Jack Thomas
February 02, 1931, California — October 12, 2016, Seldovia, Alaska
JACK THOMAS was born in California February 2, 1931. He came to Seldovia in 1968.
Jack had worked for Jack Hopkins and Lloyd Wheeler on logging operations in California. In the mid-1960s logging operations in California got scarce, so Jack hoped on a plane to Anchorage without even telling his wife. He found a job putting in a water line in King Cove. Then he returned to California and he and Jack Hopkins flew to Alaska in Hopkins’ Luscombe, using the Alaska Highway as their road map. They got logging jobs working out at Jackolof Bay before the road was put in, so Bob Gruber flew them out from Seldovia every day. He and his wife Marge and children lived in a trailer park there, and his daughters rode a school bus into Seldovia every school day.
After a couple of years the logging operation finished but Jack and his family were happy to live in Seldovia. King Crab fishing was a booming operation, so he went to work for Josie Carlough, fishing for crab on the 78 ft “Primus”. Johnny Saracoff and Roy Hansen also fished with them. Jack was the “engineer”. That lasted one season because they caught all the fish!
JACK THOMAS: One day we – I think we went out a little earlier than we – Jimmy did. And we just loaded that boat right down. Come in, unloaded at the cannery, and went back out and loaded it again…… It was real good and then it – it – we just caught ‘em all, that’s all. Killed it right off. Oh, there was spurts later on that was pretty good.
He bought the Hag’s Neck property from Josie’s sister in 1970. There was a little shack there but they decided to build something more prominent. He built the shop first. The timbers in the house used to be part of an old dock, near where the pavilion is now. Jack recognized the fine old Douglas fir under all of the creosote and had the equipment to move them, and clean them up to make beautiful house beams.
Jack also had some property on the way up Red Mountain. He had a mining claim at Red Mountain and helped develop and maintain the road. He was given an old connex trailer that had been used at Kasitsna Bay lab before they built the buildings. He towed it up to the site and over the years there were some wild Fourth of July parties held out there, with fireworks and even the firing of Rick Harsness’ cannon.
Jack taught himself to weld and his welding and mechanical services were in high demand in the community. Unlike many Seldovians he never owned a boat – he preferred to live on the land. He also worked as a heavy equipment operator around Alaska and for the oil industry. Jack owned a special piece of property on the Seldovia Slough, called Hag’s Nook.