The story behind Hyperbole Trivia Pursuit Tertius Decimus deserves the full story of the events that surround this picture. The answer to the questions will be found within the text. The year was 1959, my family operated the Silver King Lodge restaurant which was located across the road from the present Anchor Angler. It was a complete family operation open 24 / 7, with various members of the family working shifts. I worked the evening shift as a waiter. Although, we were not paid, my father assured myself and my brother Don at the end of the season he would buy us a truck. Don was old enough to have a license, but I had just graduated from Junior High School in Homer. That fall, we returned to our small horse ranch, east of Montrose. Although, Don and I had our mind set on a cool looking pick-up, Dad was true to his word and bought us a truck! We did go on one double date with the truck, but it wasn't really that cool in the eyes of the girls when we drove into their yards and later to the drive-in theatre. Not having a license, I never drove the truck and of course, Dad did not have a stock truck to haul horses, so he got the most use out of it and Don got to use it occasionally. The picture in the previous posting was taken in January 1960, when it was stuck in our driveway. About February, needing a little spending money and mad that I had a truck of no use to me, I made a comment at the dinner table I was going to sell my share. My father paid me fifty dollars cash money!
In April, it was decided that a vast fortune could be made in Alaska by purchasing Shetland Ponies in Colorado for $5.00 to $10.00 a piece and taking them to Alaska. Making a few trips to the stock sales, my father and brother Tad purchased ten of the finest Shetland Ponies that they could find. The latter part of April, it was decided that Tad, Don and I would truck the horses to Alaska in our Ford truck and the rest of the family would follow a couple of weeks behind. A cab over rack was put over the top of the cab, which carried all of our camping gear, saddles, and one rick shaw since two of the ponies were trained to the harness. Getting out of school early,the three of us headed to Alaska, typically driving from 200 to 300 miles a day before we would have to stop and unload the ponies so they could rest. We had traveled about 60 miles out of Montrose and the first mechanical problem occurred on the truck. A small spring broke that pushed the gas pedal back up when the driver took his foot off the pedal. A minor problem, but with a string attached to the gas pedal, we continued the trip. Being the smallest, I had to set in the middle and Tad did all the driving. It was my job to pull the string up whenever he took his foot off the pedal so there was no napping, but he assured me that as soon as we got into Salt Lake City we would have it fixed. The truck was sold 5 / 6 years later and you still had to pull up on a string to retract the gas pedal. Somewhere, between Salt Lake City and the Canadian border, the drivers door latch broke and kept flying open, the remedy to this was easy. Tie a rope from the passenger door handle, across the seat to the drivers door, thus the first seat belts were invented. Again, when the truck was sold, the old door rope was still being used! We were on a constant search when it came time to stop for the day for a town with a sale barn or stock yard, so we would have a place to corral the ponies and pitch our tent. This became a problem the further we got on our trip because once we were on the Alcan Highway, there were no stock yards. We could normally find a bank that we could back into and unload the horses. One particular place we chose, we found our bank, backed in and unloaded, but then Tad got the truck stuck. The next morning a passing truck pulled us out of the mud hole but we had no way to load the ponies. Typical of Don being more of brawn than brains, came up with the concept as to how to get us out of this situation. He figured that if Tad and I got into the truck with the halter rope that he could lift the front of the pony into the truck until his front feet were in the truck and then he would lift up the hind end and the pony would go into the truck. We loaded all ten ponies in that manner.
Finally arriving in Anchor Point, we settled into the cabin on the river which would later be developed into the first tackle shop. The Peterson "homestead" which is the present Slide Hole Campground had a fenced pasture, that bordered on what is now the Steelhead Campground. We were able to use the pasture for the ponies. When the rest of the family arrived from Colorado we arranged with the Aprils to install a pony riding ring in front of the motel, which is the current Anchor River Inn. Each morning, we would hitch one of the ponies to the rick saw and tie the others head to tail and go up the hill to our pony ride business. Needless to say, it was not a booming business and we soon gave up that concept.
That fall, we arranged our annual moose hunt, Dad, Tad, myself and our good friend Howard Myhill. Knowing horses, Dad and Tad figured out if we boned out the meat,the ten ponies could pack out a moose, especially a small moose. With the pack string in tow, we went to the head waters of the Anchor River, it was quite a sight seeing our pack string move through the tall grass, you could not see the horses for the height of the grass. As things will happen, that is the year that I got my trophy bull moose. Dad looked at the size of the moose and quickly decided that we had more moose than horse power, a tractor was hired to haul out the meat ending the concept of using the ponies as pack animals. With winter coming on, the thought of feeding ponies all winter was not a good idea, especially since they had not generated enough money to off set the expense. The handwriting was on the wall, that it was not conceivable that they would ever make money. The ponies were sold off individually to people in the Homer area, most of them remaining in the area for several years before passing away. To the best of our knowledge, we had accomplished one thing, we had trucked the first load of Shetland Ponies over the Alcan Highway. Previous to this, Tad and Don had also trucked a load of mules and horses over the highway, with about the same results. The attached picture is of Tad with one of the registered ponies in front of the smoke house east of Homer.