Imagine an entire economy based on wild fur. A community where the primary breadwinners are wilderness trappers who spend the majority of the year out in the bush, living off the land in remote cabins and harvesting furbearers, fish and game to survive. As far away as that may sound, just a couple of generations ago that’s the way it was in remote villages of interior Alaska … [Read more...] about Fort Yukon Trader
Trapping
More Than Wolverine: An Alaska Wilderness Trapline
As a young man I dreamed of moving to Alaska. Finding the middle of nowhere. Building a cabin. Trapping and hunting. Living off the land. Then, life got in the way. An education, a good job, a wife and kids, a home and a farm all happened over the course of fifteen years, and that Alaska dream kind of drifted into the background. A few years back, life kind of settled down … [Read more...] about More Than Wolverine: An Alaska Wilderness Trapline
Tales and Trails in the Far North
When John McPhee visited the Alaska’s upper Yukon River in the mid 1970’s, he was met with an eclectic group of individualists who had decided to make the rugged wilderness their home. They ranged from folks like John Borg, who settled in the village and ran most every part of it, to Dick Cook, who lived off the land in a remote cabin and relished self sufficiency. The Ulvi’s … [Read more...] about Tales and Trails in the Far North
Walter Arnold Revisited
When I think ‘mountain man’ and ‘Maine’, it’s tough not to think back to Walter Arnold. Sure, we have a few folks left in northern Maine who spend a significant amount of time living in the woods, but Arnold was considered by most to be the state’s last true mountain man. For two decades, until shortly before his death in 1980, Walt lived alone in a cabin on the shore of Indian … [Read more...] about Walter Arnold Revisited
Staying Alive in Alaska’s Wild: Andy Nault
“Unless you change your lifestyle, you’ve got about six months to live.” Folks have been hearing those words from the doctor, in some form or another, since the beginning of modern medicine. Most don’t change. Some try diet and exercise for a while, but lifestyle changes are hard, and most end up living out their final months in some sort of miserable state. Not Andy … [Read more...] about Staying Alive in Alaska’s Wild: Andy Nault