Milt Trump

Milt Trump was in the cavalry.
Milt Trump was a trapper, miner, mail carrier.
Milt Trump “went outside” once — in 1949 I think — to a wedding in the lower 49 (*).
Said he didn’t like it much — not the wedding — being outside I mean.
Milt Trump ran the radios on the East Kahiltna Glacier for a while.
Milt Trump talked down Cliff Hudson, Doug Geeting and the other bush pilots.
Pete Hudson has my sunglasses — I sent them back with Cliff from the East Kahiltna.

Milt Trump lies in the fourteenth row from the big gate in Talkeetna cemetry.
They named a road after him, off Barge drive, East of the Sushitna river.
By the way, the missionaries renamed the river, didn’t seem to like the Inuit name much.

Doug Geeting wrote a song for Milt Trump. It’s on his “Between Flights” CD.
Doug Geeting bought a harp guitar after hearing Michael Hedges.
Michael Hedges’ first composition for harp guitar was “Because It’s There.”
It’s on his “Live on a Double Planet” CD.
“Because It’s There” is the soundtrack for the movie about Noami Uemura.
Uemura was a Japanese adventurer who dedicated his life to exploring the most challenging areas of the earth.
Uemura taught himself to eat raw fat — because it’s 4000 calories per pound.
Uemura climbed Denali alone in winter.

Doug Geeting was the last to see Uemura alive. The final entry in Uemura's diary read:
“I wish I could sleep in a warm sleeping bag. No matter what happens I am going to climb McKinley.”
Uemura was never found — his devotees spent months looking for him on Denali.
They decorated one wall at the Talkeetna Roadhouse with Uemura memorabilia
That’s the place next to the Denali Dry Goods Store, across the road from the Fairview Inn.

Michael Hedges died in a car accident along California State Route 128 in Mendocino County.
His record “Oracle” posthumously won the 1998 Grammy for Best New Age Album.

Don Sheldon's daughter Holly purchased “Hudson Air Service” from Cliff Hudson's son Jay and
renamed it “Sheldon Air Service.”

(*) I stand corrected, for, according to Geoff Keech in Melbourne, Australia:

“Apparently Milt did get out of Alaska more than once and further than the lower 49. Told me he was in the Merchant Navy and jumped ship in Adelaide during the war. Was in a pub talking to some locals while the authorities were looking for him when some of them mentioned they were heading into the outback. So he asked if he could go along with them. He told me he didn't know what he was getting himself into at the time. Told me he had never been to anywhere hotter on this planet. He said to me, ‘Do you know of a place called Coober Pedy?’ I replied, ‘Yes.’ And then Milt said with a strong rural American accent and this line sticks in my mind until this day), ‘GO-D-DAM IT! If they don't live like GO-FERSSSS in a hole underground there!’ I imagine life would have been pretty tough in Coober Pedy in those days. Opal mining town. Very few facilities, no air-conditioning. Extremely isolated and virtually lawless.”

Berthold K.P. Horn, bkph@ai.mit.edu

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