CULTURE |
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A TRAIL THROUGH ALASKA |
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Wilderness and pioneer mystique |
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In 1893, the American frontier was declared closed. At the Chicago World’ s Fair, historian Frederick Jackson Turner concluded that migration following the gold rush to the western territories had stopped. The nation had settled.
More than 120 years later, the last frontier is still standing firm. Alaska, above all other states, is stylised as the remaining raw, wild and untouched American North. Its metaphysical boundary divides the pure from the spoiled land.
Gold prospectors hoping to strike it rich, mountaineers aspiring to climb to the summit of the continent’ s tallest peaks, pioneers of aviation, naturalist writers and modern day dreamers have been drawn to Alaska. Wallace Olson of the University of Alaska Southeast writes,“ History of the western frontier is defined by excess and exploitation.”
To this day both the aesthetic voyager and modern escapist dwell on the region’ s natural grandeur.“ A lot of people find comfort in knowing that wild places and natural dynamics still exist in places that they’ ll never visit or only see from afar,” comments John Quinley of the National Park Service in Anchorage.
Ownership of nature is also sought in literary works. Many authors strip Alaska down, and use it as a blank, pristine canvas that emphasises the struggles of their characters. Naturalist John Muir wrote in 1879 that he felt himself near to“ the very paradise of poets, the abode of the blessed.”
Protagonists of frontier stories either embrace the harsh conditions of Alaska, or fail tragically as victims of their naiveté and projected hopes. There is no room to stumble; the determination to survive must be absolute.
Jack London, the author of The Call of the Wild, and White Fang, took on the
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persona of the man conquering the wild beast in the rugged North. Others come to Alaska, searching for freedom and autonomy.
T. C Boyle’ s novel Drop City describes a hippie community that leaves California in the 70’ s and relocates to Alaska, but inevitably clashes with Alaskan homesteaders who make their living there.
“ The wild is demanding and orderly, not chaotic and romantic,” remarks American poet Gary Snyder. The images based on daydreams of wild rivers, a plethora of natural foods and complete solitude are hard to reconcile with the reality of the land. Christopher Mc- Candless, the anti-hero of Jon Krakauer’ s novel Into the Wild finds himself trapped in his modern consumer- and capitalist centered American life, escapes to Alaska and dies there alone, a victim of his own illusions.
The region has not remained immune to the problems of modernisation. Tim Woody from the Wilderness Society argues that easier and cheaper ways of getting into remote parts of the country risk making them less wild.
The modern frontier still brings solace. It is more than an abstraction.“ I like to think these wild places retain much of their re-generative power. Their scale, often the wildlife, the power of water, snow, glaciers and mountains, and remoteness all provide scale to one’ s life. You feel pretty small out there,” says
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John Quinley.
Bridgette Donlin, a graduate student from Florida, came to Ketchikan in coastal Alaska, as a seasonal worker in the fishing industry. She says:“ Alaska is the final frontier. It is to me.” Constant hopes of renewal and wilderness aesthetics invested in the concept keep the Alaskan frontier from crumbling. In time, this threshold may develop into an eternal frontier.
// Elisabeth Doehne
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joshua verhagen
joshua verhagen
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