CH 21: The Baptism of Frosty McGhee Backstory

TBoFM is the third and final installment of the Alaska trilogy of chapters, though it wasn’t written third. The original order of these three chapters was, approximately, Drift (1), TBoFM (10) and On the Margin (19). The reordering was helpful because it helped set up the final alternating sequence of ages for the chapters: CH 21: 23, CH 22: 67, CH 23: 18, CH 24: 86. The larger intervals between the chapters (than previous intervals) helps reinforce the scale of change and action which has occurred through the novel.

Andrew Gulch Gold Mine cook shack, circa 1986.

For what it’s worth, TBoFM relates very closely to my experience at the Andrew Gulch gold mine in 1986. My friend Matt’s dad owned and ran the mine and I went off to see it while Matt worked on the river. The events surrounding the case of beer and Junior were exactly as described, and I was conscripted to be their cook, to our mutual displeasure. At least, that was the case for the first several meals which I, indeed, burned beyond recognition. Although you can’t really tell from the picture, the shack isn’t well ventilated (the windwows were covered in plastic Visqueen), and the door was generally closed. The team did, however, have the “complaining” rule (i.e., he who complains about the food, cooks), so they didn’t say much. After a day or so, I got the hang of it and was one of the guys. I wouldn’t say my cooking was good, but the food was recognizable.

The land around Andrew Gulch shortly before ice closed the mine for the season.

Initially I entitled the chapter Junior’s Wagon (for obvious reasons, once you’ve read it), but I had objections from my readers, and I ultimately agreed. Naming chapters is a little harder than one might imagine. While it’s fairly easy to come up with a clever title, it’s less easy to come up with the right title. After deciding to rename it, the chapter became Frosty for a time, but that didn’t suit me, either. Too glib. Or perhaps it reminded me too much of the Christmas cartoon snowman. After that one I went biblical with, Gold There is, Ruby in Abundance, which is a slight paraphrase of a bible passage I found on the subject. I rather liked that one because it included gold and rubies (which I changed to Ruby in honor of the town), but no one could remember it, and no one knew the reference either. Eventually I changed it again, landing upon The Baptism of Frosty McGhee. Don’t get me wrong – I had objections to that one, too, but it had enough of the elements I wanted to have to keep it: it remained biblical, it was descriptive of the overall story (the core issue with Junior’s Wagon), and was a little sacrilegious at the same time. That encapsulates much of the novel actually, so I kept it. As I may have noted earlier, this is the “baptism” chapter (there are 6 such sacramental chapters), stemming from the cold dunk near the end of it which led to McGhee’s nickname. I should mention that while the real Joe did constantly muse he wanted to “sluice his head”, he never did, and I didn’t either.

BTW, as I recall, Joe looked a lot like the English actor Ray Winstone, and had a similar garrulous personality.

Aerial picture of Ruby, AK. Note the boat landing at the bottom.

To provide some context, the above aerial shot shows most of Ruby along the Yukon River. The boat ramp at the bottom is where we docked the raft from CH 12: Drift when we landed at 3AM. This image represents my recollection of Ruby, more or less, in 1986. I include it here because it provides a view of the town as featured early in the story when McGhee goes in to find the beer and runs into Junior.

The Ruby General Store.

From the story you’ll recall that when McGhee stops in town to buy beer he parks near the “store.” I use quotation marks because it wasn’t like a store in a large town or city. I believe this is the exact building I was describing, though this is probably 10 years later. The large Athabaskan I was describing was parked in that doorway holding the door open. It’s about as close to a hang-out spot 7-11 as existed in Ruby, which you might infer from the collection of quads out front above.

Ruby main street.

Thanks goodness for Google – this shot looks rather similar to what I recall of the street nearest to the river, and is about all of it. The town is small – about 200 people, evenly divided between Athabaskan Indians and Caucasian immigrants. At the time I was there, it had 200-300 sled dogs as well, though I don’t know if that persists to this day.