MOOSE FEST TURNS WILD

TALKEETNA — A Nikiski man was swept away in the Talkeetna River after what is normally a laid-back family event turned ugly.

At 3:27 p.m. Sunday, troopers were called to the Talkeetna River near the Alaska Railroad’s trestle bridge. Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said people had been jumping off the bridge all day, despite trooper warnings.

“Our trooper went out with a railroad guy and told some people, ‘Hey, stop jumping. Do not jump. It’s a bad current,’” Peters said.

Nobody appeared to be listening.

Shortly before troopers got the 911 call, Jacob Larson, 22, of Nikiski, and two friends made the jump. Larson was swept away in the current, Peters said. His friends chased him down the riverbank at some point running into a group of girls, who called 911.

Larson, “went around a bend and out of sight and no one has seen him since,” Peters said Monday afternoon.

Mahay’s Riverboat Service was on scene within 10 minutes, bringing two boats to help in the search. Peters said searchers — troopers, the National Park Service, and Mat-Su Search and Rescue — were still in the area Monday afternoon. A plane, a helicopter, ATVs and multiple boats have all been put to use in the effort.

Peters said the bridge is on the Talkeetna, just upstream from its confluence with the Susitna River.

On Sunday, while troopers were searching for Larson, Peters said folks in town for the Moose Dropping Festival started getting out of hand.   

“(Trooper Andy Adams) was dealing with one thing and a guy ended up getting head-butted in the face,” Peters said. Troopers assisting with the search “had to get downtown to help Trooper Adams deal with all the mayhem that was going on.”

She said there were drunken fights downtown and a call about a man the caller thought was dead, but actually had just passed out drunk on a porch. Along the river there was a roving band of about 10 men, suspected to be Anchorage residents and possibly gang members, going from campsite to campsite looking for other men to fight with. 

“They would jump out of the woods and the brush and pretty much start punching and pummeling everyone,” Peters said.

She said troopers suspect the gang was busy and started piecing together what was happening on the riverbank after noticing that almost every man they talked to on the riverbank appeared to have some sort of fat lip, bruise or cut.

Peters said that these assaults are totally out of character for the Moose Dropping Festival, a yearly event organized as a fundraiser for the Talkeetna Historical Society.

“I was there Saturday with my kids and I didn’t see anyone that I could label as intoxicated,” Peters said. “Saturday night, that became a different story.”

The phone at the historical society wasn’t answered Monday afternoon.

A voice message directed calls about the festival to organizer Bronn Salmon, whose phone went to voicemail on the first ring and whose message inbox was full.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.