Book review: Koot’s founder Mike Gordon details Anchorage’s bawdy boom and brisk bust in his new memoir 'Dagnabit!'
Chilkoot Charlie's owner Mike Gordon stands next to a photograph of the famous Spenard bar in its early years in Anchorage on April 30, 2015. For a city that has been home to at least a third of Alaska’s population, we’ve had surprisingly few memoirs written by longtime Anchorage residents. It’s an enormous hole in the state’s literature and might have something to do with the pipeline era, when, much like in Fairbanks, a lot of morally dubious behavior went on.
In his first book, “Learning the Ropes,” Gordon told of his family’s move to Alaska in the ’50s, of growing up in Alaska, coming of age in Anchorage, opening Koot’s on the cusp of the pipeline rush, operating multiple business, failing at marriage twice, and nearly a third time, and climbing the highest peaks on all seven continents, summiting six while coming just 1,500 vertical feet shy of the top of Everest.
Gordon opened Koot’s on Jan. 1, 1970 with his business partner at the time. A small operation in Anchorage’s Spenard district, they had no way of knowing that it would grow and morph into the massive nightclub it is today, but they had dreams.
While his first book was mostly about himself, here Gordon introduces readers to those he met along the way, especially the late Gaines, who he regards as a mentor. Gordon has included in this book a handful of writings by Gaines, and it’s a reminder that we need more of them in print. My personal favorite involves a little-known 1949 gold rush sparked by a false report.
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