Posts Tagged ‘Yukon’
Haunted Alaska, by Ron Wendt
They are watching us, these ghosts of the North. They cook breakfast, play cards, mine gold, turn on radios, and play the piano. Haunted Alaska (96 pages) is a collection of ghost stories that will raise the hair on the back of your neck. These astonishing stories tell of miners terrorized by spirits wandering their claims, of…
Read MoreSpirit of the Wind, by Lew Freedman
In 1958, no one in the Fur Rendezvous World Championship Sled Dog Race knew the Athabascan Indian from Huslia who limped to the starting line in Anchorage. But when he finished with the winning time, George Attla opened a new chapter in the history of sprint mushing. For decades, Attla, the “Huslia Hustler,” reined as…
Read MoreOne Second to Glory, by Lew Freedman
In 1978, Dick Mackey claimed the most dramatic victory ever in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, crossing the finish line in Nome a mere one second ahead of Rick Swenson after a two-week, 1,149 mile-run from Anchorage. Many years later Alaskans still shake their heads in amazement. In One Second to Glory (228 pages),…
Read MoreMoose Dropping and Other Crimes Against Nature, by Tom Brennan
In these one-liners, practical jokes, and funny stories, Tom Brennan shares hilarious and engaging tales of people, animals, and politicians of the Far North. It was a dream assignment! Collect wit, one-liners, tall tales, practical jokes, and funny stories for a book about Alaska humor. In Moose Dropping and Other Crimes Against Nature (96 pages), author…
Read MoreHonest Dogs, by Brian Patrick O’Donaghue
It had been six years since newspaper reporter Brian Patrick O’Donoghue mushed to a last place finish in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Yearning to challenge himself anew, he enters the Yukon Quest, a more brutal 1,000-mile run between Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and Fairbanks, Alaska. With wry humor and diminishing expectations, O’Donoghue shares the…
Read MoreGood Time Girls, by Lael Morgan
In the boomtowns of the Alaska-Yukon stampedes, where gold dust was common currency, the rarest commodity was an attractive woman, and her company could be costly. Author Lael Morgan takes you into the heart of the gold rush demimonde, that “half world” of prostitutes, dance hall girls, and entertainers who lived on the outskirts of…
Read MoreCrude Dreams, by Jack Roderick
In February 1968, the rumors became reality: An ARCO drilling rig has struck oil — lots of oil — on Alaska’s remote North Slope. Jack Roderick’s Crude Dreams: A Personal History of Oil and Politics in Alaska (448 pages) reads like a novel as he tells of the risky, expensive, and mostly frustrating search for…
Read MoreAmazing Pipeline Stories, by Dermot Cole
In the 1970s, the world’s largest construction companies invaded Alaska in a wild rush to build the 800-mile $8 billion trans-Alaska pipeline. Workers by the tens of thousands headed north, hoping to make their fortunes working on the pipeline, in a stampede that dramatically affected Alaska. Amazing Pipeline Stories (224 pages) explores the avalanche of…
Read MoreFather of the Iditarod, by Lew Freedman
Meet rugged, independent, determined, and hard-working Joe Redington, Father of the Iditarod (302 pages), a man who found his destiny in Alaska. In an inspirational biography, Lew Freedman chronicles Redington’s birth on the Chisholm Trail and his boyhood in the Depression–homeless, motherless, roaming the country looking for work. Alaska was his rebirth in 1948. On…
Read MoreStrange Stories of Alaska and the Yukon, by Ed Ferrell
From the pages of early-day northern newspapers comes a startling collection of accounts of the extraordinary and the unexplained: Mammoths discovered frozen whole in the icy grip of a glacier. A tropical valley hidden deep in the wilderness. Sea serpents sighted off the Bering Sea Coast. A ghostly maiden’s endless search for the young miner…
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