Email me here (remove the spaces). Check out my Flickr photos or my Youtube videos
About Gabe Emerson:
I’m currently living in St. Paul MN. I went to grad school at the University of Minnesota and have a Masters of Computer Science. I got my BS in Computer Science from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I’m interested in Geographic Information Systems, computer security, digital forensics, and related fields.
I grew up in a small bush community in Southeast Alaska, where my family fished commercially. Both my sister and I were homeschooled until 8th Grade. My hometown, Funter Bay, is about 20 miles from Juneau. A mining and cannery ghost town, it was home to about 10 year-round residents during my childhood, with the population increasing in the summer.
My interests include climbing, hiking, piracy, caving, electronics and amatuer radio, and industrial archeology. I’m some kind of redneck hippie and love saving or fixing useful things that others would throw out, hence the name of this site (see more details below).
About the Website:
Why is it called “saveitforparts” you ask? Well apparently when I was quite young I had a habit of saving all my broken toys, and on several occasions when my mom would try to throw something out I would yell “No no! save it for parts!” This behavior probably had its roots in the Alaskan attitude of never throwing away anything potentially useful.
Even today I hate to throw anything away, and often find that I suddenly have a use or need for something that I just pitched. I also salvage spare parts from electronics whenever possible, even if I have no idea what the parts are. If it looks like something I can use later, I’ll take it out before throwing away that stereo or TV (so I have boxes and boxes of little motors and colored wire). In other words, I’m a total packrat. This comes in handy for projects like my halloween props.
We will continue that tradition while care taking your your old homestead. Roy Mielke….
Just stumbled upon your digital world. Way cool Gabe.
I really enjoyed reading through your site — awesome pictures and history. Thank you. And Thanks to Brian Weed for sending me the link.
Hi Gabe! I just found your website. Awesome. I am going to be student teaching this upoming year at Mt. Edgecumbe. I am currently in Juneau doing the MAT program. We are designing curriculum for Social Studies. Is it ok with you if I have students look at your website and email you and/or comment?
Sure, feel free to have them look and contact me if they have questions. I’m glad you like the site!
[…] the monorail was removed from the zoo, one train was sold to Gabe Emerson who has a blog called Saveitforparts. He has a lot of information about the monorail there as well, […]
Hi–I was doing some research on my grandpa, Eugene “Beaner” Walby and found him in a few of your photos (he’s the tall one with cleft chin). We have a scrapbook at home that he made of his travels to Montana and Alaska (and Japan in 1922) to play baseball during the summers while attending UW. I’ll return to spend more time on this site. Thank you!
I grew up in Haines, Alaska, but now live in Walker Lake, Nevada. I got to see the little engine “Seward” in operation a few years ago at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City. Your website is AWESOME!
Gabe – my friend Jane Pettit sold you some memorabia from the Zoo Monorail. She told me to check out your website and watch the video of moving it.! I was the Monorail Tour Supervisor for 6 years and it is bittersweet knowing the trains are gone – but I’m glad you got one. I have a large panel from the Mononrail station – one of the original paintings and wonder whether you’d’ be in the market for this. It has been in our barn for 33 years – protected from the weather. It has an image of a Siberian Tiger on it . If you’d like I could send you a photo. I tried to send you an email from the note up above but it didn’t work. Hope you get this. Kate Crowley