I just came off of Denali (the tallest mountain in north america) no later than seven hours ago! What a trip it was! I journeyed up to the Sheldon Mountain House where I was part of a work crew installing/building a brand new structure soon to be known as the Sheldon Chalet. You might be wondering why I was able to be a part of such a fantastic journey... to be frank, it is no short story.
Back in 1947 my grandpa Don Sheldon had recently been honorably discharged from the military and decided to venture back to Alaska where he had called home since the 1930's. After being trained as a pilot he was reassigned as a tail gunner in WW2 serving 26 missions in Europe. Naturally upon returning to Alaska, he began a business built around planes and adventure. He started Talkeetna Air Service, a business which had an aim to bring clients from around the world to the Alaska range and witness the powerful and mighty Denali Mountain as well as the surrounding mountains which tower overhead for miles. The business quickly became a success, and at one point in time he owned 7 aircraft. In the coming years Don Sheldon had an idea to build a structure near the base of Denali where clients could stay comfortably and view the surrounding beauty for days upon end. Thus, the Mountain House was built in 1966. For over fifty years, the mountain house has been home to many wonderful memories.
In 2015, my father and his sister Kate had the idea to build a second structure ten times the size of the original mountain house measuring 2000 square feet and proportionately relative to the original structure. Unbeknownst to my father, my grandpa Don Sheldon (my father's father) had already planned on building a second mountain house but was stopped short when he lost a battle with cancer in the 1975. Nearly finished with the Sheldon Mountain Chalet plans (the new mountain hut structure being built), my father discovered original plans dating back as early as 1968. But, the most stunning truth about our find was that the original plans from the sixties were nearly 90% identical to the plans which my father had recently drawn up in 2015. And, to put the icing on the cake, we recently found old floor joists dating to the late 1960's that had been exposed due to the Ruth glacier receding and melting. We speculate that the floor joists were placed on the glacier by Don Sheldon in order to start preparation for a new mountain structure.
So, being the grandson of Don Sheldon, it was a natural decision for my father to allow me permission to be a part of the work crew building the new Sheldon Mountain Chalet. My last stint lasted eight days and consisted of interior wall and window preparation including dry wall and insulation. Of course some may hate these two fields of work, but it is impossible to hate your job while working at the soon to be chalet with mountains of unsurpassed monstrosity and beauty surrounding you three-hundred and sixty degrees, even if your job was to clean cmcs (aka: mountain toilets) all day. Nonetheless, this trip was one for the books and many more are to come. I cannot wait for this structure to be completed!
If you wish to learn more about the existing Sheldon Mountain House Structure you can visit sheldonmountainhouse.com or visit the Sheldon Mountain House Instagram page: sheldonmthouse