~  Tatalina AFS Sledding Photos and Memories  ~

Courtesy of Phillip M. Tackett - Assigned to Tatalina AFS from Jan. 1983 to Oct. 1983

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[Right] The Tow Rope shed in the foreground, the "Red Apple" Ford Truck (the only vehicle allowed to be used for recreational purposes), Takotna Mountain in the background.

ith base camp in the background. The sharp turn half way down was difficult on a sled.

[Photos courtesy of Phillip M. Tackett]

[Right] The sun sets over the dirt berms (or ramps) near the bottom of The Hill.

Phil Tackett's Memories of the Tatalina AFS Ski and Sledding Hill

I was one of the last Airmen assigned to Tatalina AFS, where I spent about 10 ½ months as the new civilian stationed site was being built.  

I do not recall anyone skiing 3 Mile hill while I was there, but I do recall some reference to the site.  It was on the road to Takotna village.  I do, though, remember the sled hill with great fondness.  I can recall one particular cold winter day when, for the first time since my arrival Alaska, I experienced a real taste of just how beautiful and fun the Great White North can really be.

Growing up in Michigan I had spent many a bitter winter day on local sled hills and highway overpasses with makeshift sleds, but when my buddies suggested we shake off the winter blues by hitting the hill with skis and toboggans in hand I knew I was in for something really cool.

After a couple of the Sergeants spent some frustrating time getting the engine for the tow rope cranked up we spent all day (which equated to about 3 hours that time of year) running down, and being pulled up, that hill.  Sometimes we would go down one or two at a time, but the most fun was had when we would ride 5 or 6 to a toboggan.  The hill at Tatalina made this particularly challenging.  You would start with a 5 foot vertical drop and, if you could not expertly steer the sled, end the slope at a rather abrupt earth berm and a thick tree line.

Let me say now that there is a sound reason that most locally approved hills do not allow multiple riders.  As some of you may know, you do not want to be the first rider on a packed sled hurdling toward danger.  If you have to eject from the ride in a hurry, the person in the front often has precious few seconds to roll to safety.  Needless to say, our group of young, fearless, and in some cases drunken, Airmen spent a good part of the day playing ‘chicken’ and seeing who would stay with the sled longest.  On one of the last rides down the hill one of the younger kamikazes did not make it off the sled in time and was launched over the beam into the trees from where we heard a shattering ‘crack’. 

To this day I still believe that the only reason he was unharmed when we reached him is that he was totally limp from one to many beers.

I think we only got one more chance to hit the hill that winter, but outside of spending a night checking in dog teams for the Iditarod, and maybe the midnight softball game, no other memory of my time in Alaska stands out in my mind more than that day on the hill. 

I hope to get back that way one day.

Associated Facts (as I remember them):

§    Author, Phil Tackett - Assigned to Tatalina AFS from January 1983 through October 1983 as a Radar Operator and Weapons Technician.

§    I do not believe there was a tow rope at 3 mile hill, but there was a diesel powered tow rope at the sledding hill, which doubled as a short ski run. The rope was slow, but had tons of pull.

§   There was plenty of ski and sledding equipment made available by the Air Force.

§    The tram was no longer being used by the time I arrived.

§     I believe there were some cross country trails around the area as well. 

~  Tatalina AFS 1974-75 Pictures and Memories  ~

Courtesy of Airman Dennis Tatman

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Tubing

Reeve Air

Dennis Tatman's Memories of the Tatalina AFS Ski and Sledding Hill

I was so glad to find your website. These pics are from 1974-75, I was still an airmen, but full of life. With the help of a lot of great men we took to Alaska like a storm. I was in the motor pool maint. So everything that was broken we fixed.

First was the ski hill, which had no lift, so we pulled the unit from the old Tram and got it running. We poured a concrete slab on the top of ski hill, set the trans unit and motor. The building was next, followed by poles down the hill. We had to order the rope, thank you special services. The time came to connect the rope, but no one knew how to splice. After lots of beer we finally made it happen. The rope tow was awesome, just had to get the right speed. I need to give special credit to Charles Trap, Steve Ayat, James Black and Ron Hawkins.

As the months went by we added 2 recreation vehicles, the dodge 6X and the chev pu. People could check them out to go to Takotna or to haul the boats to the river at the fuel landing. We added 2 boats with brand new motors, thank you base commander. The HTT jeep was a creation from the old scrap yard down by the dump .It was used by 3 of us to help people get around.

More on the ski hill. My first pic is a story all its own. This is me holding the first snowboard that i know of ever .It was created by Steve Ayat of Hawaii. We were both in Florida at Patrick AFB and got orders to go to Tatalina. So it was only natural to find a way to surf and we did, crazy!! Next is our dog Bilbo at the top of the ski hill. Next is tubeing, followed by Drinks at the tavern in Takona. The old Tram up to the top.  Reeve Air coming in when no one else would. I have lots more pics and stories and memories i will never forget.

Dennis Tatman

~  Tatalina Cat Skinning and Ski Area Maintenance (by Dozer) Photos and Memories  ~

Courtesy of Johnie Morris - Assigned to Tatalina AFS from Summer 1966 to Summer 1967

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I just saw the [ALSAP] web site about Tatalina AFS for the first time today and it brought back a lot of memories.

I spent my year there from summer 1966 to summer 1967 during the height of the Cold War. I thought it was a beautiful place, made a lot of friends on site and a few in McGrath and did some great hunting and fishing while there.

When the spring of 1967 rolled around, it turned out that I was the only G.I. left who had ever driven on the road to Sterling Landing over on the Kuskokwim river, so I was elected to run the lead dozer, we had Allis Chalmer HD16's, clearing the way before the spring thaw washed the entire road away.

It was simply a matter of heading the dozer into the 20-foot snowdrifts until I found where the road met the mountain then pushing the snow toward the edge until I ran out of road. For a 20 year old Cat Skinner with a broken right hand, it was a piece of cake. The medic borrowed a big ladle from the cook, wrapped my hand and arm with an ace bandage, and then taped it to my hand and arm. I bent the handle down on the end so I could grab the blade lever between the end of the ladle and my forearm and it worked quite well. If I remember correctly, it was well over 20 miles from the landing strip to the river and took a few days to clear. After the road was opened, they sent me to Elmendorf AFB to have the bone in my hand re-broken and re-set and a cast put on.

About half my time was spent maintaining that 3700 feet of slate runway and then keeping a good snow pack on it in the winter. I was the guy who first put the day-glow orange plywood tents on the runway at both ends marking the touchdown area. These things had 4 or five coats of paint and were sprinkled with glass beads while the paint was still wet so they really sparkled. The first time one of our C130 supply planes crossed the Alaska Range and saw them, they reported 4 bright-unidentified objects floating in the distance; F102's were scrambled from Elmendorf to check it out. They really rode that poor C130 pilot hard about that for quite a while.

The rest of the time I was keeping the roads around the base open. RCA kept the road to hilltop open with their bigger HD21 but once in a while I was called on to do that one also.

I kept the road to Takotna open all winter but had to turn back at the bridge because of the load limit. One Monday morning, while feeling a little nervy and still a little to drunk to be considered hung over, and knowing the ice to be a good 3 feet thick because we had been ice fishing on it the previous day, I decided to cross that river. I drove my Dozer down to the edge of the river, pointed it at the other side, raised the blade as high as possible, set the throttle at ½, put it in low gear, let out the hand clutch and jumped off and ran across the bridge and waited for it on the other bank. It came right on across with no problem so I climbed in and cleared the rest of the road into Takotna. I was feeling pretty spunky after that because I'd had a little more libation at Miller's place and didn't feel like walking so I actually drove it back across a few yards down river.

The hill where the sled is in your photo was overgrown with scrub when I got there so I cleaned it up really nice with the dozer and back dragged it and when winter came, it was a passable ski slope. When the skiers got to the bottom, I'd meet them and take them back to the top in the VW snow-go. We didn't have a towrope.

The gondola system didn't work while I was there either and there were no plans to fix it so we cut some of the cable up and made choker's out of it to use to pull the dozers out when they would get stuck in the snow.

I have quite a few photos taken while I was there and got them out to take a look. I've attached a few for your viewing pleasure.

Thanks again for the memories. This 20-year-old cat skinner is now a 59-year-old grandpa. Time flies when you're having fun. When I retire in a few more years, my wife and I plan on flying back up there.

Johnie Morris
Former Sgt. USAF
 

[Tim Kelley email excerpt to Johnie Morris]

Hey Johnie, You mentioned a "VW snow-go" used to haul skiers back up the hill. What do you mean by that? Was it a VW that was modified to have tracks? Or some custom tracked vehicle with a VW engine?
 

[Johnie's reply]

Hi Tim,
Thanks for your reply. A VW snow-go was a great little machine, I'm not sure if that was the real name but that's what we called it. The engine was in the front so the gear shift was exactly backward because all the running gear remained the same. It would go about 40 mph which seemed like a 100 out on the tundra. I drove it to McGrath quite a bit. I've attached a picture [see above]. Sorry, but Sgt. Dean, Me, and Teaque are blocking most of the snow-go. In this photo we are returning from McGrath. We had stayed the night because we had spent a little too long sitting at the bar in Jack McGuires Tading Post and if I remember correctly, Jack had more or less insisted. That is the base of Takotna Mountain in the background. If you have the resources, you should really research old Jack, he had a colorful and rather checkered background but he was a hell of a guy! He was in his 70's back then but was built like a bear and tough as nails. He'd been in Alaska for years and acted as guide for European Royalty when they came to Alaska to hunt. He had old newspaper clippings tacked up all over the place with photos.
take care,
jm

~  PHOTOS and DOCUMENTS  ~

(All Courtesy of The Online Air-Defense Radar Museum, www.radomes.org/museum/)

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The document on the left is a page from a Febrary 1980 "Welcome to Tatalina" pamphlet.  The ski slope, rope tow and sledding are mentioned under the "Recreation" section.

The aerial photo on the right shows the Lower Camp and the road leading to the radar installations at Top Camp on the top of Takotna Mountain.  As with many remote Alaska Cold War radar sites, they had a tram to moved supplies up the mountain.  The tram can be seen in this picture.

On the right is a stark shot of White Alice communication dishes and radomes in the distance.  Many people once lived here.

Keeping the road open to the top of the mountain had its challenging moments.

At right is a good shot of a couple of the tram towers near the top of the mountain. 

(Right) A 2001 view of the weather station on top of Takotna Mountain and the Lower Camp site below.  The road can be seen leading to the airstrip.  A road leads on from there to the Kuskokwim River.