Family Matters

       The year -1958. That was 49 long years ago, and it was 49 long years ago that Jack and Ede, a fairly young couple at the time, traveled from their home in Cleveland, Ohio to Denali, Alaska. Originally they intended to stay in Alaska for only 9 months while they taught school in a mining community, but during their time in Denali they fell in love with Alaska and made it their permanent residence.
        In the same year, Jack and Ede filed on the property now known as Grizzly Bear Camping Grounds under the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act states that before you own a certain piece of property, you must prove you are going to put a business there. At first, the camping grounds were meant to be just a summer job for Ede and Jack, but they soon discovered that running Grizzly would take all of their time. All year, Jack has to repair plumbing, pipes, damaged carpet, and mechanical problems, Ede has to order the store’s merchandise from Seattle, and place price tags on everything for the duration of the winter.
       Since its creation, Grizzly Bear Camping Grounds has been family owned. Jack and Ede are the current owners of the camping grounds, and when they pass away, they intend for their children to take over. “If we drop dead, which we will, hopefully the children will continue on, and when my children drop dead maybe their kids will continue on,” Ede said.
       Ede and Jack have to work all year round to keep Grizzly Bear Camping Grounds up and running. Quite obviously, it’s a lot of work. Ede thinks, “It’s worth all the hard work because it’s a legacy to our family and to their future.” This just goes to show that going through a lot of trouble to preserve a family is all worth it in the end.