The Newsletter of Camp Denali
This fall marked a significant milestone in Camp Denali history. Forty years ago September, Wally and Jerri Cole purchased Camp Denali from two of its founders, Ginny Wood and Celia Hunter. A down payment of two of Wally’s handmade, wood-and-babiche rocking chairs sealed the deal. Wally and Jerri Cole would make Camp Denali, and starting in 1987, North Face Lodge, their life work for 35 years.
This is our 24th—and last—edition of the Tundra Telegram. Next season will find Camp Denali under new management. Ginny Wood and Celia Hunter, the founding mothers, are turning the helm over to Wally and Jerri Cole of Deneki Lakes. Last September, when we finished putting Camp in mothballs for the winter, eased our heavily-loaded vehicles down our switchbacks, and closed the gate at the bottom of the hill behind us on the summer of 1974, a quarter of a century, almost to the day, had passed since we had staked and filed on our 70 acres along the ridge above Moose Creek.
…We knew that someday someone else would be operating Camp Denali, and that someone had to be special: someone who had the same feeling about being caretakers, not exploiters of the land; someone with no ambitions or delusions about making it big at the expense of the clients or the environment; someone with manual skills and mechanical resourcefulness; someone who liked people.
…Camp Denali will, of course, reflect the personalities of Wally and Jerri, rather than Ginny and Celia, but those of you who return will feel at home.
