When I arrived in Alaska for the first time, I was just a child but the memories of the 1950's are vividly implanted into my memory. They were good years, I feel very fortunate to have learned my values during this time frame. Alaska was rugged, remote, and required a family to work together to survive. At the same time, you enjoyed personal freedoms like no place else.

I was just graduating from the 8th Grade in Homer, Alaska, when my father and mother leased the restaurant at the SilverKing Lodge on the Anchor River.
The SilverKing Lodge was originally built by Mr. Clark Peterson who had homestead the property extending from the present day Slide Hole Campground to the forks of the Anchor River. At the location of the current Slide Hole Campground was the original homestead house of Clark Peterson.
Mr. Peterson decided to leave Alaska and put the SilverKing Lodge on the market. It was purchased by a lawyer from Anchor, Alaska by the name of Gene Saxton. Mr. Saxton was still practicing law so he hired his brother in law, Clarence "Smitty" Smith to mange the Lodge.
In 1959, having no desire to operate the restaurant, they leased it to my parents in the spring of 1959, the year that we would relinquish our Territorial status and become the 49th state.

The Lodge consisted of the restaurant, general store, guest cabins, and gas pumps. Behind the lodge was a open "lean to" filled with saw dust. Buried beneath the saw dust were blocks of ice that were cut from the cake ice during the breakup of the Anchor River. If a visiting fisherman wanted to buy some ice to keep his fish fresh, a water hose would rinse off the saw dust to produce a beautiful block of ice.
I have always been a lover of "Bing Cherries", I recall in the summer of 1959 the manager that still operated the store brought in a lug of cherries to sell. They were sold, not by the pound but per cherry. One nickel for a cherry!
My family took over the restaurant in mid May 1959 and would operate it 24 hours a day throughout the spring and summer months. It was a family business. My mother would cook the day shift, I worked with her washing dishes and waiting tables. My brother Larry came home form attending college in Colorado and would cook the evening shift with my brother Don washing dishes and waiting tables. My father would take the graveyard shift as the cook and brother Tad would wash dishes and wait tables. His wife, Mary Jane would babysit the younger children.

Interior of the Silver King Lodge Restaurant
1959

Sitting At the Counter: Little Sister Patricia and Little Brother Bill
In The Background
My Mother Cooking ~ Proof That I Do Dishes On Occasion

Enlargement of Sister Pat and Brother Bill

In the top picture, you will see the menu boards tacked to the wall. After a very successful summer in the restaurant, I can remember hearing my father tell my mother that we had made $10,000 that summer. When you enlarge these signs, the clearly indicate the difference between "yesterday" and "today."
A Sampling Of The Posted Menus:
16 Oz. T-Bone ~ $4.00
Shrimp Dinner ~ $2.00
Mixed Seafood Dinner ~ $3.00
Salmon Steak ~ $2.00
King Crab ~ $2.00
Halibut Steak ~ $2.00
Trout Dinner ~ $2.00
BLT Sandwich ~ $1.00
Pie ~ .40
Hot Chocolate ~ .25
Milk ~ .25
I did have to laugh at our Coffee Sign:
"No Charge For 2nd Cup Of Coffee when Served With
Pie, Sandwich, Or Meals;
Otherwise
2nd Cup: .1o Cents
Warm Up: .10 Cents
1/2 Cup: 10 Cents
A Little Bit: .10 Cents
One Drop: .10 Cents"

It was a long summer, but also a time to explore and learn the Anchor River and build many fond memories of my youth. It was also the year of the "flood" of homesteaders to the area of Anchor Point. With statehood looming it was known that the "Homestead Act" would become history. That particular summer I remember the homestead families of the Hansen's, Charleton's, Anderson's, Lewis's, Tietjen's, Presley, and Wilson's moving to the area.

In the fall, my parents would decide to return to our little ranch in Colorado for the winter. They would sub-lease the restaurant to a family by the name of Lucky and Betty Platt who had recently moved to Alaska from California. Through the years, the Lodge would have a variety of person's leashing the property. Gene Saxton would later sell the property to the State of Alaska for the development of the Anchor River Recreational Area as we know it today.

Prior to the sell of the Peterson Homestead to the State of Alaska, a one acre lot was sold to Arnie Murto across the Beach Road from the Lodge. Upon the sale of the property to the State of Alaska, Arnie Murto purchased the lodge building from the state and moved the building onto his lot. His intentions was to move his bar, the Scandinavian Inn, from the bluff overlooking the river and location of my current home. During that winter, it was set on fire and partially burned. The following spring it was demolished and hauled away. The only thing remaining was the sign, "SilverKing Lodge" which was partially burned. This was given to me by a friend who had saved it until the year that I opened the Anchor Angler Tackle Shop.
My family would return to Anchor Point the following spring and open our fishing cabin as a business. This was located on the Anchor Point Beach Road just a half mile from the location of the SilverKing Lodge. "Harrington's Fishing Shack" was the first tackle shop and sports fish processing business in Anchor Point. Our family would operate this business for several years, following my departure to join the Navy my parents operated it for a few more years before selling this business. Since that time, it has went through several owners and was operated under the name of "SilverKing Tackle Shop".