The Kenai Chamber of Commerce opened their doors in 1954 and will be celebrating their 60th anniversary throughout this year.
Former Executive Director of the Chamber Peggy Arness joined us yesterday and talked about one of her favorite things that happened while she was a Chamber member.
Arness: “I think the cabin to me was the most productive thing. I love that cabin and I love the concept of it. Right from the beginning everybody embraced it. We all, everybody that learned about the idea of having the log cabin of “Moose Meat” John as our cabin and the dedication of the work that all the fellas did on it was wonderful and we’re proud of that.”
Arness said that the moving of “Moose Meat” John’s cabin from the North Road was a huge community effort in 1975 and was dedicated to 1976.
Current Executive Director Johna Beech said the Chamber has always wanted to do something more with the cabin so they partnered with Kenai Historical Society last year.
Beech: “So they will actually be opening the cabin up in the summer time for visitors to come through and still check it out so we still have kind of the essence of what Peggy started many many years ago with that being a stop for visitors to come in and still have it be a big part of Kenai history.”
The cabin originally belonged to an old-time resident named John Hedburg, aka “Moose Meat” John, who Peggy recalled as being quite the character.
Arness: “One of the stories that goes around about Moose Meat is that when they had the cabin, one of his kids got him a toilet and he was going to have inside plumbing. And he says, there are some things you do not do in the house. And he left that toilet with the seat down right by his stove to sit on.”
Beech told us about the events they have planned to celebrate so far.
Beech: “We have our annual beer and wine experience which is slated for April 12 and we will be changing it up a little bit from our typical event to celebrate our 60 years. We have our annual community awards banquet, is now going to be a luncheon and that’s slated for June 25. And we will be celebrating in addition to that following week will be the 4th of July celebration.”
