Sometime during 1981, an Explorer Scout leader, Richard, phoned me from Utah. He wanted to bring his scouts on an Alaska high adventure fishing camp-out. At the time, I was working for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. I told Richard that if he brought the boys to Juneau, I would help arrange for the necessary equipment and suggest a place they could fish from shore, since neither they nor we had boats.

We arranged transportation for them to travel to the end of the road north of Juneau to
Echo Cove. During the month of July when they would be at Echo Cove, a large school of
pink salmon were typically in the cove preparing to move into the streams to spawn. It would be easy fishing from shore.

So, the scouts came. After a couple of days fishing, the most adventurous scouts hiked up the beach along Berners Bay looking for stream fishing opportunities. They discovered a stream with pink and chum salmon so thick they felt like they could almost walk across the stream on fish backs.

They quickly took their limits of fish and put them into the large bags they had brought with them. It didn’t take long before they realized their miscalculation. The hike back to camp was several miles. Six big chum salmon could weigh over 50 pounds and six pink salmon could add another 10-20 pounds to their bags.

With sore shoulders, tired bodies and aching feet, they finally arrived back at camp. They resolved that in the future they would do more ‘catching-and-releasing’ when fishing streams. On the last day of their trip, we arranged for some local Juneau residents to take them halibut fishing on the east side of Shelter Island. One of the young men landed a 110- pound halibut!  It capped a great week for the Scouts and had an even more lasting
effect on our lives.

That winter, Richard called again and wanted to bring three friends fishing and asked if I would help with logistics. Richard continued coming every year, bringing various sizes of groups and every year we hosted them. The meager beginnings of our little “charity operation” eventually became a real business named Doc Warner’s Alaska Fishing.

Finding the Safest Boats:

One September after the lodge was closed for the season, Linda and I drove home from
Alaska and visited every boat manufacturer we could find in Washington and Oregon. We were on a mission to find the safest boats for our guests to use.

We wanted boats that were practically impossible to swamp or sink. In the process, we found no U.S. manufactured boats within our desired size and price range that stood out safety-wise. However, we did pick up information about a company in New Zealand that made aluminum boats and had a different approach to safety built into their design.

Stabi-Craft builds safety into their boats. The design includes sealed air chambers that completely surround the boat, as opposed to U.S. manufactured small boats that just have floatation in the back end. One summer, we tested three different sizes of Stabi’s and our guests provided extremely positive feedback about their experiences in the boats. So, we added more the following year.

During the thousands of hours these boats have been on the water, we have never had a
single swamping or even had the guests feel in danger due to rough water. With very
few exceptions, our entire fleet is now Stabi-Craft. We felt it was critical that our guests
be safe and feel safe and they can in a Stabi-Craft.

Building a Comfortable and Modern Facility:

When guests ask us how we built such a nice facility in remote Alaska, our standard
answer has been: “If we had known what we were doing, we would never have
attempted such a big project.”

We had been tent camping and fishing in the same area for 17 years and we yearned to
have a permanent place for our guests. In September of 1997, we successfully purchased a 4.3 acre tract of land at a Haines Borough public auction.

By the spring of 1998 we had plans for a small lodge and assembled materials and workers. Prior to starting construction on the lodge, the only experience I had building was a small porch platform in front of our mobile home when we were college students.

As a result, in times of need, we turn to our friends and that is exactly what we did in assembling a construction crew. I still had a full-time job and couldn’t be onsite for much of the construction
(which was probably a good thing.) The skilled labor included someone to oversee the concrete work who had poured a few sidewalks. A carpenter who had once built a small barn and my son, Mark, who was a mechanical engineer student and had never built anything with wood.

We covered the rest of our trade skill needs by assigning our other children to be experts in electrical and plumbing. We didn’t have time to worry about the fact that they had done none of these tasks during their young lives.

I was in Alaska to help clear the timber and undergrowth and then I returned to Utah to
my ‘real’ job. Each evening Mark would call to give me a progress or lack thereof report. By day two, I knew we were in big trouble. It is much easier to draw plans than to build buildings.

About 4 days into the project, the fervency of my prayers had increased 10 fold. Phone descriptions of the work were ugly and the confidence of the crew was in a downward spiral. Then my prayers were answered: Thursday evening I received a phone call from a friend who was fishing in Alaska. The caller, Richard, said he had been telling his friend about my project. The other fellow, Marv Prestridge, said he would do anything to build a lodge in remote Alaska.

Marv was a retired building contractor who lived near my home in Utah. Three days later he was in my front room asking if he could help. Five days afterwards, he was onsite in Alaska. He even paid his own airfare and brought his wife to help! The day he arrived on the job; I swore that I heard faint cheers from 1500 miles away.

Marv was not only a skilled builder, but he was also an experienced project manager. Over the next 10 years, Marv was with us almost every summer and was involved in all our construction projects. Marv and Carla Prestridge were two angels who were sent to Doc Warner’s in our time of need.

The Complete History

Doc is writing the complete history of Doc Warner’s. When it is finished, it will be
available in the Pro Shop or by contacting us.