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Photo courtesy of Ken Moore Poopdeck Platt, in about 1968, does a little winter target shooting.

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Poopdeck: Nearly a century of adventure — Part 6

Poopdeck Platt was nearly 80 when he decided to retire from commercial fishing.

After Red Cleaver, in 1959, helped Poopdeck Platt add 30 inches to the stern of his fishing vessel, the Bernice M, Platt took his boat out onto the waters of Kachemak Bay. (Photo courtesy of Ken Moore)

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Poopdeck: Nearly a century of adventure — Part 5

Clarence Hiram “Poopdeck” Platt had already experienced two bad years in a row, when misfortune struck again in…

As his wife Bernice looks on, 43-year-old Clarence Hiram “Poopdeck” Platt poses atop a road sign welcoming him to Alaska. This 1947 photograph from the Huebsch Family Collection memorializes Platt’s first trip to Alaska, which became his home for the next 53 years.

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Poopdeck: Nearly a century of adventure — Part 4

In 1947, their correspondence led to wedding bells, and the magazine subscription led them to make a new…

Poopdeck Platt, in western Montana circa 1946, packs out a deer after a successful day of hunting. (Photo courtesy of the Huebsch Family Collection)

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Poopdeck: Nearly a century of adventure — Part 3

“For a while,” said Poopdeck, “we were eating guinea pigs.”

In the 1990s, Poopdeck Platt enjoys some sunshine in front of The Saltry, in Halibut Cove. (Photo courtesy of Ken Moore)

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Poopdeck: Nearly a century of adventure — Part 2

The story of Poopdeck Platt, who lived in Homer for nearly half a century, began in the American…

Poopdeck Platt dances with Snooks Moore at the Elks Lodge in Homer during the 1990. (Photo courtesy of the Huebsch Family Collection)

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Poopdeck: Nearly a century of adventure — Part 1

Clarence Hiram Platt — who preferred to have people call him Poopdeck — may have been slowing down,…

This photograph of Keith McCullagh (left) and photographer Harry Reed in Palm Springs, California, accompanied an article in the Desert Sun in May 1946 describing the pair’s upcoming Alaska Photographic Expedition.

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Mostly separate lives: The union and disunion of Nellie and Keith — Part 5

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Born in Michigan, Keith McCullagh had brief careers in Alaska as a forest ranger, a commercial…

Advertisement from the Wrangell Sentinel, 1949 Going out of business was Hofstad’s Sales & Service, the Wrangell-based store owned and operated by Thor and Jean Hofstad.

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Mostly separate lives: The union and disunion of Nellie and Keith — Part 4

AUTHOR’S NOTE: After the 12-year marriage of Keith McCullagh and Nellie Crabb ended in 1927, the two members…

Keith McCullagh is photographed poling a raft down the Kenai River in 1911 during a forest survey. (U.S. Forestry Department photo by John “Jack” Brown)

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Mostly separate lives: The union and disunion of Nellie and Keith — Part 3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Keith McCullagh and Nellie Dee Crabb had married in June 1915 in the fledgling city of…

Photo courtesy of the Peggy Arness Collection Nellie McCullagh feeds a pen-raised fox on her family’s farm in Kachemak Bay, in 1922.

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Mostly separate lives: The union and disunion of Nellie and Keith — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Forest ranger Louis Keith McCullagh and school teacher Nellie Dee Crabb had married in June 1915…

Nellie Dee “Jean” Crabb as a young woman. (Public photo from ancestry.com)

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Mostly separate lives: The union and disunion of Nellie and Keith — Part 1

A front-page headline in the Cordova Daily Times of Feb. 25, 1915, called newly engaged Nellie Crabb and…

This illustration by John Fretz accompanied an article entitled “Anne: A True Story” in the November 1978 issue of Alaskafest, an in-flight magazine for Alaska Airlines. The story, designed as a romance, also concerned the death of Mitch Gyde, who drowned in Tustumena Lake in September 1975.

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The 2 most deadly years — Part 8

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The two most deadly years for people on or near Tustumena Lake were 1965 and 1975.…

These two pages from Kaknu, the 1976 yearbook for Kenai Central High School, were dedicated to KCHS teacher James Brewer, who drowned with his son Byron and Soldotna teacher Stephen Koch in August 1975. The man smoking the pipe and standing with moose antlers is Brewer; his son is in front of him.

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The 2 most deadly years — Part 7

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The two most deadly years for people on or near Tustumena Lake were 1965 and 1975.…