WASILLA -- A well-known Sutton RV park owner and leader of a conservative political group died Monday in a bulldozer accident.
Alaska State Troopers said Marvin Baker, 68, was clearing a path through a wooded area when he lost control of the John Deere dozer and it went over an embankment and flipped.
At about 5:45 p.m., Matanuska-Susitna Borough responders got word that a bulldozer had rolled over on the operator near the top of a mountain trail and the man was in and out of consciousness, according to Dennis Brodigan, emergency services director for the borough. Numerous EMS, fire and rescue responders converged on the area from Sutton, Palmer and Meadow Lakes.
At 6:16 p.m., a trooper told dispatchers that Baker wasn't trapped but he couldn't find a pulse or tell if he was breathing, Brodigan said. CPR was begun about five minutes after that. Medics on all-terrain vehicles reached Baker just after 6:30 p.m. He was pronounced dead at 6:52 p.m.
Baker and his wife, Jill, ran Pinnacle Mountain RV and Cafe just north of Sutton at Mile 70 of the Glenn Highway. The year-round attraction is locally famous for its impressive collection of vintage tractors, some dating back to the 1920s, and menagerie of farm animals that made it unusual even by the standards of an Alaska roadhouse.
The cafe also played host to political gatherings, friends of the Bakers said Tuesday.
Marvin Baker served as vice-president of Conservative Patriots Group, a Wasilla-based organization that advocates "building a community of like-minded Alaskans to advance the principles of limited government, free markets and individual liberty," according to the group's site.
Over the years, Baker invited local and state politicians to come by the cafe in the evenings after closing time, said Dean Lust, a Chickaloon real estate agent who knew Baker since the 1970s when both lived in Nome. The two met for coffee or breakfast at the cafe several times a week.
Baker chatted up the travelers who came through the RV park. People from other countries would ask about U.S. involvement abroad, Lust said, recalling conversations he'd had with Baker. People from the Lower 48 complained about the lack of representation from either party in Congress.
"He decided that he needed to become more political and get involved with the Conservative Patriots Group," Lust said.
The list of after-hours cafe visitors included Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, state Sen. Mike Dunleavy, and Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss, he said.
DeVilbiss, who farms cattle and carrots on Lazy Mountain, said he knew Baker before he got into politics.
"He gave us a home for a llama we inherited," DeVilbiss said Tuesday morning, after friends told him what happened to Baker. "He always had an open heart to help out."
Baker served on the Nome planning and zoning committee for 10 years, six of them as chairman, according to a bio on the Conservative Patriots site. He served as one of three directors of the Alpine Road Service Area board.
Baker moved to Anchorage in 1989 and worked on the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup as a vessel coordinator after spending 10 years building a fueling, trucking, repair shop and laundromat business.
The Bakers bought the cafe and RV park after 2001.
The State Medical Examiner is expected to conduct an autopsy on Baker, though foul play is not suspected in the accident, troopers say.