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Kerri and John Dolph on the porch of their cabin in Clark, Colorado, in 1975, shortly before they headed to Alaska for a honeymoon adventure. (Photo courtesy of Kerri Copper)

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The 2 most deadly years — Part 6

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

The log shed at Blake’s Place on the north shore on Tustumena Lake, near the outlet of Indian Creek. Kerri Dolph holed up here for several days after the death of her husband John. (Photo by Clark Fair, 1985)

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The 2 most deadly years — Part 5

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

This is the cabin on Pipe Creek, along the north shore of Tustumena Lake, where Harold Galliett sought shelter after surviving a commercial airlines crash in the lake in September 1965. (Photo by Clark Fair, 1990)

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The 2 most deadly years — Part 4

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

Harold Galliett, the sole survivor of a 1965 Cordova Airlines crash into Tustumena Lake, is seen here raking his lawn in 1958. (Photo courtesy of the Galliett Family Collection)

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The 2 most deadly years — Part 3

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

Photo from Galliett’s 2014 obituary Harold Galliett was the lone survivor of a 1965 Cordova Airlines crash into Tustumena Lake. A year after the accident, Galliett was given the opportunity to fly in the plane again after it had been retrieved from the bottom of the lake. He declined.

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The 2 most deadly years — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Records indicate that the two most deadly years for people on or near Tustumena Lake were…

Photo courtesy of the Secora Collection This 1939 Joe Secora photograph shows the wooden marker on the grave of James Chase, who drowned in Tustumena Lake in 1902.

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The 2 most deadly years — Part 1

A Splendid, Dangerous Place

Photo courtesy of the Nutter Family Collection In 1954, David Nutter (right) and his younger half-brother Frank Gwartney were ready for their first day of school in Sitka.

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Finding Mister Nutter — Part 6

Although Warren Melville Nutter was a resident of Seward for most of the 1930s, the latter 1940s and…

Photo courtesy of the Nutter Family Collection Posing in front of Warren Melville Nutter’s large home in Hope in about 1961 are (L-R): Warren Nutter’s only biological child, David; David’s younger half-brother Frank Gwartney, and Nutter himself. After Nutter died in 1962, his Hope property was split between the two boys.

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Finding Mister Nutter — Part 5

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Warren Melville Nutter spent the final 32 years of his life on the Kenai Peninsula, working…

This photo of Warren Melville Nutter, holding a dead juvenile bald eagle that he shot for the bounty, appeared in the May 1938 edition of The Alaska Sportsman Magazine. The photo was probably taken near the mouth of Hidden Creek on Skilak Lake.

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Finding Mister Nutter — Part 4

AUTHOR’S NOTE: After more than two decades serving in the military and teaching in various classrooms, Warren Melville…

This is a display of some of the hunting items that Warren Melville Nutter carried when he moved to Alaska in the summer of 1930. (Photo courtesy of the Nutter Family Collection)

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Finding Mister Nutter — Part 3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: On the Kenai Peninsula, Warren Melville Nutter would become known primarily as a premiere bounty trapper…

Public photo from ancestry.com Gilbert Witt, pictured here in about 1930, was the troubled first husband of Muriel Grunert, who later married Warren Melville Nutter.

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Finding Mister Nutter — Part 2

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Warren Melville Nutter — known by many residents of the Kenai Peninsula as “William” or “Bill”…

Warren Melville Nutter, seen here holding a black bear cub in an undated photo likely taken in Hope, lived nearly half of his life on the Kenai Peninsula. (Photo courtesy of the Nutter Family Collection)

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Finding Mister Nutter — Part 1

AUTHOR’S NOTE: My search for Warren Melville Nutter began as part of a book project with former backcountry…

Photo courtesy of the John Secora Collection Joseph Secora was one of few individuals to live year-round on Tustumena Lake. He placer mined for gold on Indian Creek and completed three cabins in the area.

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Cosmopolitan Tustumena — Part 2

In 1880, before anyone was recorded as a resident on Tustumena Lake, the U.S. Census noted the general…