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A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

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Wasilla

Wasilla is the place where I have lived for the past 29 years - sort of. The house in which my wife and I raised our family sits here, but I have made my rather odd career as a different sort of photojournalist by continually wandering off to other places to photograph people and gather information, which I have then put together in various publications that have served the Alaska Native Eskimo, Indian and Aleut communities.

Although I did not have a great of free time to devote to this rather strange community, named after a Tanaina Athabascan Indian chief who knew Wasilla in the way that I so impossibly long to, I have still documented it regularly over the past quarter-century plus. In the early days, my Wasilla photographs focused mostly upon my children and the events they participated in - baseball, football, figure skating, hockey, frog catching, fire cracker detonation, Fourth of July parade - that sort of thing. 

In 2002, I purchased my first digital camera and then, whenever I was home, I began to photograph Wasilla upon a daily basis, but not in a conventional way. These were grab shots - whatever caught my eye as I took my many long walks or drove through the town, shooting through the car window at people and scenes that appeared and disappeared before I could even focus and compose in the traditional photographic way.

Thus, the Wasilla portion of this blog will be devoted both to the images that I take as I wander about and those that I have taken in the past. Despite the odd, random, nature of the images, I believe they communicate something powerful about this town that I have never seen expressed anywhere else. 

Wasilla is a sprawling community that has been slapped down hodge-podge upon what was so recently wilderness of the most exquisite beauty. In its design, it is deliberately anti-zoned, anti-planned. In the building of Wasilla, the desire to make a buck has trumped aesthetics and all other considerations. This town, built in the midst of exquisite beauty, has largely become an unsightly, unattractive, mess of urban sprawl. Largely because of this, it often seems to me that Wasilla is a community with no sense of community, a town devoid of town soul.

Yet - Wasilla is my home and if I am lucky it will be until I grow old and die. Despite its horrific failings, it is still made of the stuff of any small city: people; moms and dads, grammas and grampas, teens, children, churches, bars, professionals, laborers, soldiers, missionaries, artists, athletes, geniuses, do-gooders, hoodlums, the wealthy, the homeless, the rational and logical, the slightly insane and the wholly insane - and, yes, as is now obvious to the whole world, politicians, too.

So perhaps, if one were to search hard enough, it might just be possible to find a sense of community here, and a town soul. So, using my skills as a photojournalist and a writer, I hope to do just that. If this place has a sense of community, I will find it. If there is a town soul to Wasilla, I will document it. I won't compete with the newspapers. Hell no! But as time and income allow, it will be fun to wander into the places where the folks described above gather, and then put what I find on this blog.

 

by 300...

Anywhere within a 300 mile radius of Wasilla. This encompasses perhaps the most wild, dramatic, gorgeous, beautiful section of land and sea to be found in any comparable space anywhere on Earth. I can never explore it all, but I will do the best that I can, and will here share what I find and experience with you.  

and then some...

Anywhere else in the world that I happen to get to, such as Point Lay, Alaska; Missoula, Montana; Serenki, Chukotka, Russia; or Bangalore, India. Perhaps even Lagos, Nigeria. I have both a desire and scheme to get me there. It is a long shot. We shall see if I succeed.

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Monday
May302011

Master Sgt. John Kendall Dunlap, World War II Veteran, January 13, 1913 - August 14, 1960

DateMonday, May 30, 2011 at 9:11AM

I don't know anything about Master Sgt. John Kendall Dunlapp, except that he served in World War II, must have lived in California at some point but has lain in the Wasilla cemetery now for two-and-a-half months shy of 51 years.

I found his grave late yesterday afternoon after I pedaled my bike to the cemetery to see if I might find a picture appropriate for Memorial Day.

I googled his name, plus the rest of the information from his headstone, but could find nothing on him. I do not know where he served or what he did while he served. I do not know if he had a wife and children. I only know that he served in World War II, survived, came home, then lived for a decade-and-a-half before dying at a relatively young age and was then buried in Wasilla.

As for the flag, I believe it has been placed there by the cemetery itself, that such flags are placed upon the graves of all veterans.

Does anyone in Wasilla now remember Master Sgt. John Kendall Dunlap?

Somewhere, there must be people who remember him.

What was his story?

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment2 Comments |
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Reader Comments (2)

I tried to find info. on John Kendall Dunlap. This may or may not be the right person.

I found a John K. Dunlap (born 1913) in the 1920 U.S. Census. At the time he was 7 yrs. old and living in West Virginia w/ his parents - Alonzo and Gertrude. He had a sister.

In 1930 the U.S. Census has the family living on Honolulu Blvd. in La Crescenta, California.

On April 15th 1939 John K. Dunlap, a resident of Los Angeles County, California enlisted in the U.S. Army while in Raleigh, North Carolina,.

He was single w/ no dependents and had 2 years of college education.

He was born in West Virginia and this was a 3 year enlistment,

It appears to be the same John K. Dunlap as the one listed in both the 1920 and 1930 U.S, Census.

But, is this the same Sgt. Dunlap you located? I don't know, as I could only find a birth year.

(Above information located via ancestry.com and the National Archives (NARA) website http://tinyurl.com/3wyyusf )

The best I could do. I hope you find out more about him.

May 30, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterMirage

hope you find out too...i find forgotten graves sad

May 31, 2011 | Unregistered Commentertwain12

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