Word: skwentna
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Delia built a trap line through the Skwentna country, setting up little tent camps and cabins along the way at about ten-mile intervals. "I've got 75 miles of trap line here. I had 125. When I got married, I'd leave home and spend each night in a different cabin with my dog team. I'd be gone twelve days, makin' about two trips a month. But it was too much. As my responsibilities at home got more, I had to cut some of the line out, so I sold about 50 miles...
...Sometimes he takes his wife Carlene, 31, and his two children (nine months and four years old) down the trap line. They always take two machines: if the weather turns mean or if one of the machines breaks down, they can be sure of getting the kids back to Skwentna safely...
Before the advent of the snow machine, Joe used dog teams. But they were a problem. You had to feed them. Prior to statehood, which brought tight restrictions on fishing, Delia and a partner fed their dogs on salmon fished from the Skwentna River and Eight-Mile Creek. "We used to put fish nets in the rivers and cricks and get maybe 2,500 to 4,500 salmon, just to feed our teams. But then the state fish and game people stopped us from usin' the fish wheel. Then they stopped us from usin' nets, and then they...
With fur prices so undependable, there is scarcely a trapper working in Alaska today who does not look for extra income. In the summer, Delia works for the FAA people at the Skwentna airstrip. His wife is postmistress (the post office is in their log home on the Skwentna River), and adds to the family income in that...
...three months at a time. "As far as the professional trapper is concerned, he's just about gone. Take this country here. In recent years, there's been oil exploration. Last year they were drivin' pickup trucks through the woods here-ten, fifteen miles from Skwentna! It brings in people, and there's not any room. Right now, almost every bit of land around here is privately owned. Some of your best trapping is around lakes, and that's your most desirable property. So you're messin' around with private property...