Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Central Brooks Range

Great story! This is a "must read" if you are going to the Brooks Range or maybe anywhere in the remote parts of Alaska. It gives an authentic flavor of the country before modern conveniences. For Marshall, the Brooks Range was a second home as much as an adventure destination. Nice old black-and-white photos. I happened to be at the junction of Ernie Creek and North Fork Koyukuk, watching a wolf and thinking of Marshall's photo of his friend Ernie who used to live there. BTW, this book is Marshall's personal tale, not a guidebook.

Robert Marshall explored unmapped Alaska during the years of the Great Depression and World War II, going where no man (at least of the white variety) had gone before. Despite a few scraggly settlers and pioneers in the area, most of the central region of the Brooks mountain range was unmapped at the time, making it one of the last remaining unknown areas in the US. Marshall describes his various journeys of great hardship with a cool understated style that makes the whole endeavor look like a piece of cake, despite navigating treacherous rivers (including one near-death experience in a flood), climbing countless mountains, confronting grizzly bears and other predators (he describes one bear as being big as "two elephants plus a rhinoceros"), and generally sojourning with just a few partners for weeks at a time and hundreds of miles from the nearest civilization. Unlike some modern "adventure" writers, Marshall steers clear of bombast and extreme sports boasting, and describes the amazing scenery and thrill of discovering new geography with unassuming and occasionally moving prose such as "an unpeopled universe where only the laws of nature held sway." He's not afraid to dig deeper either, occasionally giving shocking details of the hard life of the local settlers, and the feeling of natural isolation from the unhappy outside world of the time. This is a great read for anyone who loves the exploration and thrill of discovery that are increasingly rare in modern times. [~doomsdayer520~]

It seems hard to believe that as recently as the 1930s large chunks of American territory were completely unexplored. These uncharted regions were in northern Alaska, and for Robert Marshall the chance to be the first to set foot in them was irresistable. "Alaska Wilderness" is the surprisingly engaging story of Marshall's visits into the unknown reaches of the Alaska's Brooks Range. On the face of it, this book doesn't seem to have a whole lot going for it. There are only a few moments of peril and drama, and just a sprinkling of humor. Marshall's descriptions of the people he meets and travels with are fairly one-dimensional. Mostly, the book is a chronological account of Marshall's hikes and boat trips, with the author spending a lot of time describing in detail the mountains and landscape he discovers. It seems like this should be dull. But Marshall is such a likeable guy and his enthusiasm for nature is so genuine that you can't help but enjoy going along with him on his explorations. Before long, the reader is just as eager as Marshall to find out what is over the next ridge or around the next bend. The book's good maps help the reader follow Marshall's travels. Marshall valued exploration just for the sake of exploration and his plain-spoken opinions on the subject are refreshing. For example: "There is something glorious in traveling beyong the ends of the earth, in cutting loose from the bonds of world-wide civilization. Such life holds a joy and an exhilaration which most explorers today cannot understand, with their radios and aeroplanes which make the remotest corners of the world just a few days or even hours away in distance. Modern mechanical ingenuity has brought many good things to the world, but in the long list of high values which it has ruined, one of the greatest is the value of isolation." Or: "As I see it, Peary's discovery of the North Pole, Amundsen's journey to the South Pole, Byrd's junketing in Antarctica, or the impending ascent of Mount Everest do not make the road of humanity as a whole the least bit happier. In fact, one could argue, the net result of these activities is to make mankind a little poorer because when an exploration is made there is that much less possibility left in the world for others to experience the joy of exploration in hitherto unknown regions. The justification, if one is needed, for present-day exploration, therefore is almost exclusively the selfish one of giving oneself the exhiliration of that most glorious of all pastimes, setting foot where no human being has ever trod before." We are lucky that one of the first men to explore the Brooks Range was such an able writer as Robert Marshall, and that he so honestly shares the experience with us.

This is Marshall's account of exploring the area which is now Gates of the Arctic National Park. Marshall was the first to systematically explore and describe it, in the 1930s. Introductions by his brother George update the information to 1970. There are wonderful, hilarious anecdotes. I read this to help plan my first trip there (summer 2000); can't imagine going without it.