Fred Hatfield was a young adventurer who went to Alaska in 1933 as a green and enthusiastic trapper and gold-seeker. He ended up in a wild area south-west of what is now Denali National park, and after nearly perishing his first winter, spent twenty years trapping in winter and fishing in summer there. Much of his account is reminiscent of the old west, and it suprised me to think that there were still places this wild only a couple of decades before I was born. The author is only a couple of years older than my own grandfather, yet his tales of hard living close to the earth seem to come from a much older time. I would call Fred Hatfield and those like him some of the last American Frontiersmen.

Fred spent about nine months each year living alone on a lake deep in the wilderness, trapping and hunting out of a tiny hand-hewn log cabin. Then, in spring, an airplane would come pick him up and fly him to Dillingham, a coastal fishing town, where he would team up with a friend and fish for salmon over the summer. His stories of encounters with bears and other wildlife are fantastic. A deadly feud with an eskimo who hated white men made for several tense winters. Eventually Fred found love and married, then raised a family in the lifestyle that he had carved from the wilderness. I only wish he had gone into more detail about his homesteading activities, but the book still had much to keep me interested.

I found this book yesterday while browsing a book sale after church. It looked good, so I bought it. I started reading it while waiting in the truck for my wife to get done shopping at Walmart, and got hooked. Before I went to bed last night I finished the book. It's an easy and enjoyable read, and made me want to go "up north" looking for adventure. Another good winter read. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution says of the book "This is the 'real Alaska.'"

Unfortunately, Amazon.com doesn't have any copies of this out-of-print book, and there are only two copies that I could find used for $20. There were a few copies at this book sale that I went to yesterday, going cheap for about $3.00. If anyone would like to read this book and cannot find it at their local public library, email me and I'll go back down there and see if I can get you one.

-- Chuck (woah@mission4me.com), January 21, 2002

Answers

Another great Alaskan wilderness book is "Two in the Far North" by Margret Murie. She and her husband did wildlife research in Alaska. Very personal book, great reading. Ever since going to Alaska last summer, the state has held a special place in my heart (and on my skin, i got a tattoo of a totemic raven to commemorate the experience!)

-- Elizabeth (lividia66@aol.com), January 21, 2002.

. . . and yet another good book on living in the Northwoods (this one is in Canada), is 'Cache Lake Country', by John Rowlands. Written by a man scouting for new logging territory, he recounts living on a cabin next to a lake. Was set during the 1940's, I think, and detailed LOTS of DIY he and his fellow friends did, using primative means. Really interesting, and very well illustrated also. Lyons Press is the publisher, I think. Good book.

Another book on realistic Alaskan homesteading was 'Arctic Daughter'. I don't remember who wrote it, but her parents were famous arctic explorers also (maybe the same parents as book as per Elizabeth recommendation?). Really makes you take stock on what it really takes to survive in the North.

I like reading books on the far North. The closest to snow I get to experience is my freezer!

-- j.r. guerra in s. tx. (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), January 21, 2002.

Arctic Daughter is by Jean Aspen. A couple other good Alaskan homesteading books are by Richard Leo: Edges of the Earth and Way Out There. There's also: Wilderness Mother, not sure who the author is as it's on loan to a friend right now. I'll post the author name when she returns it.

-- rose marie wild (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), January 21, 2002.

Another great Alaskan wilderness read is "Wilderness Wife" by Kathrene Pinkerton. I love these types of books because they help me keep my petty woes in perspective. Another good source for old books is www.half.com

-- Julie (okwilk213@juno.com), January 23, 2002.

Not Alaska, but Brad Angier & his wife Vena wrote about living in the far north. Brad wrote survival books & with his wife wrote about their first move from New York to the North. It was so cold in winter the ink froze.

-- Bonnie (stichart@plix.com), January 24, 2002.

I'm still in the middle of reading it but "Into the Wild" is a great book about Chris McCandless. Dissapeared from his home in Virginia and appeared in Alaska dead 2 1/2 years later. He left a journal in the abandon bus he died in that documented his adventure. Makes me think if I would actually want to try it.

-- Ryan Eckroth (eckrothr001@hawaii.rr.com), May 06, 2002.