Scott Gagne, 57, a true Alaskan at heart, passed away on Feb. 5, 2021, after the snowcat, a tracked vehicle, he was operating broke through the lake ice on Hewitt Lake, Alaska.
Taking one last adventure on this earth in a machine that fueled his passion and in an area that embraced his heart and soul as home, Skwentna, Alaska, is when he was called to higher grounds to begin a new life.
Scott was born on Jan. 26, 1964 to Frederick and Lorraine Gagne in Dummer, N.H. From a young age, he had a hunger for Alaska, and it was always a dream of his to live in the outdoors surrounded by nature.
Skwetna, Alaska (KINY) - On Friday the 5th at 4:30pm, Alaska State Troopers were notified that 57-year-old Scott Gagne of Anchorage was operating a snowcat on Hewitt Lake near Skwetna and had fallen through the ice and had not reemerged from the water.
Print article An Anchorage man died Friday when the snowcat he was driving broke through lake ice in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the Alaska State Troopers said. Scott Gagne, 57, was driving the snowcat around 4:30 p.m. on Hewitt Lake near Skwentna when the large tracked vehicle fell through the ice, troopers wrote in an online report. Austin McDaniel, a spokesman for the troopers, described the snowcat as a “a larger tracked vehicle with a front plow that was transporting a snowmachine.” Snowcats are often used to groom ski trails, but McDaniel said it was not clear if Gagne was grooming a trail when the machine broke through the ice.