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Finding true north : firsthand stories of the booms that built modern Alaska / by Molly Rettig.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Rettig, Molly, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Rettig, Molly.
- Gold mines and mining--Alaska--History.
- Gold mines and mining.
- Petroleum industry and trade--Alaska--History.
- Petroleum industry and trade.
- Alaska Natives--Biography.
- Alaska Natives.
- History.
- Alaska--History.
- Alaska.
- Alaska--Description and travel.
- Alaska--Biography.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (xii, 262 pages) : illustrations, maps
- Place of Publication:
- Fairbanks, Alaska : University of Alaska Press, [2021]
- System Details:
- text file
- Summary:
- Melting sea ice and rumbling volcanoes. Sled dogs racing through unnamed valleys. These were the images that came to mind when Molly Rettig moved to Fairbanks, Alaska to work as a reporter at the local newspaper. An avid environmentalist, she couldn't wait to explore the vast, untamed spaces that had largely been paved over on the east coast. But when her 72-year-old neighbor, Clutch, invites her on a tour of his gold mine--an 800-foot tunnel blasted into the side of his house-she begins to question many of her ideas about Alaska, and about herself. -- In Finding True North, Rettig takes us on a gripping journey through Alaska's past that brings alive the state's magnificent country and its quirky, larger-than-life characters. She meets a trapper who harvests all she needs from the land, a bush pilot who taught himself how to fly, and an archaeologist who helped build an oil pipeline through pristine wilderness. While she learns how airplanes, mines, and oil fields have paved the way for newcomers like herself, she also stumbles upon a bigger question: what has this quest for Alaska's natural resources actually cost, and how much more is at stake? -- This is a book about all the ways wild places teach us about ourselves. Rettig writes both playfully and honestly about how one place can be many things to many people--and how all of it can be true.
- Contents:
- Part 1 Gold
- 1 A Gold Rush Town p. 1
- 2 The Stampede p. 13
- 3 Frozen Gold p. 27
- 4 Going Home p. 39
- 5 Hot Rocks p. 55
- 6 Gold Fever p. 63
- Part 2 Air
- 7 The Bush p. 77
- 8 The Dream p. 89
- 9 Beaver Creek p. 99
- 10 Life on the River p. 111
- 11 Kaboom p. 127
- 12 Drafted p. 131
- Part 3 Oil
- 13 The Proposal p. 145
- 14 Boom Time p. 157
- 15 The Alaska Dream p. 173
- 16 Mining Camp p. 183
- 17 The Alaska Reality p. 189
- 18 The Crash p. 199
- Part 4 Subsistence
- 19 Visiting the Land of Caribou p. 209
- 20 Fending for Myself p. 221
- 21 Filling the Freezer p. 235
- 22 Oil vs. Food p. 241
- 23 The Next Bend p. 249.
- Notes:
- Includes index.
- Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI Available via World Wide Web.
- Description based on print version record.
- Other Format:
- Online version: Rettig, Molly. Finding true north
- ISBN:
- 9781602234444
- 1602234442
- Publisher Number:
- 40030476245
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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