Bring Me Wild Roses: An Alaskan Odyssey

ISBN-13: 9781517225940 / Angielski / Miękka / 2015 / 476 str.

Celestia Whitehead

Opis

With the opening of the Alaska Highway to civilian traffic in 1947, Clermont, an Amy Air Corps veteran, and his sweetheart, Gwynne, came to the Copper River Basin, a vast wilderness where only a small community of individuals lived and depended upon each other. This is the true story of a time and place that are nearly forgotten, and some of the real characters who made things happen in post World War II Alaska. There were the old timers, like the trapper, Ben Pinks, who did everything in his power to keep the fiercely independent Chechakos, Cler and Gwynne, from starving or freezing to death the first winter; Ma Barnes, who owned the Road House at Copper Center and took the family in after a dangerous flood; and the Ahtna native family of "Mama George," who were like angels to Cler and Gwynne and their small children during those first critical years. Bear encounters were so common that every family needed a good dog and a powerful gun. Cler and Gwynne had no dog, and only a .22 rifle, which would kill a rabbit or a duck for food, but only make a bear angry. Ben Pinks gave them Buddy, "the best darn bear dog in the Interior." He also loaned them a gun that would take down a grizzly. Because of their own ingenuity, their great love for each other, and the kindness of friends, Gwynne and Cler were able to meet the challenges of isolation, incredible cold, limited resources, lack of medical access, and other stresses that took a toll on their physical and mental health. In spite of the odds against them, they "proved up" on the first homestead at Kenny Lake, and established a family and a community in the wilderness.