A Net Made of Bubbles The unusual feeding technique of humpback whales
[by Will Rice]
The New Dog Speeding to get more time in solitude.
The remarkable story of Mary Makriko [by Laurel Bill] THE QUEEN OF REINDEER, AS SHE WOULD LATER BE CALLED, was born in 1870 as Mary Makriko to an Inupiat Eskimo mother and a Russian father who was a trader on the Seward Peninsula. Raised in St. Michael on the southern shore of Alaska’s Norton Sound, Mary lived in a village that became the staging point for supplies bound for interior trade on the Lower and Middle Yukon River and a gathering place for large numbers of Alaska Natives who traded furs for European goods. In 1889, Mary met and married Inupiat Charlie Antisarlook, and the couple moved to Sinrock, near Cape Nome. Soon after, the reindeer came into her life. Serving as a translator for Capt. Michael A. Healy on board the U.S. Revenue Service Cutter, Bear, she found the vessel laden with reindeer in transport from Siberia to Alaska.…
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Click below to view Carl Battreall’s incredible photo essay.
An Iditarod checkpoint o ffers a warm welcome [by Natalie Baumgartner] IN 1974, MCGRATH RESIDENT BABE ANDERSON WAS THE FIRST MUSHER FROM THE AREA TO ENTER THE IDITAROD TRAIL SLED DOG RACE. Over the years, 16 others from McGrath and surrounding villages followed in his footsteps. Notable competitors include second-place Finisher Eep Anderson and third-place finisher Ernie Baumgartner, as well as many others placing in the top 10. During the Iditarod’s early years, most everyone in town participated in some way. Local families hosted racers and their teams as they arrived in McGrath, 311 miles into the race, where the hospitality and strategic location along the trail made the stop a favorite for many to take their mandatory 24-hour layover. Local competitors helped fuel the excitement and community support in the early years, and normal day-to-day activity halted. Everyone in town attended large fundraisers for racers. Non-stop entertainment while the…
The Arctic Refuge remains an unspoiled American treasure—for now [by E. Donnall Thomas jr.] “Here still survives one of Planet Earth’s own works of art. This one symbolizes freedom.” —Lowell Sumner National Park Service biologist, 1953 I will never forget the first time I dipped my toe in the Arctic Ocean. Despite the early August date, a mountain snowstorm had kept us grounded on Barter Island at the beginning of a Brooks Range sheep hunt. Since we were hunting with longbows, the smart money was on the sheep. With nothing else to do while we waited for the weather to clear, I wandered up to the local medical clinic. A young physician with several years of experience in Native communities, I was able to give the friendly staff some advice on their new ER equipment. Then I headed to the beach. Although I’d spent time on six of the seven…
GO. – Alaska from Trek Thunder Kelly on Vimeo.
When the tourist season is just too much [by Shelby Huff] BLESSED AS I AMTO CALL KETCHIKAN HOME, the amount of tourists who pass through this town on a daily basis can be enough to drive anyone away. As such, my friend Leo and I headed to the trailhead of the Traverse, a hike along the alpine ridges of Revillagigedo Island. To describe him as energetic would be among the most unhinged understatements of all time. As I watched him run laps around the parking lot, I remembered what my coworkers had told me, “Good luck keeping up with that energy.” That first night, we pitched our tent on a small hill above Blue Lake, and a heavy mist clouded the slumbering mountains around us. Below us, an A-frame cabin—the only semblance of civilization in sight—that had blown over during a windstorm sat 100 feet from its original perch. We…
