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Nellie McCullagh feeds a pen-raised fox on her family’s farm in Kachemak Bay, in 1922. (Photo courtesy of the Peggy Arness Collection)

Life

Mostly separate lives: The union and disunion of Nellie and Keith — Part 2

By this point their lives were beginning to diverge.

Nellie Dee “Jean” Crabb as a young woman. (Public photo from ancestry.com)

Life

Mostly separate lives: The union and disunion of Nellie and Keith — Part 1

It was an auspicious start, full of good cheer and optimism.

Mitch Gyde drowned not far from this cabin, known as the Cliff House, on upper Tustumena Lake in September 1975. (Photo courtesy of the Fair Family Collection)

Life

The 2 most deadly years — Part 8

The two most deadly years for people on or near Tustumena Lake were 1965 and 1975

Spencer Linderman was a game biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish & Game in 1975 when he and pilot Robin Johnson crashed while flying a goat survey in a glacial valley near upper Tustumena Lake. Neither man survived. (Photo from a eulogy in the Homer News)

Life

The 2 most deadly years — Part 7

The two most deadly years for people on or near Tustumena Lake were 1965 and 1975

The mouth of Indian Creek in the spring, when the water is shallow and clear. By summertime, it runs faster and is more turbid. The hand and trekking pole at lower left belong to Jim Taylor, who provided this photograph.

Life

The 2 most deadly years — Part 6

The two most deadly years for people on or near Tustumena Lake were 1965 and 1975

Map courtesy of Kerri Copper This map of Tustumena Lake was created in 1975 by John Dolph as he planned an Alaska adventure — and delayed honeymoon — for himself and his wife, Kerri. On the upper end of the lake, Dolph had penciled in two prospective camping sites.

Life

The 2 most deadly years — Part 5

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The two most deadly years for people on or near Tustumena Lake were 1965 and 1975.…

Photo by Clark Fair, 1990 This is the cabin on Pipe Creek, along the north shore of Tustumena Lake, where Harold Galliett sought shelter after surviving a commercial airlines crash in the lake in September 1965.

Life

The 2 most deadly years — Part 4

The two most deadly years for people on or near Tustumena Lake were 1965 and 1975

Harold Galliett, the sole survivor of a 1965 Cordova Airlines crash into Tustumena Lake, is seen here raking his lawn in 1958. (Photo courtesy of the Galliett Family Collection)

Life

The 2 most deadly years — Part 3

The two most deadly years for people on or near Tustumena Lake were 1965 and 1975

This is the 42-foot Aero Grand Commander, owned by Cordova Airlines, that crashed into Tustumena Lake in 1965. (Photo courtesy of the Galliett Family Collection)

Life

The 2 most deadly years — Part 2

Records indicate that the two most deadly years for people on or near Tustumena Lake were 1965 and…

Jane Fair (standing, wearing white hat) receives help with her life jacket from Ron Hauswald prior to the Fair and Hauswald families embarking on an August 1970 cruise with Phil Ames on Tustumena Lake. Although conditions were favorable at first, the group soon encountered a storm that forced them ashore. (Photo courtesy of the Fair Family Collection)

Life

The 2 most deadly years — Part 1

To newcomers, residents and longtime users, this place can seem like a paradise. But make no mistake: Tustumena…

In 1954, David Nutter (right) and his younger half-brother Frank Gwartney were ready for their first day of school in Sitka. (Photo courtesy of the Nutter Family Collection)

Life

Finding Mister Nutter — Part 6

Chasing down the facts about Warren Nutter was never going to be simple

This photograph shows hunter/trapper Warren Melville Nutter near the lake at the foot of what was almost certainly Skilak Glacier, circa late 1930s. (Photo courtesy of the Nutter Family Collection)

Life

Finding Mister Nutter — Part 5

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Warren Melville Nutter spent the final 32 years of his life on the Kenai Peninsula, working…

This photo of Warren Melville Nutter, holding a dead juvenile bald eagle that he shot for the bounty, appeared in the May 1938 edition of The Alaska Sportsman Magazine. The photo was probably taken near the mouth of Hidden Creek on Skilak Lake.

Life

Finding Mister Nutter — Part 4

Nutter had two trap-line cabins

This is a display of some of the hunting items that Warren Melville Nutter carried when he moved to Alaska in the summer of 1930. (Photo courtesy of the Nutter Family Collection)

Life

Finding Mister Nutter — Part 3

For the first 40 years of his life, most of Nutter’s experiences fit neatly into two categories: “Education”…

Gilbert Witt, pictured here in about 1930, was the troubled first husband of Muriel Grunert, who later married Warren Melville Nutter. (Public photo from ancestry.com)

Life

Finding Mister Nutter — Part 2

Warren Melville Nutter — known by many residents of the Kenai Peninsula as “William” or “Bill” — came…

In the Hope Cemetery, the grave marker for Warren Melville Nutter contains errors in his birth year and his age. The illustration, however, captures his adventurous spirit. (Photo courtesy of findagrave.com)

Life

Finding Mister Nutter — Part 1

It turned out that there were at least four other Nutters on the Kenai in the first half…

During the brief time (1933-34) that Bob Huttle (right) spent on Tustumena Lake, he documented a tremendous number of structures and described many of the people he met there. One of the men he traveled with frequently was John “Frenchy” Cannon (left), seen here at the Upper Bear Creek Cabin. (Photo courtesy of the Robert Huttle Collection)

Life

Cosmopolitan Tustumena — Part 2

Many individuals came to and departed from the Tustumena scene

Ole Frostad, pictured here in the 1930s, and his brother Erling lived seasonally and trapped at Tustumena Lake. They also fished commercially in the summers out of Kenai. (Photo courtesy of the Gary Titus Collection)

Life

Cosmopolitan Tustumena — Part 1

Few people these days would associate the word “cosmopolitan” with Tustumena Lake

A lone hooligan fisherman heads upstream on the lower Kenai River to try his luck from Cunningham Memorial Park. (Clark Fair photo)

Life

States of Mind: The death of Ethen Cunningham — Part 6

And thus, except for fading headlines, the Franke name all but disappeared from the annals of Kenai Peninsula…

Pictured in an online public portrait is Anthony J. Dimond, the Anchorage judge who presided over the sentencing hearing of William Franke, who pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Ethen Cunningham in January 1948.

Life

States of Mind: The death of Ethen Cunningham — Part 5

A hearing was held to determine the length of William Franke’s prison sentence