Update to now

Last entry was from Fairbanks on the way to the arctic, and we have the pictures to prove it, we stopped at the highway point that says that you have gotten to the arctic circle, but the arctic circle latitude is actually a few miles further south. The highway is such that its an inconvenient turnoff at the actual latitude. We persevered on to Wiseman another 60 miles, actually 58, you have to come back south two miles from the “haul road” to get to the town. And it’s the 100^th anniversary of the Village of Wiseman as well as then 50^th of Keen Foundry, I have no particular date to add to the festivities.

Wiseman is a long established northern most outpost for the gold rush, the place where the first air travel in Alaska traveled.. Bi-planes landed on the gravel bars in the Koyukuk river just upstream of the intersection of Wiseman Creek. The pilots had to protect the planes from the residents, who were understandably fascinated with the new invention.

We arrived on Thursday evening, the eight of us: Donnie, Kristi, Forrest, Barbra, Joe, Mandy, Rhonda Mc Nally (who met us in Fairbanks), & myself. We checked into the Boreal Lodge and as we could, slept. Its tough to sleep when the sun NEVER goes down; I can nap with the best of them, but its still difficult.

Friday morning we unloaded the trucks and began setting up the furnace, etc. Just at the opportune moment Pat Garley, Shane Morgan (from Montana), D’Jean Jawrunner (from New Mexico), Sarah Byrnes (from Ohio), and Laura & Eric West(from California) arrived with the propane and extra coke.. We were in fat city. We spent the day burning in the lining on the trashcan cupolette, finally leaving it burning, but covered so as to not start a fire. Margaritas all around. Later that “evening” (remember the sun NEVER sets) Wendy Crosskey and Hannah Stevenson and Tamara Wilson, her students from The University of Alaska, Fairbanks, arrived to complete the complement.

Saturday morning we started by unloading molds and charges. We had made the molds in Houston, prior to leaving, now the community members had their opportunity to decorate a facet of the obelisk that we had envisioned. They were hesitant at first, then they became enthusiastic as the molds were readied. We charged the furnace and when we saw that we had melted the charges, we tapped and poured the first mold. The metal was hot, but not as hot as we wished, and not as much as we were supposed to have. We went to two and a half charges and tapped. We had hot metal, but not as hot as we knew it would make. Those molds poured fine, but the metal was not as hot as we wished. We “back burned” from the top and “power slagged” to get the trash out of the well.

Next time we went to three full charges of 25 pounds each. And we got lots of very hot metal. Several molds got poured. That seemed to be the answer. BUT, when we tried the same regime the next time we got NOTHING, no metal and the tap hole was frozen.

At that point we had the choice of shutting down or trying to clear the cupolette. We dumped the entire thing, all coke, whatever metal, etc. And started again from new bed coke & back burning to ensure that we had a hot well. Again we got hot metal, more molds got poured; BUT the next time we had a well full of slag and no metal. We decided to call it off and dumped every thing once more. We never did get metal again.

We did cast a plaque, the “cap piece”, the base & one section to the obelisk, plus several of the molds that had come up from Pat’s molding workshop. In retrospect, its obvious that I had made the well too deep and the metal was cooling before the third charge was melted. So much for calculations versus experience. I SHOULD have taken the measurements from the furnace that worked in NYC and raised the slagger and tuyere an inch or so to give us the 50 pounds we needed. But I had recalculated and went with those measurements.

As Pat said, it wasn’t a runaway success, nor was it an unqualified failure. Somewhere in between. The plaque, which poured slightly “short”, but OK, is now installed next to the flag pole at the Wiseman Community center, the base, cap, and section, and other section molds are on their way to Palmer to be finished out and/or poured at the Wasilla pour next Saturday, or, God forbid, at Kenai the Friday after. The entire project will be complete sometime between now and next August.

We cleaned the site on Sunday, after the Saturday pour. Its pretty much the same as when we arrived, except there is a lightly used cupolette sitting next to the 55 gallon, burn barrel and a few chunks of mold waste that will be carved into molds before next year’s Wasilla pour.

But, as far as the residents of Wiseman were concerned, it was a smashing success. When we stopped at the Visitor’s Center and cafe in Cold Foot this Monday morning to get our “certificates” that verify that we have crossed the arctic circle, everyone was happy and still excited. It had been exhilarating for them to have us come and even attempt to pour iron, and the plaque was just gravy after the fact.

And, Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that mid-pour we got about twenty minutes of rain and that the mosquitoes were vicious. Kristin, one of the ladies who invited us to Wiseman, always had a lit mosquito coil in her hand as she walked around. We had to make do with the Off that we brought.

Further Update to Now, Now Having Changed

The current NOW is in Palmer, Alaska, at Pat Garley’s studio. We had traveled back down the Dalton Highway to Fairbanks and Wendy Crossky’s studio where we over-nighted and went to the University of Alaska Museum of the North. Then we continued southward on the Parks Highway to Denali National Park. Denali is crowded this time of year, there were two reserved spaces for the bus tour for the 27^th, otherwise you were traveling on a space available status. We drove in as far as we were allowed to the Savage River. It is pretty savage; I estimated that there was a 100 foot gradient drop in less than a quarter mile.

The big draw is, of course, Mount McKinley; but you have to get beyond our vantage point to see it in the park itself. However, there are a couple of great views at turn-offs further south. We were fortunate that there weren’t clouds obscuring the summit when we got there. Late that “evening” (it still hasn’t gotten dark yet) we got to Pat’s. The next day we got to work.

Preparations for the Wasilla Pour are underway. Scott Hamann had delivered the furnace that Pat designed and we burned it in, twice. With a couple of minor modifications it looks ready to run and should tap out between 120-200 pounds, depending.

We have fabricated two ladles, one standard refractory lined and one that D’Jean made with fiber lining, plus we still have two of our smaller fiber ladles as backup, just in case. We still have to make some cupola tools and finish up molds.

Further down the new Now.

The Wasilla pour is history, we haven’t cleaned up the site yet, but its done. Most importantly, it went very well. Lots of good hot iron. The new cupolette tapped 220 pounds, or would have if we’d had a ladle big enough; we had to bott mid-stream and the crew didn’t like a heavy ladle, so we took three taps per set of charges. All the molds poured, only one had any mis-casting, & I suspect that the core was too thick at that point, or it shifted in transit.

The piece for Wiseman is all cast and ready to be finished at leisure. The Wasilla plaque is ready to clean and install. And the Museum of Transportation and Industry is happy with us.

The public information has been spotty and somewhat inaccurate, but great fun. In the local Palmer newspaper D’Jean Jawrunner is the “featured” artist because she is a known quantity here. Pat, Donnie, & I have given her a hard time about it, mostly Pat who is local and can’t get much of a mention in his home town. They have known each other for so long now its difficult to know who did what first, but D'Jean is the "teacher of record". My father always used to say that “a prophet’s mouth is always ‘stopped’ in his own land”, it seems to still be true. We shall see what the Anchorage paper has to say in its Wednesday section.

Pictures and extensive info to follow. Internet access is mostly not easily available, sorry.

Butch