Touching Down Back in Time in Alaska

“Talkeetna is an aviation-rich community and is where all Denali climbers start,” McAneney said. “This is where you get your permit from the Denali National Park ranger station and do your safety briefing, so it’s also where most of the air taxis are that have concessions to land in the National Park.

“There are a lot of scenic flight operations, and aviation was important even before the climbing took off in the late 1960s In 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order granting land for the construction of the Talkeetna Village Airstrip (AK44). The airstrip was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and continues to be used year-round.”

McAneney has lived in Alaska for 12 years and had passed through town several times before deciding to settle there. He is actively involved with the upkeep of Talkeetna Village Airstrip. 

“The airstrip itself is on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Talkeetna Airman’s Association, which is a nonprofit, leases that land from the BLM,” he said. “I’m the president of the Talkeetna Airman’s Association and the manager of the airport itself. We are an FAA-recognized public airstrip that is kind of famous.”

McAneney has become a history buff and is continually learning new facts about the town. He routinely shares stories of the airstrip’s past with other aviation enthusiasts. 

“There has been some rich aviation history here over the years,” he said. :The pilot whose story that I am most familiar with is Don Sheldon. He started an air taxi that operated from this airstrip and developed glacier landing techniques. He teamed up with Bradford Washburn, a very famous cartographer, who mapped the Alaska Range in the 1950s. All of their missions were flown right off of this airstrip. That is just some of the cool history that has taken place here.”

The entrepreneur was not a pilot when he moved to Alaska. He now is commercially rated and spends his summers flying scenic flights from the nearby Talkeetna Airport (PATK) for a local charter company.

“There are endless opportunities for off-airport operations of all experience levels here, ranging from river/gravel bar strips, float flying, and ski flying,” he said. “The Alaska Range is only 25 miles from Talkeetna, and the best views of the mountains from the road system are to be had from Talkeetna. The Talkeetna Mountains are even closer and present another beautiful landscape to explore.”

The airport has a handful of homes around it, but only one property has direct access to the runway. McAneney purchased this home in late 2017.

“I was looking for a place to live and found this place,” he said. “I wasn’t flying yet at that time but watched airplanes come and go every day. There were all kinds of bushplanes and taildraggers. It was so cool, and I learned to fly in 2020, purchased a 1946 Cessna 120, and flew about 650 hours in a couple of years, because I could park right in my yard.”

The log home was built in 1983 using local spruce trees. McAneney decided that the cabin would be well-received by those spending time in Talkeetna and decided to turn it into a short-term rental. It sleeps six.

“When I moved to the shop next door, I renovated this house on the airstrip and marketed it to pilots. It is fittingly called "The Airstrip,” he said. “I have had it on Airbnb for two years now and it is popular, because it’s in such a good location in downtown Talkeetna. This summer I built a custom 800-gallon concrete hot tub that’s recessed into the deck. This overlooks the airstrip, where the planes are coming and going. There is also a sauna and a wood burning stove.”

The roughly 1,600-foot-long-by-30-foot-wide gravel and grass airstrip is maintained, although larger tires are recommended. Bush tires and skis in the winter are most often the wheels of choice when flying into the runway. 

“An interesting fact is that the Fairview Inn, the main bar in town that was built in 1923, is on the north end of the airstrip,” he said. “You can see on a map that the bar is only a block and a half from the north end of the runway. Our windsock is actually on top of the bar, and if the winds are favoring the south approach, you have to come in low over the town, and it is a really fun aviation vibe. All summer, there are planes coming and going here.”

Denali National Park entrance is about 140 miles away via the Parks Highway (roughly a 10-minute flight), but there are many things to do in and around the town of Talkeetna. 

“The town offers many attractions to visitors including jet boat rides, dog sledding, world-class fishing, a zip line, and some of the most scenic flying in the world,” McAneney said. “Talkeetna itself is a quaint little village that is over 100 years old and still has the charm and culture of an ‘end of the road’ town with a vibrant community rich in the arts.”

The airstrip is near many year-round recreational offerings. Several activities take place on the significant body of water adjacent to AK44.

“To the south, right off the end of the runway, there is a walking trail that runs along the Big Susitna River,” he said. “It’s glacial-fed and is the 11th-largest river in the United States by volume. There are all five species of salmon running through that river. But in the summertime, it’s filled with silt as the glaciers are melting, so it looks like concrete. If you go upriver a bit, there are some of the best spots where salmon are spawning.”