Flag stop gets residents, visitors back to nature

TALKEETNA -- The Hurricane Turn flag stop service, provided by the Alaska Railroad, is the last flag-stop service in the United States and one of the last flag stop services in the world. While some financial issues almost closed the service down a year ago, the railroad decided to keep the public service going; the Hurricane Turn service is the only way to get into a 58-mile stretch that is not accessible by road.

"I'm glad they're still running this thing," said Mike Henderson, a fly fisher from Montana that uses the train to get to a number of good holes. He and his father and two brothers have been coming up to Alaska for eight years, and a friend owns a homestead along Hurricane Gulch and allows them to fish and stay at his cabin. The conductor knows what milepost to drop Henderson off at, but the group will have to flag the train down with a white flag and impeccable timing in order to catch a ride home.

The Hurricane Turn train goes from milepost 226 in Talkeetna to milepost 281 at Hurricane Gulch and back, Thursday through Sunday, during the summer months. The cost is anywhere from $15 to $33 one way, depending on how far a person goes before being dropped off. A number of Talkeetna visitors just take the train for the ride, viewing the nature that they would have had to bushwhack through to see otherwise. Some, like Henderson, use the train to get to hard-to-reach fishing spots. But there are also a number of riders who use the train as their mode of transportation to the outside world -- homesteaders that live along the Hurricane Turn route.

"There are more cabins than you realize," said Kathy Zeroth, who lived with her husband, Leeroy, at a homestead from 1989 to 2000. While some health issues have forced them to move into Talkeetna; Zeroth said her heart is still out at the homestead.

"It was a big challenge for us to move back into town," she said. "I used to live here year round, now I only spend one or two months in the summer."

The Zeroths built a cabin on their homestead utilizing the Tundra Express delivery service, a flatbed truck built to ride along the railway with a boom on it, and the railroad itself, which also delivered materials. The couple would take the train into town every couple of months, jump into their car they left parked in Talkeetna and run to Anchorage for supplies and a little bit of entertainment.

"You tried to fit everything in when you went to town," Zeroth said.

To allow the homesteaders to get into Anchorage during the winter months, the train runs from Hurricane Gulch to Anchorage on the first Thursday of the month, then returns to Hurricane Gulch the following Sunday. The cost is a little more, but a booklet of tickets is available at a cheaper rate. Keeping the cost down is especially vital to some homesteaders living along the turn; there isn't much in the way of full-time work outside of running your own home.

"Odd jobs popped up," said LeeRoy Zeroth. "But you didn't count on it."

The train runs with two diesel cars during the summer; one car during the winter. For more information on this and other Alaska railroad routes and specials, call 1-800-544-0552, or visit the Web site at www.akrr.com.