A Historical Background of the Sheldon Chalet

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A Historical Background of the Sheldon Chalet
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• Our mother Roberta Sheldon passed away on June 4,
  2014, nearly four decades after our father Don
  Sheldon on January 26, 1975. Over that vast time
  Roberta never remarried. Instead she thrust
  herself into a relationship advancing the Nature
  and the wonderful town of Talkeetna, Alaska a
  place that when she first visited while on a date
  with Don she declared, I feel as if Ive just
  come home. Also passing away with Don, mostly
  for financial reasons, was their business plan to
  develop several adventure properties including a
  hilltop near the mouth of Chunilna (Clear) Creek
  north of Talkeetna, not to mention the subject of
  this blog, the Sheldon Chalet.

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Growing up there were numerous indications that
what we know today as the Sheldon Mountain House
was actually just the first proof-of-concept
structure. In the article below from the August
1966 Alaskan Sportsman Magazine High Alaska
Living by Jim Balog about the Grand Opening of
the Sheldon Mountain House, it is stated that
Don and his pretty wife, Roberta are talking
about more parties, more chalets for mountain
loving skiers.

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Additionally, in the following National
Geographic footage from the summer of 1966, plans
for amphitheater based adventure tourism are
illuminated with the commentator announcing that
Don Sheldon would like to see a ski tow here one
day, and some profit. This footage also shares
similar comments in the extended story. Knowing
that these print and film stories existed, but
that our mother was heartbroken over the loss of
her soulmate, we never received much more than a
passing wistful or longing look when the topic of
our nunatak on Denali entered family dinner
conversations.
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After our Mother passed, my sister Kate and I
decided that it would be honorable for us to take
that which our mother left to us and use it to
begin to fulfill our parents vision for at least
one chalet on Denali that would achieve our
parents goal of forever providing a crown jewel
destination to further assist in engaging people
with the Nature and beauty there, and perhaps
even inspiring some to come along side of worthy
support organizations related to Denali National
Park. We also considered this a legacy project
that would assist in reminding others of the
incredible people that Don and Roberta were and
that our state of Alaska is a young and vibrant
place where most any challenge can be met and
overcome when people agree to advance together.
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Thank you

• Sheldon Chalet
• visit_at_sheldonchalet.com
• sheldonchalet.com
• 907-733-2414