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Chef Kirsten Dixon lives with her husband Carl 198 miles northwest of Anchorage. It is a one-hour float or ski plane trip to Winterlake Lodge, a small wilderness lodge that faces southwest into to the Alaska Range and the dramatic Tordrillo Mountains. Winterlake Lodge is the "Finger Lake" checkpoint along the Iditarod Trail. Behind the lodge, the Wolverine Peak rises a thousand feet in elevation, and in the summer, two waterfalls flow down from the peak to the wildflower meadow below, contributing a continuous soothing sound of running water to the background noise of wilderness life. There are no roads leading to the lodge.

Winterlake sits along a the banks of a deep one-mile lake the is home to nesting loons and swans in the summer. There are two small islands on the lake, covered with fat, intensely flavored blueberries that ripen the first week of August. On one of the islands – the smallest and closest to the lodge - there is a small grave marked by a few piled stones and a small wooden marker. The grave marker is so old that a tree has grown up entwined within in, as if someone planted a small sapling on top of the grave. Etched into the wooden cross are the words "Baby Harry" and remnants of an old tattered bandanna tied around the wood. The date is faded and hardly readable but it looks like it reads "July 27, 1964".

In the early 1930's, two brothers, Bud and Dennis Branham, traveled to Alaska on horseback to find adventure and make a life for themselves. When statehood came along, they were awarded the land that Carl and Kirsten Dixon now own. The property was used infrequently as a small hunting camp during the fifties and sixties. In the early seventies, a "trespasser", Gene Leonard, came to live along the lake. He built a small log cabin on state-owned land, he had a dog team, and he trapped wolverine and fox for a living. Gene had been a professional boxer before coming to Alaska.

As the story goes, some time in the 1970's, Gene Leonard advertised in the back of the Mother Earth News for a companion and shortly after, he brought out to the lake a pretty, quiet woman named June. June and Gene were married and lived in the small log cabin for fourteen years before they left the harsh winters of Alaska and moved back to Tennessee. The Branhams and Gene Leonard never quite got along, being such close neighbors on one small lake. Last year, Gene Leonard died and his wife June brought his ashes to Winterlake and spread them on the island. When June was asked if she knew about the grave on the island, she softly said that she didn't know anything about it.

Who was Baby Harry? Why was he buried on the island? What secrets do the lake and the islands hold? Could the grave be a marker for something else buried there besides a baby?

Write a mystery short story about the life and death of Baby Harry. Remember, Alaska was a different place in the 1960's. Check out the Winterlake Lodge website at www.withinthewild.com and Chef Kirsten's culinary site at http://www.kirstendixon.com to learn more about Winterlake Lodge and the area where the lodge is situated.

Length: No more than 1500 words. That's roughly 6 pages double-spaced and typed. Submissions can be emailed or snail mailed. email to marcy@mgentemann.com snail mail to

Baby Harry Contest c/o Marcy Gentemann
20206 Constitution Dr.
Eagle River, AK 99577

Deadline: September 10, 2007.

Submissions become the property of Kirsten Dixon and Bouchercon 2007. The stories may be used for display by Kirsten Dixon, although authors retain copyright. The winning manuscript(s)/author may make special arrangements with Kirsten Dixon on use. Release will have to be signed by parties involved.