HATCHER PASS - Lone Star Staters Geneva and Lloyd Taylor aren’t real clear on the whole snowbird concept.
The couple just returned for a third season as winter caretakers at Independence Mine State Park, guarding the snow-clad ghost town in the Talkeetna Mountain.
From October until April, the Taylors live in the big two-story wooden building that serves in summer as the park visitor center. Come winter, the history-seeking tourists mostly disappear. But Alaskans come in droves.
The couple plays host to occasional avalanche training classes, putting them up for the night in the echoing and still elegant building that once housed the mine manager’s family. Outside, skiers pass by, especially on weekends early in the winter when Hatcher Pass offers some of the only real snow and groomed ski trails in Southcentral.
Occasionally people get married, including one bride in an off-white polar fleece dress.
The Taylors pass the time with regular caretaking duties - clearing snow, posting signs, keeping up the generator, checking latrines - as well as with library books, conversation and meals.
They served as caretakers during the winters of 2002-2003, and 2003-2004, then experienced some real winter for two years at Chena River State Recreation Area. Home base is a small town near Dallas called Lone Oak, where Geneva’s daughter and grandchildren live.
In their past lives, Geneva was a chemist, Lloyd a chemical engineer. They’ve traveled extensively, most recently to Argentina.
The couple, married 20 years, sat down at the bright red table in the kitchen to answer some questions about their not-so-lonely life at the mine.
Q: So how often do you end up getting really weathered in up here?
A: (Geneva) We really haven’t more than a day or so but because one of the first things we do after a big snow is go down the maintenance trail and blast it out … Some of the other caretakers have been here for a couple weeks, way back when.
Q: Have you guys seen the movie, “The Shining”?
A: (Geneva) Oh yes, yes. (Both laugh)
(Lloyd) The ax! When you said you were coming we said, “Oh, we’ll get our ax out.”
(Geneva) We’ll know immediately whether or not you’ve seen the movie.
(Lloyd) We do have our own resident ghost here.
Q: Who’s the ghost?
A: (Geneva) Phil Coleman. He apparently was one of the later miners who was here near the time when they stopped mining and he sort of stayed around as sort of a caretaker. … Many years ago they had a bar down here and they served food; and I gather he was either a bartender or he was a faithful every night kind of person, and one morning they found him with his head down on the counter dead. … He was probably fairly elderly and miners must have had a rough life.
Q: How often does he make himself known?
A: (Geneva) He never has to me. I kind of feel like, I don’t know why, maybe I’m not sensitive to him? But here are people who claim they sense him.
Q: Really? How does he show himself?
A: (Geneva) He just is sort of there and sometimes he’ll have a sense something is sort of here and watching. … (A tea kettle whistles and Geneva walks upstairs to join Lloyd in the kitchen) These steps, if you listen carefully, it’s the same sound as when the furnace comes on. Sometimes you could swear when you’re in the bedroom that someone is coming up these stairs, just because of the sound the furnace makes.
Q: How often do you get a visitor up here?
A: (Lloyd) It really varies. You’ll look out now and you might see two or three people skiing. Of course, on weekends, there might be a hundred people skiing.
Q: It’s really not that lonely an experience, is it?
A: (Lloyd) No. But at times, later on in the year when there’s a lot more snow down below, then it gets quiet up here. Even in the middle of the week you might not see a soul … Other times you would think you’re at the center of the world.
One year they opened the road up here early so people could access this parking lot. It was really delightful to see so many people out. But this group of monks in orange robes - These guys were just having a ball! Geneva brought out a sled for them. … Another year, a snowboarder asked me for aspirin: “I landed on my head a while ago and my neck is hurting.” I gave him some aspirin. He went back up the hill.
(The couple start talking about a former mine worker now in his 70s who came up with his grown daughter.)
(Lloyd) His daughter was born while they lived in “Boom Town.” So he talked about the night the baby came. They came up to the “big house” here and borrowed the wooden-sided Plymouth or Dodge and followed the bulldozer down to the hospital.
(Geneva) He really wanted to see the shooting gallery. At that point, we didn’t know there’d been a shooting gallery. … He directed us, and down underneath the mess hall on the lower floor there is a shooting gallery. Right above it is where people eat! But there are still the trolleys, where you can send the targets out and see how you did; part of them are still down there.
Q: So let’s go back to you guys. You’re from Texas?
A: (Geneva) I’m originally from southern Missouri, Lloyd’s from Alabama, so we’ve been around and about.
Q: How much time do you spend at your official address?
A: (Lloyd) Two or three months a year. But we have a travel trailer. We live in the travel trailer when we’re there.
Q: How big is it?
A: (Lloyd) It’s 28 feet.
Q: So you two are used to spending a lot of time with each other, very close together. ...
A: (Geneva) That’s why “The Shining” is so funny.
Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander or call 352-6711.
