INTERVIEW: Neil Darish lives on the ‘Edge of Alaska’ in McCarthy
Edge of Alaska, which airs new episodes Fridays at 10 p.m. on Discovery, follows the residents of the so-called “toughest town in America.” McCarthy, Alaska, is an isolated town with few year-round locals, yet there’s enough drama and clashing interests for a full-on reality series. This community is living a frontier life, one that values remoteness, wilderness and serenity.
It’s a town where a bush plane or long trip down a dirt road is necessary to find the buildings among the breathtaking beauty of the terrain.
At the heart of the series is Neil Darish, a resident of McCarthy for more than a decade. The series depicts Darish as a man bringing change to this tucked-away locale. He has purchased a few properties in the downtown area, and he hopes smart, gradual development will place McCarthy back on the map. Some of his ideas have proved controversial among the other residents of McCarthy, everyone from the homesteaders like Jeremy Keller to the summer crowd.
On the new season of Edge of Alaska, Darish’s quest to fulfill his vision continues, yet he’s facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles. He’s also reflective of his time in McCarthy and what the future holds.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox talked with Darish about his past, his present and his future in McCarthy. Answers have been edited for style and brevity.
On signing up for Edge of Alaska in the first place …
“I got a contact from somebody at Discovery that had heard about our town, and kind of, I guess, they had heard about some stuff that we do out there. And it’s unusual in a bunch of different aspects. I don’t know exactly what aspects tugged at them, but seeing the show, I think they made a good choice. It’s an interesting place, and we got a call from people at a company called Twofour [America] that were interested in this idea about, I don’t know how they would have worded it, but probably some guy that’s got the nerve to be in everybody’s way.
“By the way, I may not see myself in that role that way … That’s how I’m perceived, but it’s kind of enlightening to look at it in the show. And I’m sure that’s pretty much how I’m perceived by a lot of people as a guy that’s just doing what he wants in town, and that’s not how I see it. Apparently everybody else sees it [that way].”
On the reality of this reality series …
“They follow us around with a camera. They never edit anything to make a story versus what you and I are doing today, which is you’re asking me questions. I’m going to answer as truthful as I can. You’re going to give your impression of this meeting, and it may not be the same as mine. I’ve been working with press long before TV, and I understand that it’s not my story.
“It is my story in the sense that this is really real. I live there. I’ve been living there for 15 years. Absolutely fact that I fell in love with that place because of all the history in the form of artifacts, and I grew up in a junkyard. So when I saw all this old, cool stuff, it wasn’t just Antiques Roadshow. It was like Antiques Roadshow on steroids with relationships to actual people, so it wasn’t like this cool, old stuff. And it’s just an antique. It was cool, old stuff that told a story.”
On his history with the town …
“I had already been to a number of places around the world, and loved the wilderness and knew that was going to be in my life, but a ghost town in the middle of wilderness, that’s insane. So I fell in love with the place, and I went there. And I thought, oh my God, this is so cool. I would love to develop this and bring back the town.
“I love the idea that the reason McCarthy exists is because of the industry, and the industry was carving a life out of the wilderness. Whether it’s Jeremy and his family carving a farm, which shouldn’t exist there, and that’s a really hard place for a farm. Or me trying to resurrect a town. I mean there are going to be people at odds. …
“In my head, I’m righteous. I’m doing all the right things, and I respect that in Jeremy’s head, he’s righteous. He’s doing all the right things, and in a way he is. I mean look at how great his kids are, so I can’t take that away from him. He’s a great dad, but for me, I know what I’m doing with that town. And it’s friggin’ awesome. It’s as awesome as Jeremy is doing with his kids, but that’s maybe not how Discovery sees it or how the production people [see it].”
On the tense scenes he sees each time a new episode premieres …
“It’s certainly way more entertaining to just show the arguments we have. Like when Jeremy is making those bullets, is he making them for me? No way. I don’t believe that, but I know when I saw the show unfold, it kind of looked that way. …
“You watch these narratives. It’s not really a story until the reader or the viewer puts it all together. That’s how I look at telling these stories, and the point is Discovery does a way better job of describing what McCarthy is like in the winter — this is true — than I ever have. And I’ve been living there for 15 years year round, and I tried for 15 years to tell people like you how cool it is out there. I spend my life trying to passionately talk about how awesome it is out there, and I know that comes across in the show.”
On the shared love for McCarthy …
“I love that place. Everybody that goes there loves that place, and that’s why we fight about that place because we know what’s best. It’s just that we got different ideas. We’re not building bullets to kill each other. I mean we’re going to still save each other if we have to. We don’t always get along. It doesn’t mean we have to kill each other either. …
“Is this show real? Yeah, I think it’s an awesome narrative. Is it exactly the way I would tell it? No way, but it’s way more real than I’ve ever told it. When people watch that show, they get a super real sense of what it’s like in McCarthy in the winter.”
On the summer months and summer crowds …
“I love the people that just come in the summer, but they heavily influence it. And they really hate that this show is showing McCarthy in that light. Well, in the summer, it’s a completely different place. It’s a tourism destination, and it’s always been a tourist destination. It’s just that I ramped it up big time. When you look at the show, people might think all that tourism happened over night, but I mean that took a long time to develop the town and to get that to happen.
“That’s how I look at Discovery telling the story and is it real or not. I think our show is way more real than if it was just me telling the story, or if it was just Jeremy telling [it] because if Jeremy was telling the story then it would just be about his farm and his perspective. If it was just me, I’d just be talking about the history.”
On how he ended up in McCarthy …
“I was in Arizona, and I had a friend who at the time he had grown up in McCarthy. And he owned property, but he owed some money on it. I was asked if I was interested in investing. It was the first time I got intrigued about this little ghost town in the middle of all this wilderness.”
On his favorite aspect of McCarthy …
“For about 10 of the last 15 years, in the middle of winter, I can just kind of take one of the Adirondack chairs off the porch and sit in the middle of the street. It’s just me, and these old buildings, and the mountains and nothing. There’s not a sound. …
“It kind of reminds me of being 10 years old. I’ve got a ghost town, and it’s a remarkable place. There’s literally mountain ranges all around us. There are three major mountain ranges that converge around McCarthy, so it’s a real impactful vista. You’ve got mile high and higher mountains all around you. …
“I don’t believe in the supernatural. It’s just this idea of being in the middle of nowhere, and there’s no one around. It’s super quiet. It doesn’t make me feel lonely. It makes me feel like I’ve got the whole world right there to myself, and I’ve always said I’m probably more of a loner than anyone else out there. We’re all kind of loners in a way. Otherwise why would we be out there?”
On his plans for development …
“I didn’t want to just get in there and start doing accommodations, and food, or stores or some kind of business. I wasn’t thinking that I had to do a business just to do a business. I was thinking wouldn’t this be cool for the town to go from where it is to something that’s truly a respect of the past and the connection that we have with the past.
“At the time, this town was high tech. I mean, I knew that looking at what they had there. I mean, they had electricity before most of North America, and they used the technology. And so when I look at this ghost town and trying to restore it, there’s questions about what would they do, where do you start the clock or how to handle this kind of restoration. There were those kinds of questions, but the thing I was worried about is … if I develop it with the intent of it working, doesn’t that mean that it’ll get overrun and be destroyed just like everyone’s worried about. Just like every other tourist attraction. …
“The whole question is, how do you maintain an authentic place? … What I had come up with, and it took me about five years, was if I could control the charm of [the] town by having enough of a footprint. And then creating these authentic and intimate spaces for different size groups as the town grew, you could absorb bigger and bigger groups, and right now, I’m working on this event space for big groups.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Edge of Alaska airs new episodes Fridays at 10 p.m. on Discovery Channel. Click here for more information.
