FRANK BARRETT

“Morale dropped as low as the temperature,” Frank wrote in his journal on February 18, 1982. The temperature was a balmy -25 degrees Midway on the Tal, where Frank Barrett and his business partners, all boys from the great state of Arizona, had just staked out a five acre plot of land in hopes to build an Alaskan fishing lodge. They were living in a nylon tent and sleeping in– (what Mark Miller would later describe as)– “sleeping bags with Disney characters on them.”

“As I peeled the frozen eggs for our breakfast,” Frank wrote. “We all sat in the tent contemplating our dilemma.”

The dilemma being that these Southern boys were sorely unprepared for a winter in Alaska. But ultimately they survived, with a little help from their neighbors, Trapper Jim and Mark Miller, and the rest is history.

Frank is a fellow first settler. He’s been with us from the beginning, and if we have any choice in the matter, he’ll be with us until the end.

With over 40 years of experience as a fishing guide on the Talachulitna River and its neighboring tributaries, the only thing that rivals Frank’s knowledge and expertise are his stories.

And his stories are plentiful. When fishing with Frank expect to laugh hard and laugh often.

Frank’s favorite part of the job are the people, and if those people become part of the story, well – that’s your warning!

His favorite part about our location is the wildness of it all. Frank recalls a story about when he was fishing the upper Tal. He had just pulled the boat onto the sandbar when a moose crossed the river just 10 yards up. Then with one cast of his fly rod he caught a rainbow. But just as he was letting it go an eagle swooped down and picked that fish up. As he hollered, a grizzly bear came out of the brush to see what the commotion was all about.

“It was a whirlwind of National Geographic!”