Читать книгу Chinook, Wine and Sink Her - Morgan Q O'Reilly - Страница 5

Foreword

Certain artistic license was taken regarding the location of Creed’s cabin and the village of Circle, Alaska.

While there are working gold mining operations all along the Steese Highway, which leads from Fairbanks to Circle, Creed’s is entirely fictional. The Steese Highway ends at Circle on the banks of the Yukon, and there are no roads leading to hidden cabins so far upstream. River travelers, who put in at Dawson or Eagle and float down to Circle, find many camping places along the route. There are also public-use cabins maintained by the Bureau of Land Management. Slaven’s Roadhouse is a real place, reachable only by river. Whether they have sat-phone or not, I don’t know.

The people of Circle are mostly Athabascan and live in a very small village. They live a mainly subsistence lifestyle with few modern conveniences. The roads are unpaved and the villagers haul water much as our characters do. The Washeteria does exist, pretty much the way Linnet sees it.

The few people we met on the late July day a friend and I made the drive from Fairbanks were very kind. We didn’t see many residents, but those we did looked curiously at our ‘Circle or Bust’ sign on the back of my dusty minivan.

The proprietor of the one and only store told us most tourists make it to Circle by accident, thinking they’re going to the Arctic Circle. No, we told her, we were writers who’d made the drive to Circle on purpose. Yes, she thinks we’re nuts, as well as a few dozen other people we talked to about our trip.

Many thanks to Ron and Sylvia of the Chatanika Roadhouse for good coffee, good food, good conversation and information. Ron gave us a personalized tour which included the official outhouse of their annual Outhouse Races held each March. If you’re ever there, be sure to mention the crazy romance writers who stopped by. We left our dollar bill under the nightlight display near the entry.

Of note, there is a wonderful essay and a collection of photos detailing the history of the Steese Highway to be found at: http://www.steesehighway.org/steesehistory.html