Juneau Author Recalls Experiences
FROM AN ARTICLE BY KORRY KEEKER
IN THE JULY 6, 2006 ISSUE OF THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
ROY VARNI CREATES MURDER THRILLER USING LOCAL PERSONALITIES
Long before there was a three-mile road to the upper powerhouse near Salmon Creek Dam, there were 876 steps followed by a precipitous path along a 6-foot-wide flume more than 20 feet above the ground.
Juneau resident Roy Varni, 79, remembers the hike well. He and his family spent a year in 1971 and 1972 helping operate the Upper Salmon Creek powerhouse for Juneau Hydroelectric.
Varni has turned the memories into his first book, the murder-mystery, “It Rains Murder Sometimes in Juneau .” All the characters are Juneau personalities, but their names have been changed.
“If it were up to me, I’d still be up there,” Varni said. “It was a great, tranquil place to live.”
Varni was inspired to write a book by the Billy Wilson poem, “It Rains Sometimes in Juneau .” He includes it at the beginning of the novel.
Tired of traffic, overpopulation, and looking for a new adventure, Varni and his family moved to Juneau from Sunnyvale , Calif. , in the San Francisco Bay area, in 1970. They bought a house in the Mendenhall Valley , and Varni soon found the job – 10 days on, four days off – at Salmon Creek.
The Salmon Creek powerhouse was completed in 1914. In Varni’s day, it was run by Juneau Hydroelectric, a division of the Alaska-Juneau Gold Mining Co. Helicopters flew food, furniture and supplies into the powerhouse area.
The powerhouse operators would park in a lot just off Glacier Highway , then walk up 876 steps to a penstock, which controlled water flow. It was another two-plus miles, along a rail-less flume to the living quarters. The operators would usually travel by motorbike.
Varni and his son, Andrew, fell off the flume a few times but were never hurt. Varni had the least seniority of the operators and would often have to climb up to the dam to monitor the water level.
“That last eighth of a mile was a bear,” Varni said. “Going up there in the winter, it was almost hand over hand to get up there with all that snow on the trail.”
The fishing was one of the many benefits. Trout would often flow out of the dam and into the creek. Back then, the limit was 30.
“When people would come walking along the trail, they’d stop in the powerhouse and say, ‘How’s the fishing in the stream?’” Varni said. “We’d say, ‘Not too good, just up at the dam.’ That way we kept the fishing to ourselves.”
Alaska Electric Light & Power took over in 1972 and consolidated positions. Varni had the least seniority and was laid off, he said. The helicopters transported the family’s furniture back down the hill.
“When our furniture came down, my wife looked up at it and said, ‘I’ll tell you one thing, Roy . I’ll never let them take my furniture back up there again. Not in that net.”
Two weeks later, AEL&P phoned Varni and invited him to return to his job at Upper Salmon. But he had already started with Joe Shaw Realty, a company he took over from Shaw in the early 1980s.
The Varnis eventually retired and moved to Mesa , Ariz. They came back to Juneau in 2000. Two daughters still live in town. Sharon Perkins runs the Best Western Grandma’s Feather Bed, and Pam Varni is the Executive Director of the Legislative Affairs Agency.
played crds with u 1 evenig gone 2 web site very interesting now looking 4 ward 2 get signed book know it will b greattnk u so much 4 gme also best 2 u n lifeif like im catdogbirdcow @ yahoo.com tnks 4 info
I have been looking looking around for this kind of information. Will you post some more in future? I’ll be grateful if you will.
Recommended by a friend. I had a stack of books I wanted to read but thought I would order for later. IT RAINS MURDER SOMETIMES IN JUNEAU arrived and I thought I would read a page or two to decide if I would put the book on the bottom of my stack of books to read. Of course I could not put it down. Well written, fast paced and different. Interesting characters and the descriptions of Juneau very accurate. I really hope Roy Varni writes more books because I want to read more of his works. Thank you Roy Varni. Bravo!
I love murder mysteries for recreational reading, and I quickly became engrossed with this one. Here is a fictional novel set in the environs of a tourist locale well known to hosts of travelers the world over. The book quickly draws in the reader’s involvement at almost every turn and twist of the story. Mr. Varni has taken care to craft ‘real life’ characters whose interactions with each other in the relatively small confines of our most northern state capital commanded and held my interest right up to the very conclusion of the book, and left me wanting more. I hope we will soon see more from this author.