The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960
Page 62
While writing The Quiet World I became engaged with numerous folks involved in the Alaska wilderness movement and U.S. conservation history. These allies include Ben Beach and Bill Meadows of The Wilderness Society (they’re the greatest); Ken Rait and Mike Matz of the Pew Environment Group/Campaign for America’s Wilderness; James N. Levitt of the Program on Conservation Innovation at the Harvard Forest, Harvard University; Tim Richardson of Wildlife Forever; Lauren Hierl and Emilie Surrusco at the Alaska Wilderness League; Bill Vanden Heuvel at the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute; Cynthia Koch at the FDR Library in Hyde Park, New York; Michael Adams of the Ansel Adams Trust; Leonard Vallender of Camp Fire Club of America; Brian Ross of Colorado Conservation Trust; Pam Miller of the Northern Alaska Environment Center; Michelle Bryant, Theodore Roosevelt IV, and Tweed Roosevelt of the Theodore Roosevelt Association; the entire staff of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Kansas; Lowell Baier of the Boone and Crockett Club; Ken Salazar and Tom Strickland of the U.S. Department of the Interior; and Dan Ritzman of the Sierra Club.
At U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFW) I received immeasurable help from Warren Keogh (Alaska), Mike Boylan (Alaska), Mark Madison (West Virginia), and Paul Tritaik (Florida). The raptor ecologist Joel E. Pagel of USFW was unbelievably generous in proofreading my chapter on Adolph Murie. Ever since The Wilderness Warrior was embraced by USFW, and essentially considered required reading in 2010, I’ve been asked to speak at half a dozen different national wildlife refuges. My friend Evan Hirsche, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, has brought me into the loop on efforts to have Congress designate the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain as wilderness and to create a Blue Fin National Marine Refuge off the mid-Atlantic.
A number of year-round Alaskans fact-checked chapters of The Quiet World and offered keen insights into the wilderness movement. William Reffalt, the brilliant historian of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, saved me from making numerous errors. My friend John Branson, historian at Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, is a walking encyclopedia of the entire Bristol Bay area. His intellectual generosity went way beyond the call of duty. Debbie Miller of Fairbanks offered invaluable insights about Arctic Alaska. The great Kim Hearox, Nathan Borson, and Bruce Molnia—America’s go-to guys on glaciers—helped me perfect my prologue on Muir. Peter Van Tuyn of Bessenyey & Van Tuyn LLC in Anchorage, the smartest environmental lawyer I’ve ever met, answered numerous legal questions I had pertaining to Alaskan land deed issues. Nobody, however, helped me more than Fran Mauer, a top authority on Alaskan wildlife. I owe Fran a lot of dinners for saving me from quite a few errors.
A special appreciation is in order to Braided River, a Seattle nonprofit organization working in partnership with Mountaineers Books, for bringing together the photographers who contributed color images for both the Arctic Refuge and Tongass National Forest. Braided River’s executive director, Helen Cherullo, did an amazing job acquiring photo rights. Her love of the Arctic NWR and the Tongass is palpable.
During the course of writing The Quiet World I gave a number of public lectures in Alaska. Special thanks to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW) and the University of Alaska–Anchorage for sponsoring them. The mayor of Homer—Jim Hornaday (a direct descendant of William Temple Hornaday, who is profiled in this book)—is the best small-city politician I know. My profile of Charles Sheldon was improved by Ken Kastens, Tom Walker, and Rose Speranza (of the University of Alaska, Polar Regions Collection at the Elmer R. Rasmuson Library). Lori McKean of Grey Towers National Historic Site answered questions about Gifford Pinchot. At the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, the wonderful archivist Michael Wurtz aided me in going through the John Muir papers.
Nobody knows the Arctic NWR quite like Roger Kaye of Fairbanks. His classic narrative, Last Great Wilderness, proved invaluable. Roger is an incredible scholar, bush pilot, and conservationist. Likewise, Cindy Shogan of the Alaska Wilderness League allowed me to use her fine library as my operational base when I was in Washington, D.C. Cindy has devoted her life to grassroots activism on behalf of the Arctic NWR. Three members of the National Audubon Society—John Flicker, Thomas O’Handley, and David Seideman—helped me get my birds right. What a valuable service the Audubon Society provides to the world!
A number of characters in The Quiet World were able to tell me firsthand stories about the Alaskan wilderness movement. Special thanks to the poets Gary Snyder, Ed Sanders, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Michael McClure—all literary legends. Huge thanks to the fine scholar John Suiter, who carefully proofread my chapter on the beats. I can’t wait for his full-length biography of Gary Snyder to be published. Then there is Peter Matthiessen of Long Island. Without his help I couldn’t have written accurately about his first nonfiction book, Wildlife in America. He gladly proofread a couple of chapters. The author and photographer Dorothy Jones—wife of “Sea Otter” Jones—provided insights about her husband’s career at USFW. Getting to spend an afternoon in Fairbanks with Virginia Wood, a pioneering Alaskan conservationist, was a thrill. John Suiter shared with me his unparalleled wisdom about the beat movement and ecology. Cathy Stone, the last wife of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, a supporter of the Arctic NWR since 1960, kindly told me stories about her legendary husband.
During the summer of 2010 the Brinkleys lived in Homer, Alaska, above the Jars of Clay gallery on Main Street. My entire family was with me. From our balcony we had a superb view of Kachemak Bay. The owner of the gallery, Ruby Haigh, and her husband, Tim, a home builder, adopted us. Ruby makes exquisite pottery; she sees the beauty in all objects. All the Brinkleys fell in love with the Haighs. While in Homer, I used the Pratt Museum and the Mermaid Café and Bookstore as my workspace. I always judge a town by four things: its parks, cuisine, museums, and bookstores. Homer gets an A+ in all four categories. In Homer, Alexa Graumlich, my nineteen-year-old niece, a sophomore at UCLA, helped me with research and typing. We are very proud of Alexa. My sister Leslie and her husband Jeff, a fine halibut fisherman, kept us stuffed with seafood for the Fourth of July.
The highlight of my summer was camping in the Arctic NWR with two buddies: Tom Campion (owner of Zumiez) and the Fairbanks outfitter Jim Campbell. Our Arctic trek started out in Fairbanks. Tom, Jim, and I flew first to the village of Coldfoot. This was the territory of Bob Marshall, cofounder of The Wilderness Society. After studying local history for an afternoon we joined up with Dirk Nickisch, a North Dakotan who owns and operates Coyote Air. Dirk, an amazing bush pilot, would swoop down low so I could get 360-degree views of the vast landscape. Across the Brooks Range, across the Philip Smith Mountains, on to Camden Bay and the Arctic Ocean—it was a flight that is gratifying to look back upon. A walk along the beach. A large herd of caribou nearby, their curiosity encompassing us. The memorable summer light that turns soft at midnight. Our campsite was along the serene Hulahula River. The sky was like another ocean. The nearby mountains were like ruins left over from the ice age. One afternoon in the Arctic NWR we saw a grizzly climbing up a hill, running at tremendous speed. What an awesome sight! Never had I experienced such an uplifting feeling as hiking along the Arctic Ocean in Eisenhower’s great wildlife refuge. Tom, Jim, and I regularly took off our hiking boots to put on rubber waders and walk across the coastal plain streams. The tundra was always wet, even in June, because the permafrost had stopped any underground drainage.
After the trip to the Arctic NWR I was better able to understand both the geography and the politics of the area. Jim’s wife, Carol Karza, helped me track down all sorts of information about the North Slope. My alter ego on this Alaskan journey, however, was the brilliant, engaging, multitalented Rachel Sibley of Alpine, Texas. A 2009 graduate of the Plan Two Honors Program at the University of Texas—Austin (with an emphasis on foreign languages and cultural studies), the twenty-four-year-old Sibley glowed with enthusiasm throughout the writing of The Quiet World. Working at my home office, we would blast out music from Merle Haggard to John Coltrane
to Jimmy Webb and get to work. A skillful modern dancer, Rachel also taught me new songs for the guitar—such as “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show and “Anchorage” by Michelle Shocked—during breaks from work. We had fun. I’m a technologically challenged person. I like my books tangible. Anything electronic rattles me to no end. Rachel, by contrast, is an Internet wizard, able to access a rare document or an elusive fact with lightning quickness. An old friend of mine, the indispensable Emma Juniper of Sedona, Arizona, first introduced me to Rachel in 2009. Emma helped us from time to time on the book, but Rachel was the driving force on this one. My wife and children consider both Rachel and Emma family.
Which brings me to Anne. It would be impossible to explain how supportive my wife is of my history projects. Our marriage is my greatest accomplishment in life. Our entire house has become filled with books, manuscripts, and historical objects. But Anne never complains. Together we’re raising three splendid kids—Benton, Cassady, and Johnny—in the hills of Austin not far from Barton Springs. I feel very blessed. One reason I decided to write the Wilderness Cycle is so my children can visit all of America’s great parklands before they leave for college. The summer of 2010 was the Kenai Peninsula for the Brinkleys. Our 2011 trip will be three of the national parks that Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall had President Lyndon B. Johnson sign into law following congressional authorization: North Cascades in Washington, Canyonlands in Utah, and Redwoods in northern California. We hope to see you on the trail.
August 22, 2010
Austin, Texas
Index
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Abbey, Edward, 282, 366, 395–96
Abbey’s Road (Abbey), 395–96
Acadia National Park, Maine, 318
Account of the Arctic Regions with a History and Description of the Northern Whale Fishery, An (Scoresby), 24–25
Adams, Ansel, 257, 323–38, 351
background of, 323–25
Glacier Bay National Park photographs, 324, 325, 327, 329, 334–36
influence of, 328, 337–38
Mount McKinley National Park photographs, 324, 329, 330–34, 337, 370
Yosemite National Park photographs, 324–25
Adams, Michael, 328, 331, 332–33, 334, 335
Adirondack Park: A Political History, The (Graham), 249
Adirondacks
bull moose in, 108
forever wild movement, 96–97, 394
Kent in, 188
Marshall and, 231, 233, 234, 236, 249
Admiralty bear, 161
Admiralty Island, 123, 124, 125, 141, 281
African Game Trails (Roosevelt), 99–100, 111
Agassiz, Louis, 2
Agee, James, 244
Ahgupuk, George, 201
ahimsa, Kent and, 192, 196
Airborne Hunting Act, 301
airplanes
effect on Alaska, 144, 278–79
hunting of wolves from, 301, 368–69
strychnine thrown from, 369, 448
women pilots of, 338–41
Alaska
coastline, 25, 36, 52
early explorers, 27–29
ecosystems, 29
established as territory, 191
first census, 32
Gannett envisions as national park, 18
native fauna, 29–30
native flora, 122, 479
preservationists versus extractors, 20–21, 33–37, 104–6, 109–10, 168–83
purchased from Russia, 5, 31–32, 36
residents included in Social Security Act, 293
size and characteristics, 26, 36
T. Roosevelt calls for representation in Congress, 44
transportation in early 20th century, 103–5
World War II and, 293–95
see also statehood issues
Alaska, University of, 373, 490
Alaska Agricultural College, 275
Alaska and Its Resources (Dall), 39
Alaska Commercial Company (ACC), 151, 178–79
Alaska Conservation Society, 360, 482–90
Alaska Days with John Muir (Young), 5, 11, 12, 170
Alaska Development Company, 61
Alaska Federation of Women’s Clubs, 470–71
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, 159
Alaska moose. See bull moose
Alaskan, The (Curwood), 92
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, 114–15
Alaskan beetle (Upis ceramboides), 24
Alaskan Commission, 91
Alaskan Native Brotherhood, 93
Alaskan Sportsman, 369
Alaskan Sunrise (Kent), 199
Alaska Packers’ Association, 17
Alaska Railroad, 122, 138, 140, 143, 191, 266
Alaska Range, 121–22, 131, 133–34, 145
Alaska Roads Commission, 79
Alaska’s Animals and Fishes (Dufresne), 215, 367
Alaska Sportsman’s Council, 487
Alaska’s Wolf Man (Rearden), 355
Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Central Brooks Range (Marshall), 247, 355–56, 363
Alaska Winter (Kent), 187, 199
Alaska-Yukon Magazine, The, 109
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, 105
aláxsxaq, 9
Albright, Horace, 256, 319, 365
Aldrich, Nelson Wilmarth, 115
Aleutian Islands, 145, 283–84, 428–34
Aleutian Islands Reservation, 158
Aleut people, 26, 33, 36, 43, 193–94
Alexander Archipelago, 52–56, 58, 64
Algar, Jim, 346
All-Alaskan Sweepstakes, 142
Amchitka Island, 152
“America” (Ginsberg), 403, 406
American Bird Banding Association, 88
American Bison Society, 151
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Ginsberg and, 402–3
American Forestry Association, 129
American Forests, 214
American Mercury, 250
American Museum of Natural History, 30, 37, 111
American Natural History, The (Hornaday), 151
American Ornithological Union (AOU), 88
Anchorage Daily Times, 392, 475
Anchorage Museum of Art, 425
Anderson, Harold C., 257
Anderson, Martha Ellen, 419, 420
Angeline, princess, 45
Animal Intelligence (Romanes), 12
Ansel Adams Yosemite Workshop, 337
Antarctica, 54, 176, 406, 470, 476, 495
Antiquities Act, 52, 109, 462
Aperture (journal), 327
Appalachian Mountain Club, 37
Appalachian Mountains, 174
Appalachian Trail, 257
Arctic Brotherhood, 48–49, 49n, 61
Arctic Dance (Craighead and Kreps), 265
Arctic Dreams (Lopez), 229
Arctic loon (Gavia arctica), 62
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic NWR), 231, 255, 366, 373, 378, 439, 443, 453–71, 479–99
described, 453–54, 454n, 479
established by public land order, 493–95, 493n
hunting issues, 455, 458–60, 466–67
name issues, 454n, 458, 463
oil exploration and mining issues, 456, 460–61, 467–68, 472–73, 472n, 484–85, 490
public opinion in Alaska and, 457–58, 462, 472, 474, 484, 487, 491
statehood issues and, 454, 457, 471–72, 473, 474–77, 486, 495
styles and tactics of defenders of, 454–71, 480–93
Arctic Prairies, The (Seton), 461
Arctic Range
attempts to prevent development of, 359–69
importance of photographs of, 363, 370–71
Matthiessen in, 439–40
Sheenjek expedition to, 373–76, 380–86
Arctic Village (Marshall), 244–45, 247–50, 254, 367
Arctic Wild (L. Crisler), 350–51, 353, 445–47, 448, 451
Arnold, Hap, 338
Arrhenius, Svante, 1
Asaiah, Brother, 417, 419–21, 425n
Ascent of Denali, The (Stuck), 133
Atlantic Monthly, 435
Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica), 156–57
atomic bomb testing. See Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
Jones and, 433–34
Project Chariot and, 403–6, 424
Atwood, Mike, 476
Audubon, 459
Audubon, John James, 88, 113, 193
Audubon, John Woodhouse, 438
Audubon Plumage Law (1910), 156
Audubon Society, 41, 88, 227
Auk, 132
aurora borealis, 267
Austin, Mary Hunter, 450
Autobiography, An (Adams), 324, 328, 330
Autobiography, An (Roosevelt), 158n
Autobiography of a Curmudgeon (Ickes), 120
Avery Island, Louisiana, 157
Bade, William F., 178
Baden-Powell, Robert, 101
Bailey, Florence Merriam, 287
Bailey, Vernon, 287