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Virginia Walters (Courtesy photo)

Life

Life in the Pedestrian Lane: It’s a rank choice

In a little more than three weeks we will be voting again for state and national legislators and…

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Life

Minister’s Message: Experiments in faith

Here’s the experiment: resist the suspicion that prayer is just a bunch of empty religious talk

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…

Baisden family dog, Tug, is photographed in this undated photo. (Photo courtesy Rhonda Baisden)

Opinion

Opinion: Ode to a good boy

The reality of saying goodbye hit us like a freight train

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Life

Minister’s Message: How to stop ‘stinking thinking’ and experience true life

Breaking free from “stinking thinking” requires an intentional shift in who or what we allow to control our…

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

Nick Varney

Life

Unhinged Alaska: Memories from the last great non hunt

I’m sure the regulations must be much simpler by now

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

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Life

Minister’s Message: Living in the community of faith

Being part of the community of faith is a refreshing blessing

Virginia Walters (Courtesy photo)

Life

Life in the Pedestrian Lane: Aging gracefully

I had a birthday this past week.

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…

Rev. Meredith Harber enjoys a s’more on a fall day in Alaska. (Photo by Meredith Harber/courtesy)

Life

Minister’s Message: Finding peace in the in-between

I find myself anxious when I know that winter is coming — even though there’s lots that I…

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

This excerpt from a survey dating back more than a century shows a large meander at about Mile 6 of the Kenai River. Along the outside of this river bend in 1948 were the homestead properties of Ethen Cunningham, William Franke and Charles “Windy” Wagner.

Life

States of Mind: The death of Ethen Cunningham — Part 4

Franke surrendered peacefully and confessed to the killing, but the motive for the crime remained in doubt.

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Life

Minister’s Message: Living wisely

Wisdom, it seems, is on all of our minds

Charles “Windy” Wagner, pictured here in about the year in which Ethen Cunningham was murdered, was a neighbor to both the victim and the accused, William Franke. (Photo courtesy of the Knackstedt Collection)

Life

States of Mind: The death of Ethen Cunningham — Part 3

The suspect was homesteader William Henry Franke

Nick Varney

Life

Unhinged Alaska: Bring it on

It’s now already on the steep downslide of August and we might as well be attending a wake…

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Life

Minister’s Message: Comprehending a truth beyond knowledge

The love of Christ passes knowledge

Virginia Walters (Courtesy photo)

Life

Life in the Pedestrian Lane: As Time Goes By…

The world was endless with simply a dollar in an envelope