Lottie Eiden

1961 - 2017

Lottie Eiden was born March 25, 1961, in Holdingford, Minnesota. She attended college in the neighboring town of St. Cloud, studying abroad in Germany for a year. She graduated with a license to teach high school German and biology. While in college, Lottie got a job at Denali National Park. She worked there for almost 10 years as a cook, and during her time there met Emmett Whitmore. Emmett was prospecting for gold near the camp where she worked, called Kantishna.
They eventually married in the early '90s and moved out to Central, where they raised two children, Rachel and John. After a few years' illness, Emmett passed away in 2014 from congestive heart failure. That fall Lottie moved down to Idaho for the winter with her good friend, Gordon Fulton, and spent several winters there with him while coming to Alaska in the summers to continue cooking for him and the mining crew, as she had since they first moved to Central.
In May 2017, she was suddenly diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer, and her life was tragically cut short as she passed away in the hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho, only eight days later - on May 26, 2017 - while surrounded by friends and family.
She is survived by parents, George and Rosie Eiden, of Minnesota; brothers and sisters, Norma Eiden, Milton Eiden, Ruby Eiden, Jorgen Eiden, Karl Eiden and Ryan Eiden, all of Minnesota; and children, John and Rachel Whitmore, of Alaska. A celebration of life will be held for her this July in Central.