Time and Tide Adventures on Alaska's Copper River Delta
is a story about a duck cabin on Alaska's Copper River Delta-and much more! In 1959 the Shellhorns built their place on Pete Dahl Slough, one of many intertidal waterways that braid the 50 mile marshland formed by the Copper. This wetland is a natural breeding habitat for waterfowl, and also a stopping place for migratory birds.
While early explorers and prospectors traversed the region, it was salmon that first drew pioneers to the outer edges of the Delta, where fishermen built camps to operate set net sites. Soon the famous Copper River and Northwestern Railroad would follow. Here is a chronicle of the early days of the Delta, beginning with Lt. Henry Allen's amazing expedition up the Copper in 1885, as well as a history of fisheries, war, roads, fires, storms, earthquakes, floods, and duck hunting. Plus change of habitat, with moose, bear, and other predators moving out on the Delta as brush and trees exploded following land uplift, and the sloughs gradually silted in. Meet characters such as Long Shorty, Curly Hoover, Kernel Korn, Eyeball Leer, and the Mayor of Pete Dahl, Don Shellhorn. Learn about duck shacks such as the Pair-A-Dice Inn, Boxcar, and Korn Hole, and the rich history hidden in their walls. Delight in the foibles of boating and hunting in the wild weather and water of the Flats. Revel in the Ode to Family and small town Alaska found in countless quotes from the Shellhorn Duck Cabin Logs, 54 years of unique recorded history, written by 458 different visitors. Full of laughter, joy, and tragedy; replete with lessons and truths; ribald and poignant; Time and Tide is the story of an Era of Adventure on the Copper River Delta.