Fire Destroys Noted Alaska Trading Post

ANCHORAGE - Fire gutted a historic trading post in downtown Talkeetna, Alaska, yesterday, leaving the town's 400 residents without a grocery store.

No one was injured in the blaze, which broke out shortly before 10:30 a.m. at Nagley's Store. Three employees who were inside when the fire began called 911 before fleeing.

A team of 10 volunteer firefighters fought the flames for nearly four hours as black smoke billowed from the two-story wooden structure. Water sprayed on the building quickly turned to icicles in temperatures that hovered near 20 below.

"Our ladders were icing up and our nozzles were freezing. Firefighters were freezing," Fire Chief Ken Farina said.

Nagley's, which operated under the name B & K Trading Post for many years under its previous owners, was the second-oldest building in town and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Talkeetna is situated between Anchorage and Fairbanks, close to Mount McKinley.

The cause of the blaze has not been determined, and Farina said he will ask the state fire marshal to investigate. The owner of the store, Dennis Freeman, was out of state, Farina said.

"We're just heartbroken," said Roberta Sheldon, a Talkeetna resident and author of "The Heritage of Talkeetna." Sheldon lives about 100 feet from Nagley's.

"I was looking out my kitchen window and saw black smoke coming out where the wood smoke comes out. They were already aware of it when I called the store," Sheldon said.

The building was built by H.W. Nagley in the early 1920s at Susitna Station and was moved up the Susitna River to Talkeetna several years later, when Talkeetna became a major construction camp for the Alaska Railroad, Sheldon said.

Nagley operated his trading post from a spot near the Talkeetna River until the early 1940s. After a major flood in 1941, the building was moved to Main Street, she said. It operated continuously as a trading post, even during the move to Main Street.

"They pulled it up on skids and Nagley conducted his business out of it at each location during the two or three days it took to move it," Sheldon said.

Nagley's provided local residents with milk, eggs, bread, coffee and frozen foods. In recent years, Nagley's sold espresso, adding a cosmopolitan flair to what was a quintessential country store.