by Peter Twitchell
I have been living in the Matanuska Valley since June 2, 2019. The very first sound I heard was about nine o’clock in the evening and that was a train blowing its horn. I heard it again 8am the next morning. I believe they were announcing their arrival from the Fairbanks area. Then I began hearing firetrucks, ambulances, and police sirens on a daily basis
I thought about the slough on the left bank of the Kuskokwim River below Kalskag, which has a name appropriate for making sounds named “Oohrawik” which fits the sounds made by trains and emergency vehicles. Therefore, I thought the appropriate native name for Matanuska-Susitna Valley was that of the slough below Lower Kalskag.
The sounds I have heard in our hunting grounds back home have been owls hooting day and night, moose grunting as mating season was in full swing, birds of all species! Flocks of geese, swans, cranes, outboard motors and small planes.
Then there’s the quiet of nature and the beauty of the Mat-Su Valley and all the majestic mountains and calm peaceful quiet of the Valley.
A match with the peaceful serene tundra back home is every part of our 49th State of majestic Alaska, which I visit often, in my mind and memories and relive.
