End of The Road

In this episode, we talk with Jenny Rosenbaum about how she found McCarthy, why she made a home here, and we also asked her to give us the scoop on the cannabis shop that she is opening in McCarthy next summer.

In this episode, we talk with local climate and social activist, Cassidy Austin-Merlino about climate and social justice issues, working to stop the Pebble Mine, how to make the outdoors more inclusive, and the steps our remote community can take toward solutions.

Dr. Margot Higgins, Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse shares thoughts and ideas from her research and writings challenging our conventional story about the presence or absence of the Ahtna-Athabascan people in the Kennicott River Valley. She explains why radical empathy may be the way forward to relating with this story in a new way.

Steve Edwards tells the story of his mom's pride and joy 49 Chevy, and the epic journey it took getting it to McCarthy in 1963. His father, Jim Edwards, was renown for his feats of daring, but the story of Jim getting this car to McCarthy when there was only a railroad bed, is truly one for the history books! 

Professional storyteller Jack Dalton talks about The Other Side of Storytelling with WMC's Executive Director, Jon Erdman. This is Part Two of a lively discussion on the inner experience of being a storyteller, the power stories have to deliver tough messages in difficult places, and the wider definition of storytelling. 

In this episode, professional storyteller, Jack Dalton, talks with WMC's Executive Director, Jon Erdman, about the art of storytelling and the power of story. Jack has traveled the world telling stories and competing in storytelling events. In this interview, he discusses what makes a good story, how stories come to him sometimes right as he's walking on stage, and shares his perspective on our town and Tall Tales event. His hearty laugh and keen perspectives make this conversation lively and enlightening. 

In this episode, Tom Kizzia takes us into the 1983 shootings in McCarthy that killed six of the town's 22 residents. He focuses on Amy Ashenden, a lesser known victim of the shootings. We continue our conversation with author, Tom Kizzia, discussing his new book titled, Cold Mountain Path: The Ghost Town Decades of McCarthy-Kennecott, Alaska. In his book, Tom preserves the  “Lost Years” of 1938-1983, and creates an opportunity to talk about these stories and how they impact the community. In our interview with Tom about his book, two themes emerged: how we approach and process the past (Part One), and in this episode we tie it together with reflections from Tom on Amy Ashenden's life journey and her discoveries of impermanence.

In our first episode of Season Two we explore the Ghost Town decades of our Kennecott-McCarthy community in remote Alaska by way of an interview with author Tom Kizzia and his new book, Cold Mountain Path: The Ghost Town Decades of McCarthy-Kennecott, Alaska. We discuss ghost towns and what that means as a metaphor, not just about the past but about how we process the past. Along the way we explore the harrowing stories and reflections of Jim Edwards as well as our community's relationship with the Ahtna people and culture that predate the arrival of white development by millennia. 

When Papa Pilgrim came to town, back in the early 2000s, tensions flared, bringing to a head decades of conflict between the National Parks Service and the community of private land holders in the Wrangell Mountains. With SWAT teams descending on the tiny town of McCarthy, the Pilgrim fiasco grabbed national headlines and ignited a nation-wide political mobilization. Behind the scenes, though, Sally would work with patience and collaboration to help bring about a shift that would change the perspective and culture of the National Parks Service and the McCarthy community, a positive change that would long outlast Papa Pilgrim. Her collaborative approach represents the values we hold dear at the Wrangell Mountains Center and it provides hope as we navigate contemporary tensions and new conflicts.

In the face of great personal loss, Irish photographer Paul Scannell leaves London behind and eventually finds his way to the Wrangells in remote bush Alaska. Skipping his flight home, Paul is drawn to the crumbling, abandoned places in the Wrangells and the stories that these remains suggest.We discuss Paul's journey. We talk iPhones and photography, and we hear Paul reading from his new book, Abandoned Alaska: Copper, Gold, and Rust (2020).

Shaped by the wilderness and the lawless town of McCarthy Alaska in the 1970s, Sally Gibert lived the frontier life in Alaska then went on to found a significant and impactful nonprofit and eventually helped shape the map of the state of Alaska. This is part one of two parts, exploring Sally's early adult life in the frontier town of McCarthy as she navigates local culture, faces the challenges of keeping warm during one of McCarthy's coldest winters, and engages with the grief of a town in the aftermath of a violent shooting. Part two explores Sally's state-wide impact through her work on land policy.

Ben reflects on the ongoing natural cycles of catastrophe, regrowth and regeneration that he discovers as he walks through two stories from the Wrangells: an epic story of dinosaurs and deep time, and a story about the last hundred years in the McCarthy community. Ben's insights and contemplative cadence provide a much-appreciated perspective, a perspective that opens up a space for hope during times of tension and turmoil….