Coal Miner’s Ball is April 25

SUTTON — The 29th annual Coal Miner’s Ball begins at 4 p.m., April 25 at the Alpine Inn, Mile 61 Glenn Hwy., Sutton. This celebration, in conjunction with the nonprofit Coal Miner’s Ball Committee, includes dinner, music, a raffle, a silent auction, entertainment and celebration of past and present inductees to the Alpine Historical Society’s Coal Miner’s Hall of Fame.

Tickets are $12, include dinner and are available at the Alpine Inn in advance and on the day of the event.

Opening ceremonies begin at 4:45 p.m. and dinner is from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Proceeds from the raffle and silent auction support the operation and maintenance of the Alpine Historical Park, Mile 61.5 Glenn Hwy. Raffle tickets are $5 each, or five for $20. First prize is $500 cash; second is a $279 package of meat from Mr. Prime Beef; and third is a $100 Fred Meyer gift card.

Six people will be inducted into the Alpine Historical Society’s Coal Miner’s Hall of Fame during the 29th annual Coal Miner’s Ball Saturday.

Inductees are:

Robert “Bob” Bettini

Robert “Bob” Bettini was born in 1921 in Cle Elum, Washington. He worked in the coal mines of Ronald, Washington. In the mid-1940s, Bettini and his father drove to Alaska to hunt, and visit his sister, Dorothy Saxton, who lived in Palmer with her husband Al. Bettini never returned to Washington but stayed to work underground in the Jonesville and Premier coal mines.

Bettini met Bonnie Moore in Palmer and they were married in 1949. They resided in downtown Palmer and had a daughter, Cindy. After leaving coal mining employment in the early 1950s, Bettini worked in the Eklutna power plant, but returned to Sutton to attend social events. Cindy recalls many Turkey Shoots at the Sutton Community Center and going to the Alpine Inn for a beer.

While working in Eklutna, Bettini volunteered to untangle a moose that was caught in some power lines. Both Bettini and the moose tumbled down the mountain, leaving him unconscious. Bettini was flown to Portland where he slowly regained consciousness and had extensive rehabilitation. He recovered to return to Alaska for employment and a full life of fishing and hunting.

Bettini enjoyed coaching the Little League baseball teams and supplied each player with a wooden bat. He retired from delivery driving at Elmendorf in 1977 and he and Bonnie moved to Rocky Lake in Big Lake. He died in 1981.

Owen John William Butcher

Owen John William Butcher was born in 1918 and came to Alaska from Montana in his early 20s. In the summer of 1941 he met Helen Hendrickson in Sitka while he was working at the power plant on Japonski Island. After marrying Helen, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 and was sent to Fort Richardson, Anchorage for basic training. Following the training he joined the Enlisted Reserve Corps and was sent to Jonesville as a fireman at the coal power plant. His wife and daughter, Merle, joined him in Sutton. Many people did not know Army Corps members were working in Sutton because they were not required to wear uniforms. The Butcher family moved to Fairbanks and started a construction company in 1947. He worked mining gold from 1955-1957 and died at the age of 39 from a heart attack at the gold mine in 1957.

Nile Theodore

‘Ted’ Deland

Nile Theodore “Ted” Deland was born in Wisconsin in 1928. He moved to Palmer with his family when he was about 7 years old, as part of the New Deal Federal Emergency Relief Administration’s Colony Project in 1935. Deland was educated in Palmer, joined the U.S. Navy and served as a cook. He married Gloria Lepak, a Colonist from Palmer, in 1952. Together they had two children, Ben and Terri.

Deland worked in the Jonesville coal mine for seven or eight years during the 1950s and early 1960s. He was a hard laborer and his son recalls him saying he loaded the coal cars. Coal mining was a high-paying job and Ben remembers his father being paid in silver dollars, which Ben enjoyed counting. After working at Jonesville, Deland joined his friend Leroy Johnson and delivered fuel along the Glenn Highway. He enjoyed flying small planes, hunting, fishing, gardening and cooking local foods. Gloria said he was a good provider and loved being with his family and friends. He died in 2010.

Herbert Nels

‘Herb’ Kopperud

Herbert Nels “Herb” Kopperud was born in Lake Preston, South Dakota in 1912 and raised on a large farm. Kopperud moved to Alaska in 1938 and worked a variety of jobs for the Colonists. He bought his first truck in 1940 and began hauling materials and equipment to and from the coal mines at Jonesville, Eska, Premier, Buffalo and Castle Mountain. He delivered coal to Mat-Su Valley businesses and homes that used it as a heating source and brought explosives and equipment to the mines. In the late 1950s Kopperud and Wes Edwards worked together strip coal mining. Kopperud’s trucks were also used in gold mining, coal mine reclamation, road construction and logging operations. Kopperud married Claire Lewis, a Valley nurse, in 1940. Together they had four sons: Leif, Noel, Ross and Karl. Kopperud happily incorporated his children into his work life. He was alert to opportunities, steadfast and very hard working. The Alaska State Legislature honored his life and contributions as a true Alaskan Pioneer in 1992, which is also the year of his death.

Leif Lewis Kopperud

Leif Lewis Kopperud was born Aug. 29, 1942, and raised in Palmer with his three younger brothers. From an early age he and his brothers accompanied their father, Herb, while he worked the Kopperud Trucking and Construction business. He remembers bouncing along the then-gravel Glenn Highway to and from the Richardson Highway. When he was 12 years old, he recalled, his dad kept him out of school to help remove the railroad tracks between Premier and Buffalo mines. As a teenager he changed tires at the strip mine. He also remembers that the Sutton coal miners were very hard workers who worked long hours mining. In their “free” time they built innovative homes, hunted, fished, and tended productive gardens. In the 1950s, Kopperud said, the Jonesville baseball team had outstanding ball players who presented a great challenge for the Palmer teams. After high school and service in the U.S. Navy, Kopperud became an agent and operator of a trucking and construction business, and sometimes worked with his father. Kopperud worked on rebuilding parts of the Glenn Highway and he worked on a coal mine reclamation at Buffalo, Premier, Eska and Jonesville mines. He enjoys learning history and has a wealth of knowledge on surviving and thriving in rural Alaska, which he enjoys sharing.

Francis James

‘Jim’ Ord

Francis James “Jim” Ord was born in Penshaw, England in April of 1912. His family of five immigrated to the U.S. in 1913, settling in the town of Roslyn, Washington. His father, who was a coal miner in England, went to work in the coal mines around Roslyn and Ord grew up there. Ord began work as a an underground coal miner in Roslyn in 1928 and, in 1949, he, his wife Mary and their children, Jim and Geri, moved to Suntrana, near Healy.

Ord worked at the coal mine there from January 1950 to September 1951. The family then moved to Sutton for mine work and schooling the children. Ord again worked underground coal mining at Jonesville Mine, and Mary worked at the Eska Post Office. Ord was a miner at the Jonesville Mine from 1951 to 1958. He was also the financial secretary for the local chapter of the United Mine Workers union. Ord’s children said that he didn’t talk much about his job except to tell them that he “liked the work.”

He continued working as a miner in various mines until he retired in 1974 and moved back to Roslyn. Ord died in 1985.

For more information on the Coal Miners Ball, contact 745-9955.