The top 10 Frontiersman.com stories from 2015

WASILLA — Online stories often take on a life of their own, “going viral” in minutes to spread news across the region, state and beyond. More than 1.7 million visitors came to the site in 2015, with year-end totals approaching four million page views.

The most viewed stories of the year were almost exclusively public safety stories — fires, crime and tragedy — which demonstrates the immediate nature of online news. Many readers turned to the web first to learn about significant breaking news in our area, including more than 60 percent who viewed frontiersman.com through mobile devices via the Frontiersman’s expanded mobile platform. These “trending” stories weren’t necessarily the biggest or the best of the year, but they were the ones that resonated most with online readers. Here are the 10 frontiersman.com stories that generated the most page views in 2015:

1. 6,500-acre Sockeye Fire destroys homes, threatens Willow

By Brian O’Connor

By far the most viewed story of the year was the Frontiersman’s account of the outbreak and spread of the Sockeye Fire near Willow. The fire broke out in mid-June and the story — which was updated several times to reflect the changing nature of the threat to life and property — drew massive attention from online readers over the next week. The fire — which was allegedly set by two Anchorage residents who lost control of a burn pile — eventually burned about 7,000 acres of forest and destroyed about two dozen homes. Many burned-out residents vowed to rebuild, and by the end of the year efforts were ongoing to replace much of what was lost.

2. Wasilla hunter killed in Pioneer Peak fall

By Brian O’Connor

Roy Roth was a nationally-known hunter and a vital member of the Palmer community, many of whom learned of his Oct. 5 death the following day at frontiersman.com. There, readers learned that Roth, a 49-year-old father and youth sports coach, had fallen while sheep hunting on Pioneer Peak. Readers from several foreign countries and most U.S. states logged on to read the tragic news of a life cut far too short.

3. Love triangle turns tragic outside Meadow Lakes school

By Brian O’Connor

A tragic stabbing that ended with one man in jail and another in the hospital drew readers in droves on Oct. 30, one day after a man was found bleeding at a nearby fire station with more than a dozen stab wounds. According to state troopers, a man waited outside the school the previous night to ambush a janitor accused of sleeping with the man’s wife — herself a teacher at the school. The alleged attacker, 33-year-old Nickolas Douck, is currently facing attempted murder charges.

4. Arrests net $20k in cash, drugs

By Brian O’Connor

Stories about drugs were among the most viewed of the year, including a story from May 14 detailing a drug bust in Wasilla that resulted in charges against a 19-year-old Anchorage woman and a 21-year-old Wasilla man. Troopers said they used an undercover operation to buy drugs from Vinny Yacovelli and Caitlin Horton on at least three occasions, which led to the duo’s arrest near Nunley Park in Wasilla.

5. Hostile crowd greets VA secretary at Wasilla meeting

By Brian O’Connor

When Veterans Affairs secretary Robert McDonald visited the Menard Center in Wasilla on Aug. 13, he found a full house waiting to meet him. Veterans airing their grievances with the VA aired a laundry list of complaints against the department, which McDonald’s promised to look into. The online story also generated substantial buzz, one of five in 2015 to generate more than 11,000 pageviews.

6. Two shot in Wasilla

By Matt Tunseth

The late-night shooting of two Wasilla men was big news the morning of Oct. 17 when it broke on frontiersman.com. The shooting took place just after midnight on a Saturday morning, drawing a large police response to a residence on North Charley Drive. Both men survived the shooting, and troopers said they were investigating the case. As of year’s end, no arrests had been made in the case.

7. Family business closing after 30 years in the Valley

By Caitlin Skvorc

For three decades, Peking Garden was a Palmer institution, so it’s no wonder its closure drew so many readers online. The seventh-most viewed story of the year told of the Tzou family — Jack and Tracy — and their decision to close the restaurant after feeding generations of Palmer residents.

8. Man’s body pulled from Matanuska River

By Matt Tunseth

Alaska State Troopers pulled a man’s body from the Matanuska River on Aug. 30, the culmination of two days of stories that drew significant attention online. An investigation revealed a 22-year-old Palmer man intentionally drove his car off a high bluff near Sherrod Elementary School the previous day.

9. No charges in fatal crash that killed 3

By Heather Resz

In a story that first appeared online May 18, he Palmer district attorney Roman Kalytiak announced he wouldn’t file charges in a May 3 crash that killed three motorcyclists on the Glenn Highway. Kalytiak said there was no evidence of drug, alcohol or phone use by drivers involved in the crash. The wreck took place when the driver of a pick-up truck stopped to make a left turn on the highway and was struck from behind by a van. That collision forced the truck into the path of a four motorcyclists — three who died and another who was uninjured.

10. Family, friends celebrate a life cut short

By Brian O’Connor

Evidence of the popularity of Roy Roth is seen in the fact that two of the top 10 stories at frontiersman.com this year dealt with his untimely death. An Oct. 8 story about Roth included details about his life, including his larger-than-life personality and his love of hunting, family and his community. It also detailed the account of a makeshift memorial placed on Pioneer Peak by his hunting companion, Colt Foster, who was with Roth when he fell to his death.