Mining for memories

July 1, 2007

By Will Elliott / Frontiersman

HATCHER PASS - Volunteer interpreter Alicia Thomas of Alaska State Parks is adept at giving tours at Independence Mine.

Visitors flock to the restored mining buildings at Independence Mine State Historical Park in the summer months and cross country skiers glide between the buildings in winter. On a recent Wednesday, Thomas and park specialist Trish Herrmann got a tour of their own from two women who lived at the mine when it was operational more than 50 years ago.

Willie Pederson of Palmer moved to the mine in the summer of 1950. Her husband was a worker at the mine, where more than 20 miles of tunnels twist through the mountains above Independence Bowl. Parks invited Pederson and Wasilla resident Linda Bergman, who went to school at the mine that year, to tour the area's restoration efforts and share stories of life there when it was a busy mining town.

When Pederson and her husband arrived, a friend secured them a spot in the mine's apartment house, usually reserved for permanent staff.

&#8220We were lucky to stay there,” she said. &#8220When they showed us the shack in Boomtown, I was ready to take my baby and go back to Wisconsin.”

Boomtown was the community below the mine where miners with families lived. Pederson's apartment was better real estate, closer to the cookhouse, store and other community buildings. Still, it was a long way to Palmer. There was no phone line out of the mountains and in the winter the road was often snowed in.

&#8220We ordered groceries once a week from Palmer,” Pederson said. &#8220If we couldn't find what we needed, we did without.”

Though Pederson had a flush toilet and running water, doing laundry was a chore, especially with a baby.

&#8220I'd plow through the snow with a bundle of laundry in one hand and a diaper pail in the other,” Pederson said. She was walking to the cookhouse where the boilers were.

But life wasn't that hard, Pederson said. &#8220I was younger then.”

Some things haven't changed. The gold is still there. High costs killed mining at Independence, not low returns, Pederson said.

The squirrels remain too.

A parka squirrel challenged the group as they toured the empty cookhouse. Pederson clapped her hands and the squirrel spun out on the polished concrete as it rushed to get away.

&#8220They're trouble,” Pederson said.

Pederson showed Parks staff the cellar where she had stored 100 pounds of potatoes, beets and carrots for the winter. Parka squirrels raided her stores and the vegetables had to be thrown away.

&#8220I'd thought, ‘now we're set for the winter,'” she said of the food storage. &#8220The squirrels had other ideas.”

Bergman wandered through the passages of her own memory as she toured the mine's main bunkhouse. She attended school somewhere in the building, Bergman said, but after more than 50 years it was hard to say exactly where. After the mine closed the building had been redecorated as a ski lodge before being abandoned and eventually turned over to State Parks in the 1980s.

The three-decade interim was hard on the mine. Avalanches destroyed many of the mountainside structures, and in the bowl looters and vandals took a toll. State Parks has since repaired a great deal of the damage to some buildings, and sites like Pederson's old apartment have been partially renovated with original fixtures and furnishings.

Recovering the knowledge of people like Pederson and Bergman is an important part of restoration, Herrmann said.

&#8220It's invaluable. It's what people come up to learn, and what better way to learn it,” she said. &#8220You can read about this, but it's just not the same.”

Pederson thought a third component of life at the mind ought to be preserved - the wild quality of the Independence and Little Susitna River valleys. Ski resort development is planned there and the Mat-Su Borough's most recent suitor planned to build condominiums and shopping centers to offset the costs of running a ski area.

&#8220It should be left in its natural state for perpetuity,” Pederson said. &#8220Future generations should be able to enjoy it as we can.”

Pederson said those qualities were what drew her to Alaska in the first place.

&#8220I was sick of the hum-drum in Wisconsin,” she said.

Looking back, both she and Bergman are proud of their time spent at Independence and the adventurous lifestyle they experienced there.

&#8220This is the Last Frontier, and we got in on the ground floor,” Pederson said.

Contact Will Elliott at 352-2252 or will.elliott@frontiersman.com.