When Lewis Pagel was in high school, he had a life-changing experience. A chiropractor, someone who primarily uses their hands to treat the spine, bones and muscles, visited Pagel’s school for career day.
“When I walked in the room, he just pointed at me and said, ‘You need to come see me.’”
Pagel, who was a sophomore at the time, had a skeletal deformity called Scheuermann’s disease. It's a condition that usually develops during adolescence, where vertebrae grow unevenly.
“It's where your vertebrae, like, wedges forward,” Pagel said. “It gave me quite literally, a humpback. My friends would push on my back and be like, ‘Lew, you gotta straighten up, man.’”
After seeing the chiropractor, Pagel said he was able to stand up straight again - about two inches taller - and lost his humpback and the pain he had experienced on a daily basis. That's when he decided he wanted to be a chiropractor.
Pagel earned a doctorate degree in chiropractic medicine. He and his wife were living in Minnesota at the time, and wanted an adventure and decided to try in rural Alaska. He took over Arctic Chiropractic from another chiropractor who left the region, and he’s been in Kotzebue ever since.
“We didn't plan to stay, we planned to come up for a couple of years, have a cool experience, and then look for the next thing,” said Pagel. “But we fell in love with Kotzebue.”
That love for the community is one of the reasons that closing his practice after two decades is so bittersweet, Pagel said. The 45-year-old has had issues with his shoulder, which has made it difficult to continue his work. According to Pagel, Arctic Chiropractic has at least 2,000 patients on file. Pagel estimates he’s treated about half the people in Kotzebue.
The patients and the conditions he treats are also unique to the community. The number one injury Pagel said he encounters is lower back pain, from patients muscling their snow machines around.
“I can really tell the seasons by my patients, like all of our elder ladies who come in the late summer or early fall during berry picking season,” Pagel said. “A lot of the stuff I work on is pretty specific to our region here, hunting related, gathering related, and snow machine related.”
One of Pagel’s favorite memories, he said, was treating a patient who told him about a herd of caribou crossing near town. After the patient’s appointment, Pagel suited up, drove his sno-go out, shot two caribou and made it back in time to see another patient that afternoon.
Pagel’s love of hunting is apparent when you walk into his office. Visitors are greeted by a large muskox hide and other taxidermied animals on the walls that Pagel hunted over the years. That's intentional, Pagel said. He wants his patients to feel welcome, so he prefers a more laid back style compared to other chiropractic offices he’s visited in the Lower 48.
“Some are very clinical, like white-coat-and-a-stethoscope-around-the-doctor's-office feel,” Pagel said. “And I never liked that feeling. So I guess it's just kind of my own.”
Pagel is also the state chairman of Ducks Unlimited, a nonprofit organization that promotes wetland conservation. His office has been the headquarters for gun raffles and an annual whiskey and cigar fundraiser for the organization. Pagel said he doesn't plan on leaving Kotzebue any time soon and hopes to find another venue to host the events.
As far as his office, he’s selling the building. Pagel said he looked for another chiropractor to take over, with no luck.
“I don't understand why no one else wants to come up here and take over, because I have just loved this community,” Pagel said. “It has really been the most positive experience that I could even dream up.”
Pagel said he wanted to publicly thank the community for their support over the years. Although he is closing the business, Pagel hopes he can continue doing chiropractic work in the future. After his office closes, Pagel doesn’t have immediate plans but wants to focus on his other business as an ice fishing guide and spending more time with his wife and daughter. Arctic Chiropractic’s last official day is Monday, March 24.
