Nathan B. Spooner
At the northern part of the Alaska Panhandle, located between
Skagway and Glacier Bay National Park, the native Alaskan village of DeiShu’
(end of the trail) became the township of Haines when naturalist John Muir and
S. Hall Young were invited there in 1897 to help establish a trading
post/village.
In 1978 I had moved my family from Ketchikan to Juneau to Sitka
and then had a contract to do maintenance and cleaning for the Department of
Natural Resources in Haines. Downtown comprised of a few blocks of businesses
and stores.
We knew many of the people living there since the population at
that time numbered only a few hundred.
One of the well known young men was a fellow named Thomas. HIs
family lived a couple blocks north of Main Street. He had younger brothers and
sisters and everyone knew and liked Tom.
I remember him telling me and others that when crab fishing season
opened, he planned to go on as crew and they would start by going to the
outside waters past Glacier Bay and then north past Wrangell St.Elias National
Park and the native Borough of Yakutat.
The previous week Tom mentioned that the crew would be departing
from Haines in a few days,
One snowy night as I walked along the deserted street to go
upstairs to the Natural Resources offices, just as I was unlocking the door,
Tom walked by, smiled at me and waved as he walked south toward the harbor. I
waved back and went upstairs.
The next day one of our neighbors asked if I had heard the news
about Tom and the crew. When I told him I had not, he explained that the boat
had capsized 3 days earlier on the way past Wrangell St.Elias National Park and
the entire crew was lost.
Now I will testify that I did see Tom the previous night even
though the boat went down 3 days before that time. There was no mistaking his
warm smile, tall stature and checkered brown and tan coat that he always wore.
Say what you will, I know that he passed within 2 feet of me, smiled and waved
as he silently walked by.