Heritage Month: Buster Gene Began Trapping When He Was Only 13 Years Old

Life Of A Gakona Village Elder From The Archives Of The Copper River Country Journal  

(Photo, Public Domain) 

Buster Gene Hauled The U.S. Mail To Meiers Lake & Chisana By Dog Sled & Worked On Highways For 51 Years 

Honored In Juneau, Along With Harry Johns, Sr. 

Buster Gene, patriarch of Gakona Village, sent the Copper River Country Journal the following rundown of his life in the winter of 1992. He had gotten his first job, with the Alaska Road Commission, when he was only 14 years old. The elder Genes were a powerhouse. Buster's aging wife, Alice Gene, was featured in the Copper River Country Journal in 1997 when she heroically rescued a grandson from the Copper River. Buster Gene died at the age of 83, around a year after this was written. 

 SEE ALICE GENE'S STORY 

 CLICK HERE 

 WANT ANOTHER HERITAGE STORY?  

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This is a story by the Copper River Country Journal celebrating Native Heritage Month, 2021. It's for everyone in the Copper Valley, but especially for members of the Gene family of Gakona, along with Chistochina people who knew Bell ("Bill") and Maggie Joe.