Jake Blanc
(Continued from Page 10)
and there is a reason; I do it
slowly, over alder and cottonwood.
It takes two weeks.”
When we returned to visit a
week later Jake and his good
friend, Mr. Sutliff, were installing
a handsome thermopane picture
window in the kitchen overlook
ing the cove. With a little help
from friends they got it into the
prepared frame and trimly caulk
ed. Jake Blanc now has an unob
structed view of utter beauty,
whatever the season.
We built a driftwood fire on the
beach and, content in the company
of this gentle gentleman, seventy
two years young, listened to the
story of days long gone but re
membered with humor and clarity.
“Our family came from Minne
sota to Washington state in Feb
ruary of 1903. We settled in a
little place about sixty miles north
of Seattle. I used to go up into the
Olympic mountains with my dog
and hunt wildcats and cougar,
but the dog got so old he wasn’t
much use. About 1925 I thought
I would go to Alaska although I
didn’t know what I wanted to do
or where I wanted to go. So I
bought a ticket from Seattle as
far as the ship went, which was
Seward. At first I worked on a
cannery tender out of there with
a man named Joe McGill, but I
couldn’t stand it more than three
weeks—That is a dirty piece of
water and I don’t care if I never
see it again. Then I lived around
thirty miles out of Seward. I trap
ped for a while and placer mined
out of Hope on the Kenai penin
sula at Mill and Quartz ‘Cricks.’
At Mill ‘Grick’ we thought we
had hit real pay dirt but the gold
gave oat pretty soon. It was a good
life, hard to beat. Once up on the
Kenai I didn’t see a soul for fif
teen months, but I had my dog.
“So many of the people I knew
in those days are gone now; it
doesn’t seem possible I’m still
around.
“We used to have a good time
wools and couldn’t find his way
back. An owd stated hooting; then
we could hear Charlie. The owl
paid wlioo, whoo and Charlie call
ed back, It's me, Charlie Monahan,
loot in the woods.’ They called
back and forth to each other for a
while and then we went out and
brought Charlie home.
together. I rememner once up in
the Kenai four of us had a party
one night. We were camped out
in the woods and it was pitch dark.
There was a man named Charlie
Monahan with us and he was pretty
drunk. He wandered out in those
LOU VEERMAN i
Agent I
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“There was one nne woman in
Seward, ‘Alaska Nellie’ Long. That
woman wouldn’t turn away any
body who needed something to
eat. She was a wonderful little
person. She wrote a book about
her life in Alaska that I read while
it was still in long hand. Once she
come up to my cabin on Long
‘Crick’ and she wasn’t there a min
ute before she started to cook. She
thought we needed some meat so
tihe went up op the ridge and shot
a moose. She packed out a lot of
it too—she could pack sixty to
seventy pounds on her back.
“Dangerous experiences? Well,
once I went down to a lake to drag
up a moose my partner and I had
killed. A big brown bear came
along and I climbed the first tree
I could reach. My little dog sat at
the bottom of the tree wishing he
could climb too. I shouted to that
bear to go away and he just looked
at me, but he finally went away.
I roped a yearling moose once and
tried to take him across a little
glacier ‘crick’ to my cabin. I chok
ed it up and it fell on the ice.
When it got up it was the fighting
est animal you have ever seen, and
dangerous. I had to let him go.”
Jake Blanc came to Kodiak on
March 11, 1940, managed the long
shoremen for about nine years,
spent some time trapping fox and
weasel, owned a rooming house
which he recently sold, and finally,
about seven years ago moved to
Isthmus Cove.
He built a temporary cabin at
first on the site of the new wood
shed, then the permanent one
about five years ago. His dog,
Roseoe, half cocker, half spaniel
follows him around at his various
gardening and housekeeping activ
ities. “Roseoe is totally blind. It
happened overnight last November
and the only explanation is that
dogs can have strokes the same
as humans. He was a wonderful
hunter when he could see. Let me
show you my private duck hunting
lake.” Not far from the cabin, in
what was once a lagoon, is a
marshy pond where ducks gather
by the hundreds in the fall. “I sit
at the window and wait until the
ducks settle down; then it’s only
a short walk and an easy shot for
my dinner. Cooking? Yes I like
that. Up until four or five years
ago I cooked for hunting parties.
1 met a lot of fine people on those
trips but now days I just cook for
myself. One of the things I like
best is beaver tail—it is a real
delicacy. You skin it and bake it
in the oven and you have some
thing really delicious.”
Jake comes into town infrequent
ly, about three or four times a
year, but he keeps a home in
Kodiak for the day when he will
need to be around more people.
Now friends bring supplies to
him and visitors bring news. “You
know, I love people and I enjoy
having them come to see me.
Thank you for coming to see me.
I hope you’ll come back sometime
soon. There is one thing I wanted
to say about myself — I would
rather hurt myself than hurt some
one else. I’ve always tried to stick
by that.”
We looked out to the mountains,
to the marsh and meadow and the '
quiet shore, then at Jake Blanc
and we wondered how better to
say the words, “Thank you!”
Bowling
Ladies Scratch Trio
Week of June 21
W L
Gems 19 9
Rins 16 12
Syns 16 12
Bips 12 16
Hubs 12 16
- Reds 9 19
Week’s high game, L. Hausman
180; series, McIntyre 499.
“It’s no wonder monkeys can be
so calm about space travel—they’re
not taxpayers.” —D. O. Flynn
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New Cartons Arrived
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New York Salad
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