History of the River

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Its Name: The earliest records of the Talachulitna River come from Shem Pete, the Athabascan who has provided so much history of the southcentral region of Alaska. The river's name in Athabascan is Tunuilch'ulyutnu meaning "River Where People Killed Each Other in Water". The story is related by Shem Pete in the book "Shem Pete's Alaska" published in 1987 by University of Alaska Press and goes something like this: It seems there were 3 guys that headed down to the mouth of the Talachulitna River on a cold day and only one of them had a coat. A nice squirrel parka. Two of them killed the one with the coat for the coat, then the second killed the third for it. End of story.

A 1911 map by Brooks indicates the river's name as "Talashulitna River" and on a 1921 map by Hubback it is called "Chusalitna River". Josiah Spurr's map of 1889 does not show the river at all. So, one would think that the current river's name is a phonetic English spelling as it sounded being told by Chief Evan or other Athabascans to the early surveyors and explorers.

Some History: The Talachulitna River was long used by the Athabascans to return from bear, moose and other game hunting trips in the area. Beluga Mountain, headwaters of the river, was the bear hunting area with the lower areas of the Talachulitna valley being the moose hunting area. Making moose skin covered boats, they would float down the Talachulitna River to the Skwentna, Yentna, and Susitna rivers then back to Tyonek. Quite a journey even by today's standards.

Since the arrival of people from outside of Alaska, the Talachulitna River was discovered as a popular fishery for all 5 Pacific salmon, rainbows, grayling and dolly varden. So popular in fact, that by 1978 the big rainbows had been all but fished out. No more 10-15 pounders... so in 1978 the Talachulitna River became the first river in Alaska to hold the distinction as a catch and release only river for rainbows. This has brought a return of the rainbows to the point where 5-8 pounders are in the river with 20-25 inch fish almost a norm.

In the late 1970s lodges began to appear on the river primarily in 3 locations: Judd Lake, the midpoint and at the mouth. With 3 at the mouth, 3 at the midpoint and 1 at Judd Lake the river isn't by any means loaded with commercial activity. It does see a fair amount of activity with the arrival of king salmon and it is a fly fisherman's haven for other species throughout July and August. With a very short season, the river's use is concentrated within an 8 week period. The increase in users prompted the state of Alaska to build a river management plan.

In the late 1980s the state started the process of developing a river management plan for 6 rivers in the Susitna drainage with the Talachulitna being one of them. By 1991 the plan was completed and implemented requiring monitoring, user limitations, and general guidelines to help private land owners, the public, and commercial users enjoy and benefit from this natural resource.

As we all know, trash and waste are on the forefront of most recreational management plans and come about from simple neglect of the responsibilty we all have as good stewards. A primary concern of the Susitna Basin Recreation Rivers Management Plan is just that, trash and waste litter.

We are now up to today in the history timeline of the Talachulitna River. We all need to see that it really is "A History in the Making" and that its future remains as colorful and clean as its past.