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[OM] Charlie River crash

Subject: [OM] Charlie River crash
From: Mike Lazzari <watershed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2017 20:44:26 -0700
We hosted the neighborhood potluck on the 4th and a good time was had by all. Our neighbor Yolanda's father and his female companion were visiting from Argentina so we served up fresh wild sockeye to give them a taste of PacNW tradition. Anyway after we got done lamenting the state of the country on this birthday I was able to broach the subject of the crash with my neighbor Steve over a few beers. Turns out Steve was intimately familiar with the story and he was more that happy to talk about it. He spent 25 years with the NPS at Yukon Charlie and Gates of the Arctic. He was very familiar with the crash site and had visited it on numerous occasions. Besides floating the Charlie many times he and a friend had mushed up the Charlie in winter and stayed in the cabins. Apparently the cabins are easy enough to find since they are located in obvious places like the intersection of a tributary. Mostly they traveled by helicopter for work since the place is the size of Wales. Steve said that they were able to deviate from their course when in the area of the crash site to look for signs of the silk parachutes of the missing crew members. No evidence was ever found.

When John McPhee's book _Coming into the Country_ was published in the late '70's it caused quite a stir locally. There was a conflict with the NPS mandate to preserve as wilderness//and remove man-made structures//and the locals who wanted to preserve the wilderness cabins. As justification they pointed to the survival story. This is just the short version. It was much more complicated. A good part of Steve's career was sorting out a compromise. As it stands my understanding is that the cabins are historic structures but aren't maintained. Most of the roofs are gone now and a few were destroyed by forest fires.

Anyway, interesting history.

M

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