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CLICK HERE to download the first two chapters from The Seventymile Kid * A true and complete account of the first successful ascent of Mount McKinley—setting the record straight * The summer of 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the McKinley's first ascent * Features archival photographs, including rare and never-before-published images The Seventymile Kid tells the remarkable account of Harry Karstens, who was the actual—if unheralded—leader of the Hudson Stuck Expedition that was the first to summit Mount McKinley in Alaska. All but forgotten by history, a young Karstens arrived in the Yukon during the 1897 Gold Rush, gained fame as a dog musher hauling U.S. Mail in Alaska, and eventually became the first superintendent of Mount McKinley National Park (now known as Denali National Park and Preserve). Aided by Karstens's own journals, longtime Denali writer and photographer Tom Walker uncovered archival information about the Stuck climb, and reveals that the Stuck "triumph" was an expedition marred by significant conflict. Without Karstens's wilderness skills and Alaska-honed tenacity, it is quite possible Hudson Stuck would never have climbed anywhere near the summit of McKinley. Yet the two men had a falling out shortly after the climb and never spoke again. In this book, Walker attempts to set the record straight about the historic first ascent itself, as well as other pioneer attempts by Frederick Cook and Judge Wickersham. Fans of Alaska literature, American history, and mountaineering lore will love this adventurous biography of the largerthan-life "sourdough" Karstens, in which Alaska—its wilderness, its iconic mountain, and its pioneer spirit—looms large.
Walter Harper, Alaska Native Son illuminates the life of the remarkable Irish-Athabascan man who was the first person to summit Mount Denali, North America's tallest mountain. Born in 1893, Walter Harper was the youngest child of Jenny Albert and the legendary gold prospector Arthur Harper. His parents separated shortly after his birth, and his mother raised Walter in the Athabascan tradition, speaking her Koyukon-Athabascan language. When Walter was seventeen years old, Episcopal archdeacon Hudson Stuck hired the skilled and charismatic youth as his riverboat pilot and winter trail guide. During the following years, as the two traveled among Interior Alaska's Episcopal missions, they developed a father-son-like bond and summited Denali together in 1913. Walter's strong Athabascan identity allowed him to remain grounded in his birth culture as his Western education expanded and he became a leader and a bridge between Alaska Native peoples and Westerners in the Alaska territory. He planned to become a medical missionary in Interior Alaska, but his life was cut short at the age of twenty-five, in the Princess Sophia disaster of 1918 near Skagway, Alaska. Harper exemplified resilience during an era when rapid socioeconomic and cultural change was wreaking havoc in Alaska Native villages. Today he stands equally as an exemplar of Athabascan manhood and healthy acculturation to Western lifeways whose life will resonate with today's readers.
This magesterial and thrilling history argues that the story of American mountaineering is the story of America itself. In Continental Divide, Maurice Isserman tells the history of American mountaineering through four centuries of landmark climbs and first ascents. Mountains were originally seen as obstacles to civilization; over time they came to be viewed as places of redemption and renewal. The White Mountains stirred the transcendentalists; the Rockies and Sierras pulled explorers westward toward Manifest Destiny; Yosemite inspired the early environmental conservationists. Climbing began in North America as a pursuit for lone eccentrics but grew to become a mass-participation sport. Beginning with Darby Field in 1642, the first person to climb a mountain in North America, Isserman describes the exploration and first ascents of the major American mountain ranges, from the Appalachians to Alaska. He also profiles the most important American mountaineers, including such figures as John C. Frémont, John Muir, Annie Peck, Bradford Washburn, Charlie Houston, and Bob Bates, relating their exploits both at home and abroad. Isserman traces the evolving social, cultural, and political roles mountains played in shaping the country. He describes how American mountaineers forged a "brotherhood of the rope," modeled on America’s unique democratic self-image that characterized climbing in the years leading up to and immediately following World War II. And he underscores the impact of the postwar "rucksack revolution," including the advances in technique and style made by pioneering "dirtbag" rock climbers. A magnificent, deeply researched history, Continental Divide tells a story of adventure and aspiration in the high peaks that makes a vivid case for the importance of mountains to American national identity.
The lives and achievements of six pioneers of Alaska.
CLICK HERE to download a free sample from Swallowed by the Great Land “Seth Kantner illuminates an Alaska most of us will never know.” –Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever and The Voyage of the Narwhal • Nonfiction short stories that pull you into the lives of those living in an otherworldly place • Seth Kantner received a Whiting Award naming him one of the nation's top-ten emerging writers • Publisher’s Weekly called the author’s 2004 debut novel, Ordinary Wolves, "a tour de force" When Seth Kantner’s novel, Ordinary Wolves, was published 10 years ago, it was a literary revelation of sorts. In a raw, stylized voice it told the story of a white boy growing up with homesteading parents in Arctic Alaska and trying to reconcile his largely subsistence and Native-style upbringing with the expectations and realities tied to his race. It hit numerous bestseller lists, was critically acclaimed, and won a number of awards. Seth’s nonfiction second book, the memoir Shopping for Porcupine, was even more compelling for many readers—the same raw details of a homesteading upbringing, but intensely personal. Now, in Swallowed by the Great Land, he once again brings us into his lyrical wilderness existence. Swallowed by the Great Land features slice-of-life essays that further reveal the duality in the author’s own life today, and also in the village and community that he inhabits—a mosaic of all life on the tundra. Unique characters, village life, wilderness and the larger landscape, a warming Arctic, and hunting and other aspects of subsistence living are all explored in varied yet intimate stories.
The captivating and heroic story of Hudson Stuck—an Episcopal priest—and his team's history-making summit of Denali. In 1913, four men made a months-long journey by dog sled to the base of the tallest mountain in North America. Several groups had already tried but failed to reach the top of a mountain whose size—occupying 120 square miles of the earth’s surface —and position as the Earth’s northernmost peak of more than 6,000 meters elevation make it one of the world’s deadliest mountains. Although its height from base to top is actually greater than Everest’s, it is Denali's weather, not altitude, that have caused the great majority of fatalities—over a hundred since 1903. Denali experiences weather more severe than the North Pole, with temperatures of forty below zero and winds that howl at 80 to 100 miles per hour for days at a stretch. But in 1913 none of this mattered to Hudson Stuck, a fifty-year old Episcopal priest, Harry Karstens, the hardened Alaskan wilderness guide, Walter Harper, and Robert Tatum, both just in their twenties. They were all determined to be the first to set foot on top of Denali. In A Window to Heaven, Patrick Dean brings to life this heart-pounding and spellbinding feat of this first ascent and paints a rich portrait of the frontier at the turn of the twentieth century. The story of Stuck and his team will lead us through the Texas frontier and Tennessee mountains to an encounter with Jack London at the peak of the Yukon Goldrush. We experience Stuck's awe at the rich Aleut and Athabascan indigenous traditions—and his efforts to help preserve these ways of life. Filled with daring exploration and rich history, A Window to Heaven is a brilliant and spellbinding narrative of success against the odds.
MT. MCKINLEY, ALASKA 1932 From the south peak, a hundred thousand square miles of Alaskan wilderness stretched out before his eyes. This was America’s last land frontier. It was the land Grant Pearson had dreamed of as a boy and lived in, full, as a man, when he came to be known as one of Alaska’s most famous 20th century pioneers. This was how to chose to live his LIFE OF HIGH ADVENTURE... “Exciting, vivid...an excellent account.”—Hal Borland, New York Times
Celebrating our national parks Denali National Park celebrates its centennial anniversary in 2017 The park attracts more than 400,000 visitors annually More than 60 historic photographs throughout Historic Denali National Park is a vibrant narrative that covers different parts of the park’s history, from the Native Americans and the early explorers to park visitors today. Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Denali National Park and learn more about one of America’s greatest treasures.
The history of mountaineering began on Denali with the legendary story of four gold miners (called “Sourdoughs” because they carried sourdough starter with them at all times) who claimed to have summited after climbing more than 8,000 feet of steep snow and ice, then back down again—all in a single and incredibly dangerous day in 1910. Lugging a 25-pound, 14-foot flagpole to mark their success, they took on North America’s highest peak using sheet metal crampons, coal shovels, hatchets, and alpenstocks to balance their way up the mountain. Was the expedition a success or a hoax? Denali climber Jon Waterman brings this colorful mountaineering mystery to life.
In May 1891, Joe Quigley embarked on a journey north to try his luck prospecting for gold in Alaska. Although he had been wandering across America since leaving home at 15, this would be the biggest adventure, and the biggest risk, Quigley had ever taken. A project that began as genealogical research into a family's history, this biography traces the life of a fascinating character before, during and after the great Klondike gold rush. Deeply researched, including quotes from Quigley and numerous photographs, this book is more than another tale of the Klondike Gold Rush. It is an intimate look at the inspiring life of a pioneer prospector, who witnessed the exploration and development of one of America's most harsh, beautiful and captivating landscapes.