from “Males for sale, cheap, hairy”
TALKEETNA IS ABOUT 120 miles from Anchorage, population 330, zip code 99676. It began life as a Tanaina village, in 1916 became a work camp for construction of the Alaska Railroad, and now serves as the staging area for climbing Denali, known to people from Ohio as Mt. McKinley. Talkeetna is Tanaina for “river of plenty,” the way Denali is either “home of the sun” or “the high one,” or both.
Talkeetna is also the town which celebrates Winterfest. What is Winterfest? Ah, thereby hangs my tale. Make that tail. A foxtail, in fact. Hanging from a fox-fur G-string.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.