Way up north Way up north North to AlaskaWe’re goin’ north, the rush is onNorth to AlaskaWe’re goin’ north, the rush is on
— Johnny Horton / Mike Phillips / Tillman Franks
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They called it the Last Frontier — and Alaska drew frontiersmen like a magnet. Gold was discovered in the Klondike in 1896, and the rush was on… the last of the great gold rushes that had done so much to drive the conquest and settlement of the American West.
Wyatt Earp showed up there, as ever following the boom-bust cycle. Frederick Russell Burnham would seek his fortune there before being called away to Africa to serve as a scout for the British Army in the Boer War. Luther Sage Kelly — known in history and legend as Yellowstone Kelly — would adventure there.
Luther Kelly at Portage Bay (Whittier) with an Indian snowshoe, 1898. (Photo taken by Walter Mendenhall, USGS, and courtesy of the USGS, public domain.)
I am most pleased to spot the smoke signal from MeatEater that the fourth volume in their series of audiobooks on the professional hunters of the American frontier is set for release in September: MeatEater’s American History: The Alaskans (1896 – 1941).
The Klondike Gold Rush brought thousands north. A few stayed.This audiobook follows the hunters and trappers who traded their dreams of striking it rich for a hardscrabble life in the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1900s. They lived off caribou and salmon while running traplines by dogsled through a landscape that still captivates the American imagination today. This thrilling era of American history spanned nearly a half century and ended only when Alaska was dragged into the modern age by World War II.It’s a story of young men who embedded themselves in a rugged northern wilderness and forged our nation’s last generation of true frontiersmen.
Steve Rinella has produced a series that I consider to be essential for the Frontier Partisan library, covering the 18th Century Trans-Appalachian Longhunters; the Mountain Men; and the post-Civil War Hide Hunters (Clay Newcomb partnered with him on The Longhunters volume). Solely in audio format, these histories are perfect for road-trip listening, especially if you’re heading out into the back-of-beyond somewhere.
They are significant contributions to Frontier Partisans lore.
Now that Rinella has discovered Africa, I have high hopes that he will continue this series to include a volume on the ivory hunters. The world needs his recounting of the tales of Selous, the Boer Hunters and the wild times in the Lado Enclave…
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Just a couple hours after I posted, this featurette on Heart of the Beast dropped — figured I oughta tack it on…
John M. says
I visited Alaska for the first time this year. The place has fascinated me since I was a kid, but getting there hadn’t been practical. It vastly exceeded my expectations and I’d love to see it again. I think most of the folks at this campfire should figure out a way to get up there if they haven’t already.
JimC says
Lady Marilyn lived there for a bit in her early 20s and we honeymooned there. Would love to get back.
Greg Austin Walker says
Originally from Fairbanks – been back many times – tipped a few beers at the old Malemute Saloon out at Gold Hill – done a bit of hunting. It remains the Last Frontier.
JimC says
This oughta hit in the x-ring for you.
Russ Lucas says
North to Alaka is also my favorite John Wayne movie
didn’t W. D. M. Bell also go there before Africa
JimC says
Indeed he did. He was a market hunter there.
Wayne says
I led 3-week-long college study tours in Alaska in the early 2000’s. I returned for 2 backcountry fishing trips in the last few years. Mountains, rivers, bears, moose, caribou, salmon, and the most beautiful rainbow trout I’ve ever caught. I’d go back tomorrow! Can’t wait to see the movie.
Padre says
I’ve been blessed to live in Alaska for the past decade, and hope this is where I’m buried. It’s still wild, wooly, and pristine in plenty of places. But change is happening. Just in my time here I’ve seen cell phone networks encroaching on areas that were blissfully isolated a few years back. And every Alaskan wishes they could have gotten here just a little sooner when the land was cheaper and the fish and game more plentiful.
But the blessings abound. Just last week I was standing in the Kenai River with my twelve year old daughter waiting for reds to swim into our 5’ dipnet. We only got two, a far cry from last year’s 19 in two hours, but we had harbor seals putting on a show right in front of us and the Mt. Illiamna and Mt. Redoubt volcanoes to gaze at on a bluebird day. It’s a way of life you can’t fully duplicate anywhere else. And the people here have fascinating stories of how they’ve chased opportunity and freedom to get here.
There’s no place like it and every frontier partisan, ranger, scout, and adventurer who’s found him or herself in the wrong era or wrong vocation should see it. If anyone from the campfire ends up visiting, I’d love to show you around and point you to some frontier to explore.
JimC says
Glorious.
Prospector says
I highly recommend “The Last Grand Adventure: The Story of the Klondike Gold Rush and the Opening of Alaska” by William Bronson and Richard Reinhardt for anyone interested in the Klondike Gold Rush and the later discovery of gold at Fairbanks and Nome. Lavishly illustrated and loaded with personal accounts about all of the men and a few of the women who made and lost fortunes in the Klondike and Alaska toiling for gold under harsh conditions. This is probably the best book on both these subjects available.
JimC says
That sounds wonderful.