Anchorage Daily News

TALKEETNA -- All summer long at the Talkeetna airport, a steady buzz fills the ears of Geri Denkewalter, who with her husband, Eric, owns Talkeetna Aero Services. Both are run off their feet scheduling flights, supervising their staff of 18 and overseeing the maintenance of their fleet.

Come September, it all stops.

"It's quiet," Denkewalter said. "If somebody takes a flight, you hear it. You run downstairs and listen to the radio to find out where they're going."

Winter has always been a reflective time for Talkeetna business owners. Many head south, exhausted from 120 days of continuous work, as soon as the last tourist leaves.

When they return, there's more leisure time, prompting several gift shops and restaurants to board up. And that's what many people prefer, said Judy Marie, owner and publisher of the Talkeetna Good Times newspaper.

"The feeling is, we let the tourists have our town all summer long; can't we have it back in the winter?" Marie said. "But what we want isn't necessarily what we're set up for."

Many village residents live on tourist dollars. So when a winter renaissance in town died after the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge trimmed its operation to the summer season only, pocketbooks shrank along with the visitor population.

Winter trade may take another hit if this year turns out to be the last for the Talkeetna Bachelor Society's popular auction and ball, held each December.

Now business owners are agitating for change. Suzy Kellard, a past president of the Talkeetna Chamber of Commerce and long-time owner of two businesses, says the town is in danger of becoming a "cruise-ship community."

"For the first 20 years, we were open seven days a week except major holidays," Kellard said, adding that her winter gift shop hours are now limited to weekends and for Christmas shopping. "It's one of those things that you hate to see, your community shrivel up in the wintertime."

Kellard is quick to point out that, with a resident population that includes nearly all the small-business owners, Talkeetna is different from Ketchikan, a part-time home to dozens of proprietors. The small-town atmosphere, she said, combined with skiing, snowmachining and snowshoeing opportunities, should make it as solid a destination in winter as it is in summer.

PUTTING TOWN ON THE MAP

Thirty years ago, the summer months did not guarantee business in Talkeetna. When Renamary and Vern Rauchenstein opened Swiss Alaska Inn in the late 1970s, the village wasn't even on maps of the Mat-Su valley area.

"There was nothing listed up here besides the mountain," Renamary said. "It was like: 'There be dragons.' We realized we would have to start tooting our own horn if we wanted to get business."

At that time, mountain climbers were the town's main source of business. Diane Calamar Okonek, who opened Alaska Mountaineering School in 1983 with her husband, Brian, said climbers were the town's first tourists. There were a handful of local businesses, including the Talkeetna Roadhouse and the Fairview Inn.

As air taxis started offering flightseeing tours, a steady trickle of people turned into a river with ever-widening banks. Bed and breakfasts, gift shops and restaurants sprouted. The population, which had stayed static at fewer than 300 through the early 1990s, is now more than 1,000, a 21 percent increase since 2000, according to the U.S. Census.

Business only got better when Cook Inlet Region Inc. built the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, a then-153-room hotel that stayed open year-round. The Alaska Railroad packaged tours with stops in town. Winters, which had been cloaked in a silent, white blanket, suddenly became profitable for small-business owners like Kellard and the Denkewalters, whose business grew to eight planes and a new hangar.

But not profitable enough for the lodge. CIRI, which also owns Kenai Fjords Tours and Seward Windsong Lodge, decided to close for winter trade after New Year 2003.

Although Denali Overlook Inn, another high-end hotel, stayed open to fill the gap, "the winter is really slow," said Sandy Sandwell, who co-owns the inn and Talkeetna Hideaway with his wife and Tim Costello.

"It's a hard business to build, up to the point we gave up on the Overlook," Sandwell said. "We plan to shut next winter."

PRESERVATION VS. PROGRESS

Another factor exacerbating lack of winter trade in Talkeetna is a predicted turnover of businesses. Several are for sale. The Rauchensteins are selling Swiss Alaska. Denali View Bed and Breakfast is for sale, as are other businesses.

Marie, who also publishes a local phone book and annual visitor's guide, has decided to sell her newspaper business to be nearer family in the Lower 48. Her asking price is $350,000, according to the Talkeetna Real Estate Web site.

What began as a summer advertising newspaper in 1995 turned into a community paper thanks to Talkeetna residents, she said.

The newspaper benefited from the town's population growth, publishing 10,000 copies biweekly during the summer. It has subscribers all over the U.S. and in foreign countries.

Marie's decade as a resident gave her a front seat into the tension between preservation and progress. People moved to Talkeetna for that "Northern Exposure" feel, she said.

Okonek agreed. She and Brian sold the mountaineering school a few years ago.

"As a person that lives here, I love the winter. I appreciate the quiet," Okonek said. "But as a former business person, I can appreciate businesses are trying to keep an income coming in."

CAPTURING WINTER TRADE

CIRI spokesman Jim Jager said the issues facing Talkeetna business owners are the same all over the state.

"Talkeetna is a microcosm of Alaska," Jager said. "We're at, or close to, our capacity for summer. Now we're asking, where's the next batch of low-hanging fruit? We have all these months of winter sitting here empty, so that is probably the next big growth area."

He said CIRI is actively courting Asian tourists who flock to Fairbanks for the northern lights, although nothing is firm.

This year, Denkewalter has contracted with the railroad to fly tourists from Fairbanks to Talkeetna for a visit. Talkeetna Aero moves its operations to Fairbanks for a few months to support that business.

"I think people in Talkeetna have to start talking to each other ... to look at the big picture," Denkewalter said. "It's so intense in the summertime, nobody has a chance to talk to each other until Nov. 1 and then you realize, what are we going to do with this winter?"

Kellard knows the community can't depend on big corporations for winter business.

She's hoping for volunteers, better networking and chamber activity to transform the town in winter.

Things like better street lighting, bright flags on open businesses and planned activities geared to Alaskans, many of whom, according to Denkewalter, don't know where Talkeetna is located.

"Winter tourism is priority number one," said Beverly Tanner, who owns the town's grocery, laundromat and Coffee Cabin and is an incoming board member of the Talkeetna chamber.

"We need to have some activities to draw people from the Valley or Anchorage. I've talked about dog sled or ski races, that sort of outdoor wintertime activity."

But people can visit Talkeetna for no activity at all, Denkewalter said.

"There are a lot of things to do or you can just come here and do nothing, watch the northern lights," she said. "Bring a baloney sandwich and walk around town. We'd like to see you."

Contact Melodie Wright at mwright@adn.com or 352-6721.