Cultural anthropologist and award-winning author Richard K. Nelson passed away in 2019 at the age of 77.
Though reaching the best spots for rockhounding Alaska may not be easy, the state’s geological riches rival its scenery in thrills and diversity.
Reflections of a carnivore
Capturing the spirit in the sky
A SHIMMER OF LIGHT FLICKERS OVER THE KOBUK RIVER AND THE CURVE OF THE BORNITE HILLS. Then another. As I gaze eastward, yellow-white tongues of fire rise from the horizon, accelerate in pulsing curtains that blaze overhead, shred and vanish, then form again.
Three parks, 17 million acres, as wild as it ever was.
Delivering plants and seeds and rototillers to Inupiaq Eskimo gardeners.
[by Seth Kantner]
Loss beyond years and miles I’ve just checked my box at the Ambler post office on a mid-August afternoon; Sarah Tickett might have smiled and handed me my mail; instead, it’s someone else. Just across the trail stands Nelson and Edna Greist’s plywood cabin. The door is open, an armload of wood on the stoop; a familiar, fireweed-framed clutter fills the yard. But there’s no sign of Nelson sitting in his spot to the right of the door, working on a piece of spruce or jade; no huge, squinting, gap-toothed smile as he invites me in with his signature “Gonna coffee!” and he and Edna welcome me like a long-lost relative; no Inupiaq legends or tales of his youth, living from the land in the wind-raked Killik River country, his family sometimes on the edge of survival. Another couple hundred yards toward my place on the downstream edge…
Nick Jans on what it’s like to be a snowbird who splits his time between Florida and Alaska.
Nick Jans has a pile of tent stories, and he shares a few from times his tents were tested by the harsh Alaskan elements.
In Jeffry Hesse’s opinion, the taste of burbot rivals salmon or halibut. It’s lean and picks up flavor easily. Plus, no bones, unlike salmon.