
couple hundred feet back from the coastal
bluff at about the midpoint of the east shore
(Figure 3).I walked the alignment and didn't
see anything of interest,though less than
1000'to the south,where the existing road
from the former AC&W station meets the
bluff,are remains of the what I think was the
station's sewer line.Visible is a 12”wood-
stave pipe sticking out of the coastal bluff
(Figure 39),corresponding with three large
chunks of concrete on the beach below,one
of which was poured around another section
of 12”wood-stave pipe (Figure 40).
It's possible this was part ofa fuel line,
because the 1968 facility map (Figure 24),
plots a "fuel storage tank,pump house,and
storage building”at the bluff edge,connected
to the AC&W station by a pipeline.But:a)
the only fuel pipeline I've found mentioned is
the one from the base southwest to West
Point,b)the pipeline goes past what has been
identified as the sewage lagoon,and c)a fuel
storage tank and pump house would have
been necessary to service a sewage system.
Consequently I believe it to be a sewage line.
Oral history specifically devoted to the ques-
tion could resolve the matter.
Southeast Turbine Bank
The southeast turbine bank is a 5400”
alignment containing 14 towers,beginning at
36
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mene %i ey ae e
é uy :
=
Figure 39.On the bluff less than 1000'southwest of the northeast turbine alignment is a 12”wood-stave pipe --probably the outfall for the AC&W station's sewage system.View is southwest.
concrete
concrete.
42”wood-stave.pipe |
northeast),one of which was poured arounda section of 12”wood-stave pipe.
37
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
once the airstrip and Cook Inlet beyond,are remains of a military observation post (TYO-102).
the midpoint of the old AC&W sewer road
and trending southwest (Figure 3).The align-
ment begins almost 1500'from the bluff,but
gets closer as it approaches the south end of
the island.I walked the alignment and didn't
see anything archaeological,although the sand
dunes at the south end are geologically inter-
esting.On my return I walked the beach and
inspected the bluff stratigraphy.
Northwest Turbine Bank
The northwest turbine bank is a 3300”
alignment of seven turbines located near the
midpoint of Fire Island's west shore,over-
looking Cook Inlet.It more or less follows
along an old military road that traverses the
west bluff of Fire Island.The road provided
good subsurface visibility from erosion along
its margins,and had the highest probability
of leading to cultural features,I reasoned,so
I walked the road.But other than the road
scar itself,I didn't see anything cultural.Allen
Wernberg told me that a bit further to the
southwest from the end of the turbine bank
there was once an AC&W tower,but that it
fell down during the 1964 earthquake and
wasn't replaced.He also said that further
northeast of the alignment there was once a
wooden staircase that led from the beach up
to the bluff --switch-backing several times.
Southwest Turbine Bank
The southwest turbine bank consists
of seven towers in a 2400'alignment over-
looking Shelter Bay,extending southwest to-
wards West Point.I walked the alignment
and didn't see anything of cultural resource
interest,though Allen Wernberg told me af-
terwards that somewhere near the southwest
end there used to be another AC&W tower.
I overshot that end of the alignment and
walked to the marine shore,where I found a
38
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aM
eeBetscan
Figure 42.The military observation post is made of 55 gallon drums filled with sand via a 1'x1'hole
cut into each of their tops,and covered with a plywood roof.View is northeast.
military observation post.
The feature consists of a hole about
four feet deep in the sand,on a low bluff over-
looking the beach 50'below (Figure 41).The
hole was big enough to receive 16 barrels
making a square five barrels on a side.The
two corner barrels on the side facing south-
west into Cook Inlet protrude 13'above the
three intervening barrels (Figure 42),making
a low observation window.The barrels on
the other three sides are too jumbled to tell if
they were arranged to have windows,but a
nearby scatter of debris including flimsy
weathered wood trim with simple hinges and
other hardware indicates that the feature did
have windows.Also among the bits of wood
is a 14”x28”panel,3/8”thick,made of steel
on one side with the edges crimped over to
hold an asbestos-like fiber mat on the other
side.It's painted olive drab,as are the bar-
rels.Two of the panels would just fit the ob-
servation window aperture.
The roof is made of 1”x6”joists sand-
wiched between 3/8”plywood,measuring
eight feet long on the side facing Cook Inlet
(Figure 42).It has collapsed into the hole,so
I couldn't really get down into the cavity.Bur-
ied under the roof is a snarl of radio wire.
The wire consists of two paired 3/32”wires,
each insulated in black plastic with a translu-
cent lacquer over it that has mostly eroded
away.I found a wire's end and determined
that the conductive element consists of fine
twisted strands of copper wire.
About 80'northwest of the observa-
tion post is a tree-stand --a rude triangular
platform of spruce poles lashed with green
fishing line to three spruce trees between 10”
and 14'above the ground (it's on a slope over-
looking Shelter Bay).The platform measures
about six feet on a side.Judging from the
appearance of the stumps from which the ma-
terials were acquired,the stand was con-
structed within the last few years,and is un-
39
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
aii
ES
Figure 43.A speed limit sign along a formerly
alder-choked military road has been resurrected.
related to the military observation post.
The age of the military bunker is not
certain,but it probably dates to World War
II.Mention is made in two sources of Fire
Island used during World War II by Army
lookouts eyeing Cook Inlet for Japanese sub-
marines (McDonnough 1967;Air Force Times
1969),and this site looks directly southwest
towards the mouth of Cook Inlet.It doesn't
seem like the sort of defense that would have
been employed by the U.S.Air Force during
the Cold War era to protect the AC&W sta-
tion.Possibly the stenciling on the barrels
could help date the site,but the 1°x1'hole
cut into the top of each effectively obliter-
ated most of the letters and numbers.The
radio wire is probably also datable to some-
one knowledgable about WW II versus early
Cold War communications.The site was re-
corded as a World War II observation post
with the Alaska Heritage Resource Survey
(AHRS)number of TYO-102.
TYO-102 is not in the APE for the
southwest turbine alignment.The West Point
South barge landing --if used,would prob-
ably destroy the feature,but that alternative
has beem rejected in favor of the North Point
barge landing.
Access Roads
Access will be needed to the power-
house,substation,and each of the turbine
alignments,but former military roads will be
reopened as much as possible to serve the
purpose.The spine road from the North Point
airstrip to the FAA's central VOR station is
well-maintained with an on-site grader,but
beyond that the roads have been only recently
cleared of alder and put back into use (Fig-
ure 43).Even then the clearance is minimal,
as evidenced by the dented doors and fend-
ers of CEA's Chevrolet Suburban.Originally
most of the road beds were engineered with
good fill to be a standard 20'wide.
The maintained spine road passes by
the FAA's old NDB antennas (Figure 44)and
then drifts within 1000'of the VOR anten-
nas,which violates the FAA's 2500'security
radius,so the road is to be rerouted further
to the west (Figure 3).The new segment will
begin its jog from the existing road at the
corner of the proposed powerhouse pad and
travel along an old military road for about
one mile,then it's routed along a long nar-
row arcuate depression that curves counter-
clockwise to meet the central road south of
the old AC&W station,where the substation
will be built (where the bottom ofthe ski rope
tow is located).I walked both the "northern
old-road”and "southern no-road”portions
of the proposed road realignment and found
nothing of cultural resource interest except
for a large galvanized bucket just north of
the midpoint,and the lowermost pylons for
the ski rope tow (discussed previously under
the Substation subheading).
To access the northwest turbine bank,
an old east/west military road was reopened,
connecting it to the island's spine road and
exposing a concrete military feature (Figure
45).The feature consists of a concrete pad
designed for drainage of fluids,so it likely
represents a garage,shop,or decontamina-
40
Results
Figure 44.The original NDB (non-directional beacon)station,now used by the FBI,is located northoftheFireIslandspineroadaboutone-half mile west of the North Point airstrip.
tion building of some sort.The feature mea-
sures 28'by 15',with a 6”-wide and 6”-high
concrete berm on three sides.The fourth side,
facing the military road,is flat with no berm,
and the feature's gravel pad and road bed are
the same height so vehicles could easily en-
ter.Poured into the concrete floor are three
long 11”-wide troughs (I forgot to measure
their depths but they're not deeper than 12”)
connected at the road end by another at a right
angle.Short (11”-long)drain-boards of 2”-
thick lumber are still wedged into place in
some of the trenches,held there by a poured
concrete ledge or flange,to create what was
once a sturdy surface over the whole of the
pad.From one corner of the connecting
trench protrudes the stub ofa metal-sheathed
power cable.The feature is within 30'of the
reopened access road and connected to it by
a gravel pad,so depending on how wide the
access ROW is to be (and whether barricades,
etc.might be effective),it could be consid-
ered within the APE and potentially disturbed
Figure 45.Along the access road to the north-
west turbine bank is this old concrete pad withlongfloordrains--likely a military garage or shop.
4]
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
Figure 46.Allen Wermberg poses at his Talkeetna
home with a shooting table and bench salvaged
from the AC&W shooting range on Fire Island.
by the project.I didn't see any other cultural
features along the remainder of the access
road to the northwest turbine alignment.
Access to the southwest turbine align-
ment is via a 2800'loop from the existing
road to West Point (Figure 3).I found the
beginning point of the access road,but there-
after I found only one stake,so the route I
walked must be considered an approximation
of the actual route.Most of the route travels
through very dense spruce thicket in which it
was difficult to see anything,and I didn't see
anything of cultural resource interest.On the
spine road between the proposed substation
and the turn-off for the access road I walked
through two and possibly three alder patches
representing areas cleared by the military for
some purpose.Allen Wernberg told me,for
example,that somewhere along there was the
U.S.Air Force's rifle range that might still
have some old range tables left on it (Figure
46),but I didn't see it.He also said there
was aconcrete pad and the remnants ofa fuel
bladder along the old 6”fuel pipeline,but I
didn't see that,either.
Access to the southeast turbine align-
ment,in turn also servicing the northeast
alignment,is via a new 1800'road leading
south from the existing spine road at a point
near the proposed substation site.I walked
an approximation of this route but I never
sawa single stake,and I couldn't tell when I
reached the turbine alignment (I instead suc-
cessfully accessed the southeast alignment,
like the northeast alignment,from the old mili-
tary road connecting the AC&W station with
the east shore of Fire Island).I didn't see
anything of cultural resource interest along
the route that I walked.
Once an access road reaches a tur-
bine alignment,the roads servicing the tow-
ers in each turbine alignment run right along
the base of each tower (Figure 2),so that --
given the 200'staking interval and precision
of the pedestrian survey --each service road
and corresponding turbine bank was walked
as a single alignment.
Powerlines
Power of various voltages will be dis-
tributed on overhead lines as part of the Fire
Island wind power project.In most cases
these are routed along the turbine alignments,
access roads,and spine road system,most of
which I walked.One exception is a line ex-
tending southwest from the southwest end of
the southwest turbine alignment,which will
provide power to the Coast Guard's existing
navigation light at West Point.The other ex-
ception is a line extending northeast from the
northeast end of the northwest turbine align-
ment,which will serve the Coast Guard's
lights at Race Point and beyond (Figure 3).I
didn't walk any of these powerline ROWs.
42
Material Sources
According to CEA's Steve Gilbert,at
least three material sites will be needed to
complete the project,but they were not in-
cluded in my scope of work because their lo-
cations have not yet been identified
Pedestrian Survey Summary
For five days I bushwacked the com-
ponents of the APE,and the cultural features
I saw that could be disturbed by the project
as presently defined are the bottom two py-
Results
lons for the ski rope tow system,the con-
crete foundation for a garage or shop,and
features at the old AC&W station like the
water tank building,fallout shelter,and ski
buildings.I also found,outside the APE but
near the southwest end of the southwest tur-
bine alignment,the remains of a World War
II observation post.Given the difficult sur-
vey conditions,comments from Allen
Wernberg,and details of the 1968 AC&W
map (Figure 24),undiscovered military fea-
tures may still be located in or near the APE.
At Point Woronzof I saw nothing of cultural
resource interest in the APE.
43
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
44
Evaluations and Recommendations
Evaluations and Recommendations
I used a combination of oral history,
archival photographs and maps,and on-site
observation to reconstruct Fire Island and
Point Woronzof's history.None of the three
sources of information was exhausted.Inthe
realm of oral history there are additional
knowledgeable Native elders that could be
consulted,as well as non-Native commercial
fishermen,and I didn't talk to any former U.S.
Air Force,Army,or FAA personnel stationed
on the island.There are undoubtedly more
personal and public archives containing pho-
tographs and other material relevant to the
cultural resource investigation.And the on-
site observation was hampered by the dense
vegetation on Fire Island and the lack of
brushed and flagged survey lines (other than
stakes at 200'intervals)to delineate the
project components.Nonetheless,I did
record some historic features,including some
in the APE.Those in the APE are remnants
of the AC&W site (TYO-095).Outside the
APEI recorded the World War II observa-
tion post at West Point (TYO-102),and ob-
tained AHRS numbers (TYO-104 through
TYO-107)for the four current Fire Island fish
camps.This chapter evaluates TYO-095 for
its eligibility to the National Register of His-
toric Places,and makes some recommenda-
tions regarding future cultural resource in-
ventory and evaluation.The FAA station was
really an adjunct to the U.S.Air Force facil-
ity;with only two buildings oftheir own (both
apartment buildings,both demolished)and
reliant otherwise on the AC&W infrastruc-
ture both during and after the U.S.Air Force
personnel left,the site does not warrant a
separate AHRS number.The Fire Island FAA
site was excluded from Chattey's (1999,
2000)compendium of Alaska FAA station
National Register evaluations.
National Register Status of TYO-095
Eligibility to the National Register of
Historic Places is evaluated on the basis of
significance and integrity.Significance is
judged on the basis of four significance crite-
ria,and whether the significance lies at the
local,regional,or national level.The four
significance criteria are:a)their association
with important events;b)their association
with important people;c)their design or con-
struction value;and d)their information value
--usually meaning archaeological value (U.S.
Department of the Interior 1991:11).Integ-
rity has to do with how intact the property is
in terms of the qualities that make it signifi-
cant.The specific aspects of integrity are:
location,design,setting,materials,workman-
ship,feeling,and association (U.S.Depart-
ment of the Interior 1991:44)
The Fire Island AC&W station was
begun in 1950 and went into operation in
1951,becoming one of the first two to come
online --necessary because it was the South-
ern Region Control Center for the AC&W
system (Fire Island's twin was the Murphy
Dome station,completed at the same time to
be the Northern Region Control Center).The
Fire Island AC&W station became one of four
NORAD (North American Air Defense)Con-
trol Centers in Alaska,feeding vital commu-
nications information to ElmendorfAir Force
Base,where it was used to control fighter
planes scrambled to intercept Soviet aircraft
and to target NIKE rockets.NIKE Site Sum-
mit (above Arctic Valley in Anchorage)was
one of only two NIKE sites in North America
to ever fire live missiles,and those live-fire
exercises were monitored by the Fire Island
AC&W site.The Fire Island AC&W site
(TYO-095)is significant under Criterion A,
45
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
being associated with the Cold War in Alaska
at the local,regional,and national level.As
originally built,the facility was architectur-
ally an example typical of AC&W sites else-
where in Alaska,and therefore has some sig-
nificance under Criterion C.The period of
significance is 1951-1969.
However,the integrity of TYO-095
is very low due to the demolition of most
buildings by the U.S.Army Corps of Engi-
neers in 1985 (the two FAA apartment build-
ings had been demolished in 1979).All the
AC&W features I described here were either
deliberately left by the demolition team --like
the ski shacks and water tank building,or
were considered inert and essentially gone --
like the concrete helipad and garage/shop pad.
Besides the few AC&W features described
and probably a few others yet to be found,
most of the elements that reflect the place's
significance under Criteria A and C have been
destroyed.The radomes are gone,the quar-
ters and communication centers are gone,and
most of the antennas are gone (though the
operating NDB (Figure 44)and VOR sys-
tems both date to the AC&W days,as near as
I can tell).TYO-095 retains integrity of lo-
cation,setting,and association,in that the site
is in the same place and same environment as
it was during the period of significance,and
it is still a part of Alaska's and the nation's
Cold War history.However,the 1985 demo-
lition has destroyed the site's integrity of de-
sign,materials,workmanship,and feeling.
In my opinion,TYO-095 is significant
but lacks sufficient integrity to be eligible to
the National Register of Historic Places.
Denfeld (1994:154)hedged a bit and said the
site was probably not eligible.The ski slope
buildings and tow rope system and the fall-
out shelter are individually interesting fea-
tures,but they are only small elements con-
tributing to the larger AC&W whole --and
the larger whole is gone.
Sites Outside the APE
I obtained new AHRS numbers for
five sites located outside the APE (Table 1).
These consist of the WW II observation post
on the south end of the island,and the four
historic fish camp sites (Figure 47).I per-
sonally saw the WW II observation post
(TYO-102),which would be potentially dis-
turbed if the West Point South Barge Land-
ing were selected (Figure 3)--but that alter-
native is not being considered.The other four
sites are discussed here primarily on the basis
Description Location AHRS #In APE N.R.Eligible
Nuti'ctunt Point Woronzof TYO-030 no not evaluated
AC&W water tank building Fire Island TYO-095 yes no
AC&W heliport Fire Island ""yes no
AC&W fallout shelter Fire Island "yes no
AC&W garage/shop foundation __Fire Island "yes no
AC&W ski slope features Fire Island "yes no
AC&W sewer outfall Fire Island "no no
WwW II observation post Fire Island TYO-102 no not evaluated
old Alex family fish camp Fire Island TYO-104 no not evaluated
old Theodore family fish camp Fire Island TYO-105 no not evaluated
old Peter King fish camp Fire Island TYO-106 no not evaluated
old MacDonald family fish camp 'Fire Island TYO-107 no not evaluated
Table 1.Cultural features in or near the Fire Island and Point WoronzofAPEs that were discussed in
this report.
46
Evaluations and Recommendations
TYO-105 -Old TheodoreFaWY
+,TYO-104 -Old Alex Family Fish Camp -
*TY0-102-WW II Observation Po
Figure 47.The WW II observation post and four fish camp sites were assigned Alaska HeritageResourceSurvey(AHRS)numbers,though all are outside the Area of Potential Effect.
of oral history,written,and archival sources,
forming sufficient basis for documenting them
in the AHRS system.There is insufficient
information and insufficient need (since
they're outside the APE)to warrant evaluat-
ing the four fish camps for National Register
eligibility.
I did walk the beach from the end of
the runway at North Point to the old Alex
family fish camp (TYO-104),in hope of talk-
ing with a commercial fisherman,but no one
was home.One of the buildings is said to be
as old as 1918,and I noted that a dilapidated
net shed was roofed with overlapping birch
bark overlain with 3/4”lumber in turn over-
lain with flattened metal kerosene containers
(Figure 48).Birch bark roofs were favored
by the upper Cook Inlet Dena'ina,who
claimed that they lasted longer than a spruce
bark roof (Kenai Natives preferred spruce),
but whereas the upper Cook Inlet tradition
was to lay the bark horizontal and alternate
inside and outside so the ends curled in op-
posite directions and locked (Osgood
1966:61,63),the example at TYO-104 on
Fire Island has the bark laid vertically,and all
with the outside bark facing out.
The known site at Point Woronzof,
Nuti'ctunt,or TYO-030,was not visited as
part of the field observation effort,but a few
oral history anecdotes were contributed by
Eklutna elder Alberta Stephan to augment the
known facts.The site is well outside the APE
for the wind power project.
47
Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
oe peg
Figure 48.A delapidated net shed at the old Alex family fish camp (TYO-104)is roofed with birch
bark (under the flattened metal fuel containers and boards)--a Dena'ina practice,though the tradi-
tional method of laying the bark horizontally and alternating inside/outside so the edges would curlandlock(Osgood 1966:63,66)was not employed.
Recommendations
Neither the oral history,archival re-
search,nor field observation in this project
were exhaustive,so the possibility of addi-
tional pertinent information coming to light
must be recognized.The opportunity to re-
travel these research avenues may present it-
self as part of the inventory and evaluation
recommended for the three material sources
once their locations are identified.At the
same time,the brushing and surveying that
will come with more detailed field planning
may offer the chance to discover more mili-
tary features in particular.
Though there is mention of an early
Dena'ina village on Fire Island (Kari and Fall
2003:339),known in the AHRS system as
TYO-099,its location is unknown.De La-
guna (1930:64)in her field notes writes of a
Seldovia man mentioning a village on the
north shore of Fire Island with a "graveyard
between the lake and the two hills,”but a lo-
cation for the site has not otherwise been iden-
tified.According to Kari and Fall (2003:339),
"Shem Pete said that before contact with non-
Natives,the Knik Arm Dena'ina had a
tanik'edi or fishing dock on the west shore
of Fire Island,”probably meaninga traditional
weir,but no effort has been made to confirm
such a feature.It is likely that most Native
use of Fire Island has focused on the immedi-
ate shoreline,out of the wind power project's
APE,but the possibility of encountering ar-
chaeological features in the uplands can't be
discounted.If future development does un-
earth cultural material,I recommend that
work cease until the landowners and SHPO
can be consulted.
48
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52
Oral History Appendix A:Native Use
Oral History Appendix A:
Native Use
Cheda [Grandmother]was born at the village by Tyone Lake in 1875.Her baptismal name
was Olga.She was the daughter of one of the Nicholis mentioned in so many different
stories about the Copper River Valley area.Cheda's parents had afish camp at what is now
Point Worenzoff (Nuts-es-tunt)....Every spring grandma would help move the family to fish
camp at Pt.Worenzoff.She took over herfather'sfish camp because he was too old to travel
back and forth from Tyone Lake....Starting at the mouth of Knik Arm,Roof Stephen from
Knik had a smokehouse,his family put up their fish there every year until 1936.Close by
was Wasillie Theodore also from Knik.Eklutna Alex had a cabin and smokehouse near
Chester Creek where he put up his fish every summer.The tent town of Anchorage was
spreading....The land was surveyed right out from under the Native homes,and auctioned
off to the people that could afford to pay for it.Eklutna Alex and Baily Theodore moved
theirfish camps to Fire Island.Wasillie Theodore moved to Point Worenzoff....Grandfather,
ChiefEzi died ofpneumonia January 18,1935....Cheda's three sons took over the fish camp
at Pt.Worenzoff.They had a large smokehouse big enough for four fire places.This was
used until they all got separated by having to fish in different locations in Cook Inlet....The
traditionalfish camps to put upfish were now usedfor commercialfishing by 1936.The Ezi
brothers at Pt.Worenzoff had commercial fish nets and soldfish to Emard's cannery.This
too was to end in the year 1946.Pt.Worenzoff was closed to allfishing.The ten fishermen
that were there had to find other places to do their fishing.All of Cook Inlet was being
fished byfishermen trying to earn money.Among the ten fishermen who lost theirfish sites
at Pt.Worenzoffwere:Bill Ezi,Pete Ezi,Jack Ezi's benificiary Leo Stephan,Wasilla Theodore,
Ed Hall,Jack Wik,and Mike Yakasoff-(Stephan 2001:8,12,26-29)
At Point Woronzof our nearest neighbors to the left of us was Old Man Wasilla Theodore.
He was married to Rufe Stephan's oldest daughter Katie,and they had the only children in
the area that I could play with.We'd leave Eklutna the first part ofspring,early,like in the
first part ofMay.The men had to row their dorys all the wayfrom Eklutna to Point Woronzof
until Emard Packing company brought up some five-or nine-horse Johnson motors.My
dad had one,so we traveled with that.Iremember once we caught up with a little sailboat
that Eklutna Alex was traveling in.Eklutna Alex and Bailey Theodore (Wasilla Theodore'
son)moved their fish camps to Fire Island in 1936.Mrs.Bailey told me and she was sure
because that's the same year they got married.Eklutna Alex and his sons were at North
Point,and Bailey Theodore was just west of Eklutna Alex.After 1950 we went by Fire
Island every year to get to Point Possession,where Leo was commercialfishing with Shem
Pete.In those days there was lumber that drifted up on the beach.Each family had a
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Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
smokehouse,tentframes,steam bath,and a net rack or shed.In the fall Leo and some ofhis
friends fished silvers at Fire Islandfrom Roy Alex's camp.Fishing went five days a week.
The canneries had skows,and eachfisherman had their own bin.Then the cannery tender
would come in and take the fish --a lot easier than it is now.Now you have to come to town
andfind a buyer.Alberta Stephan
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Oral History Appendix B:Commercial Set-Net Fishing
Oral History Appendix B:
Commercial Set-Net Fishing
He [Leslie Wermberg]started drifting out there sometime in the late 40s...He'd just make
sets at certain times of the tide,during the ebbs,and he hada little tent and stuff,and they
camped on the north end of Fire Island where the airport is now....I remember the set-
netters hated him with a passion!'Cause they didnt want no drifters around there drifting,
you know.The currents were pretty strong,so he had to wait 'til the tide slacked off,then
he'd lay the net out and nail them.Sometimes he'd put an anchor on the end,just to get a
little resistance on the net.You werent supposed to do that,but he did.And he picked up a
lot offish....Old man [Eklutna Alex]was mad,and they threatened the old man [Leslie
Wernberg]with a shotgun.Go away,you know?The next thing you know they closed
drifting in the upper Inlet.Northern District set-netters back then were a powerful
organization.They negotiatedfish prices and everything else -'course it was the days of
the fish traps.I think the old man had something to do with that [closure].
Then about 1954-55 he ended buying out a set-netter on the west side of Fire Island
named Al Reisoff,who used to work for Emard cannery....
We ended up buying all the west side,eventually.There was one guy up from us,
Peter King in Shelter Bay.He was Native,and....worked for the Alaska Railroad,and he
had two sets up from....Al Riesoff's place,and I believe that's why Al Riesoff sold that site
on the west side ofFire Island,'cause King had moved in ahead of him and was corkin'him
alittle bit.He had one net there that hurt him good,it cut off the beach,and was corkin'
Riesoff.So he sold out and the old man picked it up and he re-arranged the nets and tried
it,and we were doing all right.Eventually the old man and King become friends,and the
old man he jumped one net ahead of him -went up on thatflat -and corked him a little bit.
With a little net.Not to make him too mad.King recognized it.King had a heart attack.He
justfished by himself'He was a tough Eskimo.So he sold the site to the old man.The old
man picked up both sites.Well then he had something,then.We caught a lot offish.There
was only one person ahead of us now,and that's MacDonalds on West Point.That's where
Iam now.Them guys were highliners.They had a good site.They hadfirst shot at everything
coming up the middle of Cook Inlet that came off that bar out in front of them there.Them
nets loaded!Oh man,they slaughteredfish!They're one of the best sites in Cook Inlet....We
eventually ended up buying them out,and they'd been there forever.Art,and Doug,and
Jim MacDonald.There was two sites initially....Art MacDonald,he was a heavy smoker,
but man you oughta seen the set-netter''s hands!His hands,man,you wouldnt believe it,
like a gorilla!...Jim had a heart attack on the point and died,1981-82....1 think 1984,when
I bought it....1t wasnt for sale -Martha [Jim MacDonald's widow]wanted me to have it.
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Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
[During the 1964 earthquake]we Jost the fish camp there in Shelter Bay,the old Al
Riesoff camp.We had ajeep there.A nice camp,a beautiful camp.The cliffs sloughed on
the island,and ...they took the cabin out andjust smashed everything up.
Years ago in the '50s,from my Dad';first site there,Al Riesoff's location,all this
belonged to Bailey Theodore's [family],Sammy,Everett,Junior,and their dad,they fished
all through here.And then Alex's in here.Then there was a gal named Baird,had three nets
right in the middle here,too.Steve Braund bought her out [the actual ownership chain was
Baird to Werre to Harrison to Braund].Braund now has the old Theodore location.He's
president of the Northern District Set Netter 's Association.Allen Wermberg
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Oral History Appendix C:FAA Station Use
Oral History Appendix C:
FAA Station Use
I was stationed on Fire Island from 1970 to 1973 as a NAVAIDS and Communications
Technician....1 worked Civil Service at Elmendorffrom 1967 to 1970 [and]....1 made several
trips to Fire Island,replacing equipment or upgrading equipment,etc.During the winter
trips the ski tow was used only on the weekends,everyone worked during the day and while
lights had been put on the hill,the only time that they were used was on the
weekends....Saturday was the big day at the ski hill and Sunday was the day ofhealing.The
NCO Club could be pretty wild on Saturday nights....I do have fond memories of our FAA
outings,the warm up hut,the old military shelving that we tore apart to get the 3'by 6'
sheets ofmetal.We rolled the front ofthe metal back and hooked a piece ofwire to the front,
then everyone that could get on,hang on,or be draggedflew down the hill.It is a wonder
that we didn't decapitate ourselves on those missiles.Someone would drive the 6-pack
truck around the road and pick us up.We made a lot of our own beer,imported it when
necessary,we had a lot ofparties with great food,looked across the inlet at Anchorage
thinking that we had it better on the Island than the folks in Anchorage.We always had
something to do and goodfolks to do it with.
Ken Odsather,from the Fire Island webpage
I used the Fire Island ski hill up to the end.The families did more sledding than skiing,but
[we]did other things that I wish we'd made a movie of....The rope tow was made by air
force personnel and was dangerous because it wouldn't shut off,so it had to be manned.We
made a skijump at the bottom of the hill and Ernie Mack was the first and last person to try
it out.As he was going down the hillfor the firstjump it came to everyone at the same time
that it may not be a good idea to have a jump at the bottom of the hill.Ernie sailed off the
jump and way into the air and kerflop --he landed perfect on the flat ground and almost
broke both legs.Mark Kelliher,from the Fire Island webpage
I was about all ofgoing on 2 when we moved out to the [Fire]Island....Life on the Island as
I remember it was a life of creativity for the workers and their families to help pass the
time....1 do remember ice skating on the rinks there and the biggest thing myfather did there
to pass the time was to rebuild hisfirst airplane out there,a Piper PA-12.He used one ofthe
empty buildings as his work shop and more than likely the help of the people that worked
out there to get the job done....We used to keep our planes tied down if Iremember right on
a runway on the beach with several other planes.We had the world in our handsfrom the
island with the planes.Ifyou wanted to go out for breakfast it was a little commute,but
Kenai,Palmer,Wasilla,Anchorage and other points were just a hop skip and a jump from
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Cultural Resource Investigations for the Fire Island Wind Power...Cook Inlet,Alaska
there.We used to fly to my grandparents then cabin,now retirement home on Wasilla lake in
the winters and land on the ice there.Dad has a great story offlying out a Christmas tree to
the island strapped to the side of our PA-12 and all of the aerodynamic controls offlight it
reeked havoc with....I do remember a kiln out there and mom pouring and making a nativity
set with the molds that were out there....The only other thing Ido remember is that we had or
at least there was a 1957 Chevrolet pickup truck that we drove on the island with the exhaust
stacks up the back of the cab.We called it the putt-putt truck because that was the sound it
made out the exhaust.Norm Odsather,from the Fire Island webpage
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