Cooper Landing

Good morning.

Kenai Lake Baptist Church is hosting an Easter breakfast for the community at the community hall on Bean Creek Road at 8 a.m. Easter morning. The church is donating hams, egg dishes and fruit platters. Breads will be brought by several volunteers. There is no charge. KLBC services begin at 10 a.m. for Sunday school and 11 a.m. for the main service. Sunrise service will be at the church.

St. John Neumann Catholic Church services begin at 7:30 p.m. on Good Friday and at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The Cooper Landing Community Church services are at 4 p.m. Sunday. Both church groups meet at the Catholic church on Snug Harbor Road.

Leah Smith and helpers are sponsoring an Easter egg hunt for children in Cooper Landing and Moose Pass at 2 p.m. at the community center.

Cooper Landing Community Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. March 31. The topics will be: the Forest Service prescribed burn in the Juneau Lake area; the Public Safety Facilities site lease transfer; hall use rules and fee schedule; hall work day; May 21 Snail-a-thon; the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District Cooper Landing Community Plan, presented by chamber president Cheryle James; a request for action from the Department of Transportation regarding choosing a highway option through Cooper Landing; and the softball tournament beginning May 28.

This is the last regularly scheduled meeting until Sept. 29.

Erik Kangas and Greg Schwab will open a new business called The Kenai Experience, soon. They are travel and trip agents with an office in the basement of the Shrew's Nest. They will book fishing trips, mountain biking and kayaking jaunts, hiking and bear viewing. They also will offer shuttle service for guided river trip clients.

It is that time again when thoughts turn to summer, fishing and planting, especially since we have no snow on the ground and pussy willows are presenting their fur across the landscape. Crossing the bridge near the school the other day, the swans were along the north shore and an eagle was eating a salmon on the rocks on south shoreline, while a fishers in hip boots was casting a line in the lake between them.

The well-known eagle nest in the cottonwood past the post office continues to be occupied. Either an eagle is in the nest, or one is on a branch close by.

A group of adults and kids tried unsuccessfully to snowmachine into Upper Russian Lake last week and found the snow wet all the way down, which means sinking to your hips when you step off the machine, and deep overflow on Cooper Lake.

Area seniors and elementary school kids will start preparations March 29 for their joint mission to Mars at he school. March 31 is the date for the mission at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai.

So, there was Mac McElveen, almost 50 years ago, with a wounded moose near Juneau Creek, as told by Mac in his book, "The Call of Alaska." Mac wrote, "I looked around slowly, puzzled ... where was that moose?

The answer came with explosive suddenness. That mammoth moose jumped up almost on top of me. To this day, I don't know for sure if I ever got my rifle to my shoulder, but I shot that bolt-action rifle like an automatic, as time stood still... . The action was fast and furious, then abruptly it was over. Down went the moose for good... ." Mac told of other moose hunts, caribou and bear hunting. It's not surprising that one of the McElveen sons is now an Alaska fishing and hunting guide.

Mac was in the thick of things during the 1959 forest fire that almost leveled Cooper Landing. Mac and Lee Van Sickle loaded a truck with their wives, children and belongings and sent them out of the village. "Then we went to Lee's home where we held our church meetings at that time. Lee's father-in-law was there with us." Phil and Dottie Todd now own the Van Sickle house on Snug Harbor Road.

Mac described fire fighting efforts from Cooper Lake Dam down Snug Harbor Road. "... I knew a forest fire could move as fast as a race horse — now I could see it... . Lee cut down some trees in front of his house as quickly as he could." They decided to stay at the house to protect it.

More of the story next week.

Mona Painter can be reached by phone at 595-1248 or by email at painter@arctic.net