By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Joe Hickel's Claflin ties are loose, but they're there. The 69-year-old Alaskan is the son of Claflin native and former Alaskan Governor Wally Hickel. But Joe made a name for himself as a pastry chef at Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage. Joe made news last week when he announced he was retiring after 45 years of making his famous gingerbread village at the hotel. It all started when he was in his early 20s.
"I was working construction for about five years, then I went out to Anchorage Community College," he said. "I was really interested in seeing all the things this pastry chef was making. He took me under his wing and that's how it all started."
Joe made it to Alaska with his father, Walter Joseph Hickel, who grew up near Claflin. Walter left Kansas when he was 21.
"He was in San Francisco," Joe said. "He was going to try to go to Australia. He couldn't go there. He needed a passport. What was the next place to go? They said Alaska. He traveled up to Seattle and up through that. Three weeks later he ended up in Seward, Alaska."
Alaska was admitted as the 49th state in the union in 1959. Walter became the state's second governor from 1966-69, then served again from 1990-94. He was later Secretary of the Interior under President Richard Nixon. Joe's Christmas spirit was born in that first gubernatorial term.
"I always wanted to see something like that when I was a kid, but we didn't do that kind of tradition in our house," he said. "I started the tradition at the Captain Cook Hotel when my first daughter was born in 1978. I named it after my daughter, Marina's Village. "It started at 3x5, now it's close to 300 square feet."
The gingerbread villages, seen by thousands of visitors each year, are a true labor of love. Hickel begins making everything from scratch in July.
"My staff is up there working and I'm back in the bake shop cutting out all the chocolate stuff," he said. "It takes five months to get the whole thing done by the time I start in July until I put the last piece in."
And the village is not a money-maker. Hickel has been approached many times for donations. He said doing it for money would take the fun out of it.
"I don't want donations," he said. "The Lord didn't lay that in my heart to do any donations. He did it just to please the people and do something that was very free in my heart. It just gets better and better every year."
Hickel does bring slight variations to the village each year. His 45th and final village is his largest at 270 square feet. Even former Alaskan Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, who has seen every village since 1978, can't believe it's the last one.
"There are so many people who come in between now and Christmas," Hickel said. "Some people are really sad, a couple people are a little upset. Most people understood it but they're still sad. I'm going to miss not making it up, but I'm not going to miss all the work that goes with it."
CLICK HERE to access live feeds, video progressions, and photos of the current gingerbread village and Hickel's work from previous years.
The former Governor Hickel erected the first tower of Hotel Captain Cook. His son, Walter J. Hickel, Jr., is president and CEO of Hickel Investment Company, where he oversees its real estate division, including Hotel Captain Cook. The hotel features 546 rooms, including 96 suites. The property also features a 9,000-square-foot ballroom, four restaurants, and a dozen shops.