AUTHOR’S NOTE: The brothers Marcus and Alex Bodnar, sons of Ukrainian immigrants, came to the central Kenai Peninsula to homestead in 1947 and almost immediately set to work clearing land and building homes for themselves. They were among the first individuals to file homesteading claims in the Soldotna area.
It’s summer 1947, the year of the immense Kenai Burn: Marge and Frank Mullen are sitting at the mouth of Soldotna Creek, enjoying a rainbow trout for lunch. Through a still smoldering countryside, they have just completed a 60-mile trek, with full backpacks, from Moose Pass on the rough dirt swath that will one day be known as the Sterling Highway.