KAREN BREWSTER: -- Park Service. BEA LINGLE: Ok.

KAREN BREWSTER: Um, you were here before there was a park, and since there's been a park. BEA LINGLE: Um-hm.

KAREN BREWSTER: So do you remember when the park first started? BEA LINGLE: Yes, I do, but I couldn’t tell you what year it is.

KAREN BREWSTER: No, it was the late ’70’s, I can tell you that much. But do you remember how they came into town and talked to people or not? BEA LINGLE: Yes, and so many people were unhappy with them, including Benny, my husband, because he was getting ready to paint the hardware store.

And they told him, come down, and they’d let him know what color he could paint it. He said, "Nobody’s gonna tell me what to paint my business!" KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

BEA LINGLE: And he wasn’t going to listen, but he was in the Park Service boundaries.

KAREN BREWSTER: The Historic District downtown. Yeah, the store’s right on Broadway. BEA LINGLE: Yeah.

That was a funny story ’cause he just ignored them. And he took all the mistakes of paint that we still had in the warehouse, that people didn’t want ’cause it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be or something.

So -- and dumped it in a brand new garbage can and had this guy that was going to paint the building stir it up, and he said, "Paint it that color."

Well, it was kind of a titty pink, but he went ahead and did it his way.

And then the next thing we knew, the Park Service was saying, "Will you give us the recipe ’cause we’ve been looking for that color." KAREN BREWSTER: Oh? BEA LINGLE: It was funny.

KAREN BREWSTER: I thought the Park Service would’ve come and said, that’s the wrong color. BEA LINGLE: Well, they probably did, but they knew --

They’d been here long enough to know, he -- he could be ornery. And he did it his way.

He told ’em, he’d do it his way. He wasn’t going to buy enough paint to paint that great big building when he already had all this paint there, so he had 'em just mix it all together.

KAREN BREWSTER: So you said when the park first came, people in town weren’t too happy about it? BEA LINGLE: No, because they were going to be told what to paint the buildings, and they were fixing up some of the old buildings, and they were, I don’t know, everybody thought they were taking --

They said, it’s our tax money. They’re doing it on our tax money.

And I’m very unpolitical. And I think they’ve made our town look a lot nicer, and people do now, too.

And they’ve worked hard, and they always have a nice float on the Fourth of July. We used to have three things, ambulance, police car, and a walking group.

KAREN BREWSTER: And now it’s a little bigger? BEA LINGLE: Yes. They had it -- they used to make it go through twice ’cause it was only a few things.

And now we have ships in port, and sometimes they have their own walking group or whatever. And they get ready, and they’re right in there, too.

And it just, to me, the Park Service put a spirit in here that we had lost after the gold rush. And now, look at the people coming in here.

Have you seen a boat schedule? KAREN BREWSTER: No, but I’ve been here when a ship has been here.

BEA LINGLE: I’m going to give you something. You can look at it in your own time. But there’s more on it than -- what’d I do with my purse?

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, that’s ok. You can show it to me afterwards. BEA LINGLE: Well, if I can find my purse. Oh, here it is.

My opinion of the Park Service is, I love ’em. I appreciate everything they’ve done.

I’ve seen my town grow in beauty because of them. And that’s just the way I feel about it.

KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. And what about out in Dyea? You mentioned that -- BEA LINGLE: Dyea is amazing me. I was -- stayed for a month with Dorothy. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. They have a place out there. BEA LINGLE: Because Bob and Kathy were gonna be gone, and they didn’t want me to be alone.

I loved it. I had my own bedroom. It was right across the hall from a regular bathroom. I didn’t have to use an outhouse. And I get up a lot during the night, and so anyhow.

KAREN BREWSTER: But with Dyea, when the park came in, they said to people that you can’t hunt and do things out -- have horses out there, people used to have, right? BEA LINGLE: Um-hm.

KAREN BREWSTER: So, you think people didn’t like that? BEA LINGLE: I don’t know. People are cranky.

They didn’t like being told what they could and couldn’t do. You can’t hunt, and you can’t -- but they’ve gone ahead and made (rummaging sound). Maybe I gave it. No, I didn’t.

They’ve gone ahead and tried to figure out what the old town site was and put the roads in. And I think it’s great. KAREN BREWSTER: Good.

BEA LINGLE: This is our boat schedule for this year. KAREN BREWSTER: Holy cow. BEA LINGLE: And just take it with you, but be sure and read the back, too. It's -- I like statistics, and it’s --

KAREN BREWSTER: But that is a lot of boats. BEA LINGLE: And next year, it will be more. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

BEA LINGLE: Because they’re trying to make our docks longer. But that wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have our Park Service taking an interest in our town, and in Dyea. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

BEA LINGLE: They’ve got a beautiful campground set up over there.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. And lots of people go over that Chilkoot trail now, huh? BEA LINGLE: Oh, yeah. The day I went over it. Now you have to ask permission. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. Well, you have to get a permit. BEA LINGLE: Yeah.

The day I went over it, that hadn’t started yet. The Park Service had it, but that hadn’t started yet.

And 500 people had gone over it the day before, and the weather was wet, rainy. And 300 people were on it with us.

And the path was worn down in. The water was coming down it. You could not see down in the water because it was muddy. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

BEA LINGLE: And you didn’t know when you were sliding off a rock or a root. It was miserable.

And the bears were hungry, and you couldn’t camp where you wanted to. You had to camp where the Park Service told you to.

And right after, that’s when they started charging people to go over it, and keeping people up there to help. You know, their people. KAREN BREWSTER: Rangers on the trail, yeah? BEA LINGLE: Yes. And fixing the trail better.

And we were told you couldn’t camp near one of the log cabins ’cause it was too crowded already outside. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. BEA LINGLE: And so they told us we had to go to an island in the river, and we had to walk across these two logs, and there was no bark left on them.

You know, they were slipperier than all get-out, and I figured, "What if the island were going to -- the water comes up higher, you know?" But they -- they knew what they were doing. I didn’t know.

And so, we slept on the island, and it was -- it was an adventure.

And the path was terrible. Just -- you’re walking in water, muddy water, all day long.

KAREN BREWSTER: Do you remember about when that was, when you did that? BEA LINGLE: I was in my fifties. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. So. BEA LINGLE: You know, I’m ninety-one now. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, about forty years ago. BEA LINGLE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

BEA LINGLE: And then right after that, they started limiting how many people could go. ’Cause that’s what wore the path down. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. BEA LINGLE: Into a gully.

KAREN BREWSTER: And that was the first time you hiked the whole trail? BEA LINGLE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Even growing up here? BEA LINGLE: Yes. KAREN BREWSTER: Huh.

BEA LINGLE: And I don’t want to ever do it again. I’d never had a pack on my back before. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh.

BEA LINGLE: And I was with a couple that, he is a salesman and had brought his wife up here. He sold to the hardware store.

And they talked me into going with them. And it was their anniversary. And that was his trip to his wife.

Well, I don’t think -- she froze going up the stairs. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, yeah.

BEA LINGLE: Do you want all this? KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. BEA LINGLE: She froze going up the stairs. It was foggy and raining and wet.

And she said, "Bea, I can’t go any further. I don’t know what to do." And she was losing it.

And I said, "I’ll go ahead and find Bob and bring him back." His name was Bob Mosely. "And I’ll bring him back, and he’ll help talk you through it."

Because he'd quit -- he had her pack on him, and his pack, ’cause she -- it was.

KAREN BREWSTER: That’s the hardest part of the trail, I’ve heard. BEA LINGLE: Yeah. Oh, gosh.

So then that night, after he got her talked up the stairs, and we were down, going down towards Lake Lindeman, and we camped where they told us we could because of the bears. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

BEA LINGLE: And I had -- I didn’t have a water drinking bottle, so I had rinsed out a bottle with a cap that snapped in.

(looking outside) That’s my wonderful son-in-law. KAREN BREWSTER: And so were you drinking water just from the river? BEA LINGLE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: He’s refilling your feeders? BEA LINGLE: I don’t have the stuff out. Maybe Bob was going to -- (Tape paused as Bea gets up, then resumes.)

BEA LINGLE: That night, in a safe place and everything, and they celebrated in their tent.

And I had some vodka in my pack, and so I said, "Would you like a drink to celebrate?" "Yes, we would." So I gave them my vodka in my water bottle that I had cleaned out.

Well, the thing is, it didn’t bother me any, but it did Marilyn because the water bottle had been a soap bottle. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. BEA LINGLE: And I thought I had rinsed it out good, but she got it -- KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. BEA LINGLE: -- the next day.

And she knew right away what had happened, that I hadn’t rinsed it out good enough, and she had drank soap.

But I’d been drinking it, and it didn’t bother me.

But anyhow, I wrecked her hike on the Chilkoot. And I bought a t-shirt at my friend’s clothing store that said, I hiked the Chilkoot. And then I marked, stupid, stupid, stupid across the bottom of it 'cause I --

We got to Bennett, and we couldn’t get back to Skagway because the train had derailed in two places in town here. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, no. BEA LINGLE: And they couldn’t get anything up.

KAREN BREWSTER: So you had to camp an extra day up there? BEA LINGLE: No, we had to walk out to the road. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. BEA LINGLE: And figure out some way to get picked up. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

BEA LINGLE: So I phoned the dispatcher, which was at that time one of my son-in-laws. And I told him and he got a hold of Dorothy, and she drove my yellow truck up.

KAREN BREWSTER: So there was a phone out there some place? BEA LINGLE: Well, the section house, which is now -- it was a lunch house. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. BEA LINGLE: Lunchroom and bunkhouse and everything, but now it’s a museum, I think. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. BEA LINGLE: But I wrecked their trip on the Chilkoot.

But the weather is warming. KAREN BREWSTER: It is. BEA LINGLE: And the trees are beautiful. KAREN BREWSTER: Great.

BEA LINGLE: And I love the Park Service, so.

KAREN BREWSTER: Do you remember any particular superintendents? BEA LINGLE: No. And I didn’t have to go up to there. The only time I’ve had to go up there was when I had to -- I thought that was where I had to go to get a historical plaque for the hardware store. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

BEA LINGLE: The old hotel behind us, St. James Hotel, which is our warehouse.

And then I found out how -- what our ware -- lumber yard was. And it was built by White Pass to store their supplies in there to build the railroad. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. And the lumber yard is right across from the old Moore homestead? BEA LINGLE: Yes.

KAREN BREWSTER: And so it hasn’t always been a lumber yard? BEA LINGLE: No. It has all the time I can remember anything been, but during the war, it was a Coca-Cola plant.

KAREN BREWSTER: They had a Coca-Cola plant here? BEA LINGLE: Um-hm. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow. There were that many soldiers that wanted a soda? BEA LINGLE: Um-hm. KAREN BREWSTER: Interesting.

BEA LINGLE: And they just tore down the old latrine barracks that’s about midway up through town. They just tore that down the other day. That it was for the army, when it was here.

And they found -- people had stored things in there, and they found this purse, and they gave it to me. KAREN BREWSTER: How fun. BEA LINGLE: And so I’ve sure had fun with that. KAREN BREWSTER: That’s great.

Well, thank you so much for your time today. BEA LINGLE: Well, I don’t know that I told you anything you wanted to hear.

KAREN BREWSTER: I -- I want to hear whatever somebody wants to talk about. I don’t come in with any pre-conceived ideas. BEA LINGLE: Well. KAREN BREWSTER: You did -- you did, you told me about how it’s warmer than it used to be, how you used to go sledding.

BEA LINGLE: One thing I didn’t tell you, my son, Mike, was sitting on my couch last summer when I was up at my cabin, and he said, "Mom, did you plant those trees out there on that sand dune?" And I said, "No. That’s global warming." KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

BEA LINGLE: Because you can’t even tell it was a sand dune now. KAREN BREWSTER: Really. Yeah, that’s really interesting about Carcross. That’s nice to know.

BEA LINGLE: Have you been up there? KAREN BREWSTER: Um, in 2010, when I was here, we drove. BEA LINGLE: Ok. KAREN BREWSTER: So we drove out that way, yes.

BEA LINGLE: Did you see the big dune? KAREN BREWSTER: I don’t remember. BEA LINGLE: Ok. KAREN BREWSTER: I don’t remember.

BEA LINGLE: You don’t have to go very far out of Carcross to see that. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

BEA LINGLE: And they have sky-jumping classes up there, and they jump into that dune. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, cool. BEA LINGLE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Cool.

Yeah, no, you’ve told me lots of wonderful stories. I say, you know, ice skating. You probably used to ice skate. BEA LINGLE: We ice skated a lot on the river ponds that would freeze over.

I had a trunk, a round-topped trunk, full of ice skates that I collected during the years as people would move out of town or have a yard sale ’cause their kids had all grown and left. And I’d get ’em for my kids.

I had ice skates everywhere in that trunk, just full.

And one family borrowed them a lot when they were here. And then that family moved out of town, and the next time I went to get ’em, they’d taken all my skates with them. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, no.

So even when your kids were growing up -- BEA LINGLE: Oh, yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: -- you could still ice skate on the river and ponds? BEA LINGLE: Um-hm. Um-hm. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow. Cool. BEA LINGLE: Yep.

KAREN BREWSTER: And nowadays, they don’t do that? BEA LINGLE: No, and it doesn’t get cold enough. And even up in the Yukon, they can’t have curling festivals and, what do you -- ? KAREN BREWSTER: Bonspiels. BEA LINGLE: Bonspiels, that’s it. They can’t. They don’t freeze.

KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, they used to do them outdoors? BEA LINGLE: Yes, or in a building with no heat. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, right. Ok. Yeah.

BEA LINGLE: And they can’t do it. It doesn’t freeze good enough. It’s not dependable enough to set up a schedule, you know, to -- KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

BEA LINGLE: So I thought that -- they haven’t had any for years. And they used to have Whitehorse come down and have some kind of ice skating contest over near -- on that side of town ’cause it would -- they had a way of flooding it. KAREN BREWSTER: Hm.

BEA LINGLE: And then the kids would use it at night to go -- they had a light switch the power company had fixed on the pole, and they could have a light on, as long as they turned it off. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. BEA LINGLE: When they left.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, I noticed -- this is kind of off-topic, but I noticed the other day, I was walking up Broadway toward, you know, towards Fifteenth, up that direction. BEA LINGLE: Um-hm. North. KAREN BREWSTER: North.

And there’s a little bit of a creek every once in awhile you see that comes out of the roads and along the sidewalks. BEA LINGLE: Yes. KAREN BREWSTER: And then it disappears again.

BEA LINGLE: Well, it goes under and it comes back, and it comes out in Pullen Pond.

You walk down there, you’ll find it going into the pond.

KAREN BREWSTER: And Pullen Pond is down by the harbor? BEA LINGLE: Uh-huh. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

BEA LINGLE: It’s by -- the boat harbor has storage and stuff coming north out of it. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

BEA LINGLE: And then it has an RV park, and then -- let’s see, the R -- I -- Isn’t that funny, I can’t remember just how it goes, but anyhow, there’s a pond.

KAREN BREWSTER: So it’s a freshwater pond? BEA LINGLE: Well, from that creek. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

BEA LINGLE: And they put the little fingerlings that they were raising. KAREN BREWSTER: Right.

BEA LINGLE: They haven’t done that the last few years, but they had a teacher here that was building it up in the school, and I thought it was great. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

BEA LINGLE: A lot of the kids got interested in.

KAREN BREWSTER: But so, a long time ago, that Pullen Pond was farther away from the ocean? BEA LINGLE: Huh-uh.

KAREN BREWSTER: Didn’t they -- haven’t they filled in the dock area? BEA LINGLE: Yeah, but that pond as I remember was always there. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

BEA LINGLE: And they had to -- culverted it under the road, Congress Way, that went down to the White Pass dock. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

So when you were growing up, that little creek, I don’t know what that’s called. BEA LINGLE: Pullen Creek. KAREN BREWSTER: It's Pullen Creek?

Did it always go in and out of the streets, or was it more open? BEA LINGLE: Huh-uh, it was like it is. KAREN BREWSTER: It was always that way?

BEA LINGLE: But as the town grew, it kind of got hidden, you know. But we all -- the kids all knew it was there.

I caught my first fish in that thing. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh. BEA LINGLE: Because the salmon would go up it. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

Now they probably can’t get up it very far. BEA LINGLE: Yeah, they can. KAREN BREWSTER: They can? BEA LINGLE: Um-hm. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

Did you -- as a kid, did you go catch tadpoles or things in it? Did they have those? BEA LINGLE: No, we caught fish. KAREN BREWSTER: Fish? BEA LINGLE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Cool.

BEA LINGLE: They probably were half rotten 'cause they were going get ready to die, but we didn’t know.

And the kid that took me, he -- I didn’t want to kill it. It was flipping around. So he grabbed my pole and took -- grabbed the fish and went over and hit it on the railroad tracks in the head so it -- 'til it quit flopping.

And I thought, "I don’t think I want to fish anymore." It’s still going up there.

KAREN BREWSTER: That’s great. And then they moved the railroad tracks? BEA LINGLE: It has grown the last few years.

And now, you know, the railroad’s been sold. And there’s, boy, a lot of controversy about that. But I think it should be all for the good because they’ve already --

Oh, I wish I could drive. Can -- You’ve got a driver’s license? KAREN BREWSTER: I do. BEA LINGLE: You could drive my car, and I could take you around where they -- they drained a swamp just a couple of years ago and routed it under the road and under the railroad tracks, and took over the area because it was really land owned by the railroad.

And so the -- a bunch of golfers bought the railroad for a few years, and they’ve really bettered it. You know, built a lot more tracks and everything.

And then they built -- they paved it, and they painted bus lines so the buses could take the people up there to get on the train that would take ’em to Carcross or somewhere.

And it took the congestion out of the railroad depot. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. BEA LINGLE: Because it was becoming so congested.

And here’s this beautiful street now, and it’s all paved, and the lines are painted on it, and there’s great big arrows, this big, showing you it’s a one-way street. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

BEA LINGLE: Then they put a stop sign up for the Skagway people that don’t obey one-way streets. They don’t know how to treat ’em.

So they got a stop sign at the end. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

But that’s all worked? The swamp hasn’t eaten the parking lot? BEA LINGLE: Oh, no. They -- they combined it into the creek, and it goes over by the bluff. KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh.

BEA LINGLE: And it comes back -- let’s see, comes back under the railroad tracks and goes through the power plant and comes out of that.

And then it’s on this side of the tracks down to Pullen Pond. It goes under the tracks again right there, and then it spills into Pullen Pond.

KAREN BREWSTER: It’s crazy. I was -- I was surprised when I was walking, and all of a sudden there was this little creek, sort of hidden away between the road and somebody’s house and the sidewalk. BEA LINGLE: Yep. Um-hm.

KAREN BREWSTER: And it’s kind of nice they've left it exposed in some places. BEA LINGLE: Well, they filled in so much of Skagway.

You know, the tides used to come up to Second -- to Third Street. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

BEA LINGLE: When they’d have an extremely high tide, and that’s why there’s steps going up to the bookstore. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. Or the old railroad depot where the -- BEA LINGLE: Um-hm. Yep. KAREN BREWSTER: -- Park Service is? BEA LINGLE: Yep.

KAREN BREWSTER: I thought that was just steps to get off the muddy old dirt road. BEA LINGLE: Well, that helped, too, then.

But now they have filled in even the beach. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. BEA LINGLE: It’s all been filled in.

KAREN BREWSTER: So when you were growing up, that was all beach that you could play on? BEA LINGLE: Yeah, it had -- it had a boat harbor, but not there. It was just a dug hole, kinda, they could get into.

And then, a lot of the boats were kinda high and dry if it was an extreme low tide. KAREN BREWSTER: Right. BEA LINGLE: It’s --

KAREN BREWSTER: So was the beach rocky? Was it a rocky beach? BEA LINGLE: Um-hm. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

That would be fun as a kid to have gone -- had all that beach to play on. BEA LINGLE: Oh, I’m telling you, I can’t get over all the sand that’s come down with the river. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh.

BEA LINGLE: When there’s a low tide, down there there’s sand at the mouth of the river. KAREN BREWSTER: And there didn’t use to be? BEA LINGLE: I don’t remember sand there.

The Selmer boys say they remember it, but I used to take my kids over the footbridge, and we’d --

they had the dump down there at the end of the airport. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. BEA LINGLE: And I’d take --

the dump used to break up all the bottles, you know, the tides coming in and going back out. And then the broken glass would wash ashore over on the point where you went. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

BEA LINGLE: And then my kids and I'd go pick it up. And I made murals with beach glass. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, how pretty. BEA LINGLE: Well, you know, it’s all frosted. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

BEA LINGLE: But you could get green and brown and blue. Blue was very rare, which was Pepto-Bismol bottles.

And I’d tell the kids if they find blue glass, that brings them good luck.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, and, of course, the last thing which we haven’t talked about are the glaciers in the mountains around here. BEA LINGLE: Just this summer. KAREN BREWSTER: Really? BEA LINGLE: They’ve melted back.

KAREN BREWSTER: That’s that one up on Harding? BEA LINGLE: Um-hm. A piece of it broke off. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. BEA LINGLE: Somebody took a picture, and it was side by side before it broke and when it broke off.

I haven’t seen that, but I’ve heard everybody talking about it. They put it on Facebook. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

So when you were a kid, you could really see all the glaciers? BEA LINGLE: Oh, yeah. This one over here. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

BEA LINGLE: Some scientist came to town, scared poor Kathy to death. He said that that glacier is a hanging glacier, and it’s going to break off and fall down in the bay and cause a tidal wave that will wipe Skagway out.

And it’ll happen within the next five years. I didn’t realize Kathy -- she still talks about it. But that just scared her to death. KAREN BREWSTER: Wow.

BEA LINGLE: She knew we were all going to be killed.

KAREN BREWSTER: Well, but when that piece fell off this summer, did it create a big tidal wave? BEA LINGLE: It didn’t come all the way down. KAREN BREWSTER: Oh, I see. BEA LINGLE: It was rotten and old. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.

BEA LINGLE: And looks like it got quite thin because a big piece of rock is under it.

But I would like to have seen the two pictures, but I never got to. I don’t do Facebook. KAREN BREWSTER: No.

Well, yeah, that definitely is a big change, those glaciers not being visible anymore. Ok. BEA LINGLE: Yeah, there was one up -- did --

Have you ever seen the face? KAREN BREWSTER: Um, no. I mean, I know it’s there, but I haven’t looked. Since I’ve been here. BEA LINGLE: He’s sleeping on his back. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok. BEA LINGLE: The profile is, you know. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

BEA LINGLE: And then there’s a little girl over here, too. I didn’t know it was there 'til somebody -- one of the engineers on the train, pointed it out to me. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

BEA LINGLE: But there’s things over there -- anybody that loves the mountains, they have different stories about different peaks and -- KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm. Yeah.

But the fact that they’re -- you don’t get to see those glaciers anymore is a big difference. BEA LINGLE: Yeah, but we don’t usually have fog this low either.

KAREN BREWSTER: No, no. I meant just because they've receded. BEA LINGLE: Oh. KAREN BREWSTER: They’ve gone back farther. BEA LINGLE: Well, you can see ’em.

But we had a really catastrophe in Dyea about five years ago. The moraine that the glacier -- it had receded and made a lake. And the moraine kept it into a lake.

And then it broke. And all this water came down West Creek and brought a whole bunch of sand and silt with it.

And they -- it washed through some of the houses and filled one guy’s -- in fact, it was my niece and nephew, one of them, over there.

Their -- with silt, their pump house and light plant and everything, and they wanted it back like it was. And they got my daughter-in-law’s brother who can do anything. And he went over and cleaned it all out, the silt, and cleaned the motors, and --

KAREN BREWSTER: Now, is that an unusual event to have -- ? BEA LINGLE: Yes. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. It’s never happened before? BEA LINGLE: Hm-um. KAREN BREWSTER: Hm. Interesting. BEA LINGLE: Yeah.

KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah, all those things, you wonder, is it climate change, or is it just going to happen anyway? BEA LINGLE: Well, I think a lot of it is climate change because that -- that moraine was formed by that glacier that had formed the lake. KAREN BREWSTER: Um-hm.

BEA LINGLE: And that glacier’s still there, but on hot days, it melts, too. It melts back. So to me, it’s global warming. KAREN BREWSTER: Ok.

BEA LINGLE: But then, we had an Ice Age, too, so -- And they find, what is it, the remains of palm trees and things. KAREN BREWSTER: Uh-huh. In fossils, yeah? BEA LINGLE: Um-hm. KAREN BREWSTER: Yep. Maybe we’ll go back to that? BEA LINGLE: Yeah. KAREN BREWSTER: Maybe we’ll be like --

BEA LINGLE: If it gets that warm here, what’s it going to do down south? It’ll be killing heat like Death Valley. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah. BEA LINGLE: That got up to 120-something. KAREN BREWSTER: Yep.

Ok, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. BEA LINGLE: Well, Karen, I don’t know what else to tell you, but you'll li -- you can -- KAREN BREWSTER: You’ve told me a lot. And it’s just lovely to get to visit with you. BEA LINGLE: Well, I like visiting with you, too. KAREN BREWSTER: Yeah.