True North in Alaska: Memories of Indians, Eskimos, Bush Pilots and Us
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by:
ISBN:
0-7414-2060-0
©2004
Price:
$29.95
Book Size:
8.5" x 11"
, 500 pages
Category/Subject:
TRAVEL / United States / West / Pacific (AK, CA, HI, NV, OR, WA)
True-life adventure: flying, teaching, living in Alaska! Daring young couple's 1930-1960s letters and photos illustrate life with Yukon Indians and gold miners; Arctic Eskimos and reindeer; and heroic bush pilots.
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Abstract:
An adventurous Depression-era couple answered a recruiting ad for teachers in Alaska. Dick and Milly Webbs’ lifelong Alaska exploration is chronicled in their letters and photos depicting Indian and Eskimo villages, gold miners, bush pilots, and life in 1937-1960s-era Alaska. Having a baby meant a 90-mile dogsled trip. Managing reindeer herds, hunting walrus and whales, and doctoring Natives were only part-time duties! Ready for “civilization,” they managed a budding aviation business in Nome. Later, in Fairbanks, they became entrepreneurs and toured the world promoting Alaska. Shortly before he died, Dick reread his letters and revealed secrets he had omitted when writing them.
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Customer Reviews
Book Review
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07/02/2005
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Reviewer:
Ellen B. Sanpere
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Book Review
By Ellen B. Sanpere*
True North in Alaska, Memories of Indians, Eskimos, Bush Pilots and Us, by Jack B. Webb & Susan Hankey Webb, as told by Richard B. Webb. Infinity Publishing Co., Haverford, PA: www.buybooksontheweb.com; © 2004, large format soft cover, 500 pages. US$29.95. ISBN 0-7414-2060-0.
Strange things can happen when one looks under the stairs of an old log cabin. What started out as an effort to help an aging father clean out some boxes, ended nearly ten years later with a comprehensive book of memories, photographs and letters. Jack Webb interviewed his father, Dick, as they went through the stored treasures; then, with wife, Susan, he researched the events, places, and people referenced. The recollections, letters and over 450 photographs progress chronologically and geographically in seven chapters, from the newlyweds’ 1937 move to a remote Alaskan village to teach for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, through their travels abroad during the Sixties. An Epilogue with family history prior to 1937 and a thirteen-generation genealogy follow.
On the most basic level, this is a story of two young people from Oregon who made life an adventure in a frozen frontier among Arctic natives, gold miners, and bush pilots. What makes this book special are over thirty years of newsy letters from Dick (and occasionally wife Milly) to his family. An avid photographer, Dick made hundreds of images, no small feat in the pre-digital-era. Detailed descriptions of how the couple lived, worked and played, raised two sons, and coped with the hardships and challenges of a vast, cold, semi-civilized land, were enclosed with photographs and apologies for the lengthy interval between letters - not that things “outside” (in the lower 48) were so wonderful: a worldwide economic depression followed by World War II. Then, a Cold War broke out, thisclose to Alaska. Dick’s mother Bertha, saved it all, perhaps knowing how well they would document pioneer life in a mid-20th century frontier.
The volume of material assembled is astounding and will be of greatest appeal to those interested in Alaska, early commercial aviation, native populations, and especially to those who were there (and their descendants). That said, the story compelling also to anyone who has faced the challenges of being really far from family and familiar surroundings, never mind extreme weather, great distances, food shortages; travel by steamship, dogsled, small aircraft; winter weather starting in August; no SUV’s, HMO’s, phones or FedEx. Life was harsh, yet Dick and Milly survived, even thrived, as did their two Alaska-born sons: a major accomplishment anywhere. They worked long, hard hours, first as teachers, later in aviation, broadcasting, banking, and in the newly established tourism industry. In between building and repairing things, doctoring, reindeer herding, fishing, trapping, and hunting walrus, caribou, moose and whale, and writing endless reports for the government, they found time to have fun, travel, and write letters about it all. Jack’s generous sharing of his father’s reminiscences is like hearing a great uncle’s gee-whiz stories of life in the old days: fascinating, fantastic, sometimes fearsome and yet heartwarming. What an adventure!
* Ellen Sanpere, writes from aboard a 51’ sailboat cruising the Caribbean about life far from home in interesting places. Her work has appeared in the Caribbean Compass, Southwinds, Latitudes & Attitudes, and Spinsheet magazines.
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