Where's Papa Pilgrim?!?

Bob Hale, also known as Papa Pilgrim, is wanted for sexual assault, kidnapping and incest.

Papa Pilgrim still in state, troopers say

FUGITIVE: Accused of raping daughter, man believed to be in Valdez-Glennallen.

By TOM KIZZIA
Anchorage Daily News

Published: September 29, 2005
Last Modified: September 29, 2005 at 04:02 AM

The man known as Papa Pilgrim remained on the loose Wednesday, but Alaska State Troopers said they were confident he is still in the state and probably still in the Richardson Highway area south of Glennallen.

"We certainly don't think he made it out of the state yet," said trooper Sgt. Dallas Massie. "We have reason to believe he's still in the Valdez-Glennallen area."

Troopers were also looking into tips from other parts of the state involving the 64-year-old fugitive, whose legal name is Robert Hale. The Scripture-quoting patriarch was indicted last Thursday on 30 counts of sexual assault and related charges involving one of his daughters.

The 17-member family, bound by strict rules that Hale drew from his reading of the Bible, broke apart last winter after a single, horrific episode, described by troopers this week. They said Hale locked a daughter in a small shack on family property near the Kennicott River in McCarthy and raped her repeatedly. Some other family members knew she was in there, heard suspicious sounds and were concerned, troopers said.

Soon after, the older children left the family, which also had a homestead on an old mining site 14 miles from McCarthy, inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. A sympathetic Palmer family took them in. Troopers were contacted over Labor Day and began an investigation.

"When our sister came to us for help, we were united in our desire before God to take whatever action was necessary to protect her," the older Hale children said in a statement Tuesday.

Multiple charges of rape and assault, as well as single charges of kidnapping, coercion, and incest, were pegged to an incident Jan. 10. Other charges broadly cover the seven years the family known as the Pilgrims have been in Alaska.

Troopers who have interviewed the children say Hale was able to carry on his abuse of his daughter in secret.

"It was a secretive thing, so most of the family wasn't aware of the direct sexual abuse," said investigator Derek DeGraaf.

But the situation was complicated by the mysterious hold the father had over his family, said Massie.

"The control that this individual had and the manipulation with the entire family, it's hard even for experienced investigators to understand," Massie said. "This is something for people much smarter than me to study down the road."

The Pilgrim family had been in a public spotlight for several years because of a high-profile feud with the National Park Service over access to their land. Their appearance as a simple, devout, music-playing family leading a subsistence wilderness life had broad appeal.

The troopers prepared their initial case without talking to Hale and went to a Palmer grand jury last Thursday. As they did so, they put out word to border stations, trooper posts and airports to watch for Hale. Massie said the alert included pictures and went several steps beyond a routine notice.

Hale was in McCarthy at the time, staying in a wall tent near the Kennicott River shack. He slipped away when a trooper helicopter went to arrest him Friday evening. Troopers say they think he drove off in a dark-blue Dodge camper van.

Reporter Tom Kizzia can be reached at tkizzia@adn.com or in Homer at 907-235-4244

One Hellava Potential Pickle

My potato farmer husband harvested this bumper crop of "a" cucumber a few years back. Without a greenhouse I was surprised he managed to produce one cucumber. I pickled it with purchased carrots, onions & cauliflower .

He really is better at growing potatoes.

I try to make at least one meal a year consisting of food we either have grown, hunted, gathered or home made, like sourdough bread with blueberry jam. One meal is not much to brag about but it is an accomplishment for me with a feeling of pride.

No potential pickles near home plate this year.

When I was at the Palmer Friday Market in August, I almost bought a bunch of pickling dills, then changed my mind when I remembered all those Copper River reds in the freezer that I wanted to can. To quote myself "There is always next year."

Valdez Tap is Tops...

Valdez city tap water won first place in a contest that judged Alaskan water for clarity, taste and bouquet. The competition was held during the Alaska Rural Water Associations's Water Professionals training conference in Anchorage on Monday. (Valdez Star Photo)

We have well water out here and I think it is the best. Clear, cold and tasty right out of the faucet. Must be from all that snow & rain we get annually.

Used to be mine

This is a picture of my old 35 gallon fish tank set up at the new owners place. She talked me out of it because it wasn't set up here when she bought her new big house. We had taken it down when we went to Hawaii for 6 weeks in the winter of 2000. She eyeballed it here empty and the next thing I know its set up at her house. After a year or so she did compensate me (after I asked) and bought me a new 10 gallon tank for my small house. I miss the big tank. She does have it set up nice and looks to be taking good care of it, doesn't she? I wonder if she will let me have it back. I doubt it.

I'm rich!

Not really. Since I don't have a digital camera I'm going through all my old cd pics that I burned on my first personal computer. I took this pic of $5500.00 cash before I counted out $500 and put it in my back pocket. Then I went to see a guy about a `90 chevy silverado 4x4 white 5 speed 6 banger LIFTED! He wanted 6 grand and I'd already talked him down to 55 hundred. He took the 5 grand cash and I drove away in my Alaska dream truck. That was 2 years ago and the thing just clocked over 140,000 miles this past moose hunting season. Barely uses a drop of oil. Its needed the usual maintenance of a used truck like we are looking at putting a clutch in here this winter. A new clutch alone is $500 and luckily we can do it ourselves. Just for liability insurance on it, with no accidents or points against us, insurance went up 2 hundred a year. Insurance company is in Texas. Cable in Kentucky. Thinking about getting a dish and driving illegal.

I admit I was one of those people who never had insurance for, let me get out my caculater, 32 years of driving nurmerous vehicles. I figured I saved a lot of money since the insurance comps never got to extort money out of me. Now I know I'm paying for that BIG TIME! Seems the insurance companies are on to people like me. Doesn't matter I'm a safe, responsible can drive anything, anywhere type of driver. That don't mean shit to them. Now that I'm forced by law to carry the minimum insurance required, I'm penalized for being a safe, responsible type of driver of a number of vehicles. Just because I've gotton away with having to hand them money for over 30 years! If I don't give them lots of money and I get caught driving I'm in big trouble. I know where my dividend check is going.

Wheels that fish

Fishwheels on the Copper River that is. Not the oldest way to fish but the most efficient I have ever seen. The power of the river turns the wheel, like a paddle boat, every other motion a slide the fish go down.

You don't want to fall in this river. Its full of glacier silt that will fill your clothes and weigh you down. This river flows all the way to the Gulf of Alaska never to be seen again.

Copper River Reds are a wild run of Sockeye that are highly prized for their high oil/fat content. The bones alone are mega calcium and when pressure cooked are crumbled and easily digested by humans.

The wheels are a subsistance lifestyle for residents of Alaska only. The commercial fishery is a whole different story. Gillnetters catch them on the flats of the Copper River fresh from the Gulf of Alaska before they hit the fresh water of the Copper River. Once they hit fresh water to the head waters up the Copper River they start to deteriate. The high prices you pay for the first run of fresh salmon from Alaska which are Copper River Reds is well worth it. That doesn't mean river ran fishwheel caught CCRs are any less prized. They are just as good and the FishTaxi has canned both.

Over the course of this blog I will show you how I can Copper River Reds or tuna. A can is good for 7 years and doesn't need to be refrigerated.

Fish, Peace & Blog on!

Big Easy Moose

Stole this pic from Rance off of J-Walks blog.

Alaskan ingenuity at its best! Theres more than one way to skin a bobcat, err, use a bobcat.

Alaska's First Gay Wedding

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
And women can survive...

Made it to the church with 20 minutes to spare. The gal who picked me up at moose camp had been out fishing in PWS for 3 days. Jackie was on vacation from California and a friend of my sisters. She picked me up on her way back North to Alaska to the wedding. We stopped in North Pole and took showers as it wasn't a grubby come as you are type of wedding. We hardly recognized each other when we were spruced up. What a beautiful wedding and I was so honored to attend. I was treated as the matronly, repected aunt that I am. Can't hide that fact any more. I was in the family pictures. It was absolutely amazing that I actually did make it and I cried. As soon as I saw my brother he made me laugh because I was so happy to see him. We spent what little time we had together. What a great family I have.