I got to Central, Alaska, when Jim and Sandy Crabb still owned and operated Crabb’s Corner.
Of all the things that have happened in my life one of the best was getting to know Jim and Sandy.
I still get goosebumps rippling across my forearms and around my belly when I think of the many times 10 miles north of Fairbanks I turned right at the Steese Highway’s junction with the Elliott Richardson Highway at Fox and heading up the Steese saw the sign, “No Gas for 118 Miles”, knowing that was at Central.
I drove there at all times of the year, but I loved winter the most.
Winter in Interior Alaska in the sub-Arctic is the awesome spectacle of nature serenely waiting for the unprepared to falter while in its grip. Knowing this pumped the adrenalin steadily into my blood. If I ever needed a boost, I could just take another step deeper into its maw.
In 2002 for Labor Day weekend and recently released from the hospital after a bout with acute kidney failure and with tubes still coming out of both kidney’s and my bladder, I drove alone to Central, thinking, by god, if I’m going to die, I’m at least going there one more time.
There were no better companions then Jim and Sandy for hunkering down in a warm spot to share food, drinks, and stories of the mighty Yukon River’s surrounding wilderness, and the people who lived there.
The warm spot was Crabb’s Corner, a tick or two over 127 miles up the Steese Highway from Fairbanks. God, I loved it so.
Crabb's Corner
Central, Alaska
circa 2000
Jim and Sandy Crabb
Crabb's Corner
Central, Alaska
circa 2000
Jim building another log cabin (a big one)
Central, Alaska
circa 2000
Another of Jim and Sandy's cabins
Crabb's Corner
Central, Alaska
circa 2000
Jim Crabb, Chef
Crabb's Corner
Central, Alaska
circa 2000
Another look at Crabb's Corner
Central, Alaska
circa 2000
More to come ... from NC Swede.
Cheers!
Cheers!
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