Harry Reger moved from California in the 1950s to take a mechanic job in Anchorage. Soon, the entire Reger family moved and settled in Soldotna.
His son, Dick, is a longtime Alaska resident. He led a discussion on Saturday for the Soldotna Historical Society that was coupled with early photographs of the city.
“I think it's a wonderful place,” Dick said. “It’s the best kept secret in the world.”
His dad was the owner of Reger’s Garage, an all around service station in the heart of Soldotna, where Trustworthy Hardware and Fishing is today. The shop was first powered by a generator and had an upstairs apartment, where Dick’s family lived for a short time.
When workers arrived in the area for oil exploration in the mid-1950s, Harry saw an opportunity to expand the business. He opened a cafe called The Waffle Shop.
Dick says he spent a good amount of time here. He recalls a day when someone brought a large egg to the restaurant and asked the server to make it into an omelet. Instead of becoming breakfast, Dick ended up with that egg. He thought it might hatch.
“So I took it upstairs and we put it in a box, and wrapped it in a flannel sheet, a flannel blanket," Dick said. "Two days later, we started hearing these noises, and we looked and cracks started appearing in the top of this egg.”
Dick says the hatchling was a trumpeter swan. The family kept it as a pet, and it even played with their parakeet. But, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service caught wind of their unusual pet, and the family was forced to turn it over to a biological research facility in Anchorage.
“Not only had the bird bonded with us, but we bonded with that bird, too," Dick said. "I mean, we all loved that bird, but we all took it to Anchorage, and they put it in a cage. We went back 10 days later and it was dead.”
Dick attended school on the Kenai Peninsula, and graduated from Kenai High School in 1957. Only four students graduated that year. Back then, he said the school didn’t have a gym or library. Sports teams were also small.
After college, Dick moved to Fairbanks and Arizona. But he moved back 40 years later, and Soldotna’s population boomed.
“I went through about five years of cultural shock because of all the changes that had gone on with Soldotna, especially with the Kenai River," Dick said.
Dick remembers fishing days in his youth where he wouldn’t see another boat all day.
“I was really unhappy with the damage that I had seen been done to the [fish] population in the Kenai River,” he said.
Dale Bagley is president of the Soldotna Museum and Historical Society, which hosted the talk. Bagley grew up on the Kenai Peninsula in the 1960s, and remembers Reger’s Garage. He says it was fun to learn more, and reminisce, about the former Soldotna landmark.
“Part of it is educating people about our history in this area," Bagley said. "Judging by a lot of people in the room, a lot of them were part of that history, and so a lot of them, it’s just fun to hear these stories.”
Dick says Reger’s Garage was destroyed by a fire in the 1980s. That’s part of why he wants to preserve its history.
“The thing is, a lot is lost if people don’t try and look up the history or talk to people like me or other people, and that’s too bad,” Dick said.
Dick says it's humbling to be a small part of Soldotna’s history.
