1958 North to Alaska:   My step dad (Ralph Emerson) had a TV store in Kalispell, Montana and when the only TV station there shut down the TV business went bankrupt so my mom (Ira) decided to move out of Montana. They had two places they were thinking about moving to Hawaii or Alaska, so they picked Alaska and in the spring of 1958 they headed north to Alaska. They found a small piece of land, 1-1/4 acres about 10 miles south of Anchorage on the North East corner of the DeArmond homestead Lot #10 for $1,500.00. They spent that summer of 1958 living in a tent while clearing trees so they would have a place to park the trailer house. They had a huge stack of wood after clearing a spot for the trailer. Ralph got a job repairing TV's for Vista Radio & TV. He worked there through the summer with plans to return to Montana for the winter and return again to Alaska the next spring with the whole family. Spring of 1959:   Then in the spring of 1959 we started our move to Alaska. There was my mom and dad, my sister who was four years old and myself who was 8 years old. We took every thing we owned loaded it into an 8 by 36 foot trailer house, which my dad had bough in 1952, it was a very unique trailer in that it had real Red Wood siding and a Asphalt single roof, it was designed to look like a summer cottage. Well my dad had a 1948 Ford half-ton Pick-up with a flathead V-8 in it. And my mom was going to drive our 1957 VW bug. So we started out with the 36 foot trailer which weighted 9-tons (18,000 pounds) remember we had every thing we owned in it, Ralph's test equipment from his old TV business, cloths, toys, 4 rabbits and there cages. There was just enough room in the trailer to crawl over and into it for the night to sleep. All this was towed behind a half ton Ford pick-up which had a 14-foot boat, 55 gallon drum of gas, the largest 5-KW power generator I had ever seen, boat motor and Misc. other things needed for the trip loaded on it.

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