Thursday, June 18, 2009

Rebuilding little gertee and the end of the map project

This is the fifth time I've put this same frame up. The first time was in the Mercantile's campground summer of 2007, the second time was at Alpines, third time was last summer here at CR (in close to the same spot it's in now), fourth time was next to big gertee last month, and now it's up again, has a raised floor, is more secure, and it's ready for a whole new look.

Justin and Nordica helping put up the roof beams

Freddie sweeeping the new floor

underside of the new billboard roofcover

roofcover before trimming

Nordica took the Kenny Lake - Chitina Business Fun Map around to some of the local businesses last week and was told by Regal Sawmill that if Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge would buy them for placemats they'd want to have an ad on the side. So I called Princess and made an appointment for Nordica with Tracy, their Operations Manager. We revised the map to have ads around the frame and Nordica took it to the meeting. Tracy was enthusiastic and said she would ask corporate about sponsoring it rather than just buying an ad. We waited a week and heard back today that after they looked more closely at all the components 0f the map, well, they are not interested anymore. I can't imagine what "components" they're suggesting might be a barrier to their sponsorship or advertising with us... heh.

On the one hand I was kind of hoping for their support because I could totally use the cash to fund my lavish lifestyle. But all week I thought about them finding the ACL and how that would go over with corporate. Dutch Princess is a foreign communitarian corporation with ties to Queen Beatrix (aka Lady Shell). I also used pictures of hunting, trapping, fishing and other local activities. My map may be a little too authentically political for their EU sensibilities. I'm guessing they also may have contacted the frauds at Copper River Watershed Project, Copper River County Stories Mapping Project, and the WISE old owls at HAARP and learned my ACL politics from them. So it's back to the drawing board and taking a new direction for this summer; none of the businesses we spoke to will advertise on the map if Princess won't hand it out to their guests. Most Alaskan locals hate Princess Tours and their monopoly on Alaskan tourism, and Tracy initially said they wanted to show support for local projects. Apparently not too local though. That local businesses won't advertise without Princess on board leaves me deciding the locals can live without our maps or our global marketing of the Kenny Lake and Chitina area. I guess it must be time to go back to writing for the ACL and letting go of my concern that this area is destined to be a wildlife corridor for Princess Tour busses going from Denali to McCarthy.

Good thing I got my hunting, trapping and fishing license this year. All Hail Queen Beatrix!

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