Leaving Nenana the last time
My dad drove us out in our 1956 Ford pickup truck. It was me with my brothers Michael and Joel in the back, Mom and Dad in the cab.
In those days, riverboats used to winter over on the Nenana, just around the bend from the Tanana river and from the town of Nenana. Tied up in the Nenana, the boats were relatively safe from breakup damage on the Tanana.
It was sometime during the summer of 1957 and I was nine, my brothers seven and five. I had no sense of history, that I was seeing the last of these steamboats, but my dad felt it keenly. The Nenana would travel upriver on the Tanana to the Chena river, on to Fairbanks, and never return. The newer boats were steel, powered by diesel and driven by propellor ... no more paddle wheel. In a way, no more magic.
When we got to the river, they'd broken the single stack down, to fit beneath the railroad bridge decking. I remember birch and cotton wood trees, the soft murmur of the river and the gentle chuffing of the wood-fired engine, her paddlewheel turning slowly.
A small crowd turned out for the last look. I believe I remember she would cast off and batter upstream past the town, under the railroad bridge, and put in at the old St. Mark's Mission School site to take on enough wood to make the trip.
Then she'd blow her whistle and sail away, never to run the Tanana and Yukon rivers again. And for certain never to set sail with me aboard. I'd missed my chance.
How I got to re-launch the Nenana
The second volume of my Father Hardy mystery series is called "In Gold We Trust," and is loosely structured around an actual steamboat gold bar robbery in Alaska.
When I was a kid, my friends and I never dug a hole that we didn't thrill to the notion we might just find that gold. Once my dad and I were out at the Old Mission digging—for some far less romantic reason—and a shovel hit something that clinked! Not much clinks in that part of the Tanana valley, where everything is built on river sand.
So in my book, I relaunch the Nenana and send her off down the Tanana and Yukon Rivers on a mythical last voyage, in 1957. I studied images and actual film footage of the boat underway, pouring over maps and playing around with my story until it had as many twists and turns as the river.
Come on along!
If you like riverboats, lost gold, lots of twists and turns in a plot, and a last chance voyage on a classic Alaska steamboat, "In Gold We Trust," will be a mystery for you. You can get it from Amazon as an e-book or paperback, and remember I would love your Amazon or Goodreads review.
Until then, happy sailing ... and happy reading. (Here's an Amazon link:) In Gold We Trust
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