The year is 1967. 51-year-old Dick Proenneke is living and working in Alaska as a diesel mechanic after being discharged as a Navy carpenter for medical reasons. Although very skilled and sought after in his work, Proenneke's true passion has always lain somewhere else: the great outdoors. With a change at work on the horizon, he makes the radical decision to move to the remote Alaskan wilderness and try his hand at living off the land.
More at home in nature than in the big cities, Proenneke selected an isolated piece of land in Twin Lakes to set up camp. With the exception of hunting season, when human traffic would increase a bit, his only contact was to be with Babe, the pilot who flew him in and would drop by periodically with supply runs, and writing letters. The arrangement suited him perfectly; he wanted solitude, after all.
Borrowing a nearby cabin for a temporary base, Proenneke got to work building his new home. He felled trees and meticulously notched them to fit together as closely as possible, carted gravel from the lakefront for the floor, cut and peeled more wood for window panes and roof slats and a door, hunted for the perfect stones from which to craft a fireplace and chimney, and, in between all of that, somehow managed to find time to build furniture and repurpose things like old gas cans into usable tools. It's hard work, but work that he's well-suited to and enjoys.
To get the resources he needs for his cabin, Proenneke is often out exploring his surroundings and gets to know the other inhabitants - the non-human inhabitants, that is. "Camp robbers", caribou, rams, bears, fish, ermine, and a handful of other critters all make an appearance, whether for good or ill. As the cabin is completed and winter sweeps in to the region, the focus switches from creation to survival. How can he stay warm in temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero while still accomplishing everything that has to be done? Will he be able to supplement the food supplies that Babe brings in as the journey becomes riskier the colder it gets? Will he get cabin fever being cooped up for extended periods of time?
Like a lot of people these days, I am completely fascinated by stories like this. Life gets so complicated and stressful sometimes that it's easy to fantasize about what it would be like to chuck everything in the bin, move to the middle of nowhere, and spend the rest of your days communing with nature and singing kumbaya around the campfire. Idealistically, it sounds pretty great. Realistically, I would've accidentally chopped my leg off trying to cut down that first tree. A girl can dream, though, and that's why I love this book.
Proenneke is one of those people that everyone would want on their zombie apocalypse team, including the zombies: he's resourceful, a meticulous planner, a hard worker, and - look away if you're squeamish - he's not afraid to eat brains. For realsies. Aside from that, he's conscientious about literally everything he does. Nothing goes to waste and I mean nothing (see above brain comment). Whether it's turning old tin into items he needs, repurposing or recovering things people have left behind, or even salvaging what he can from animals that were killed for sport and left to rot, he approaches every situation with the goal of maximizing the outcome with minimum waste. His quiet philosophy is sprinkled throughout the book and some of the ways in which he takes things into his own hands are really quite moving, especially with his little animal friends.
Aside from just the sheer impressiveness of dropping into the wilderness and building a completely new life from the ground up, it's some of the notes in his journals that make his story extra special, not to mention the beautiful photos that he took along the way for documentation. I think today's world needs a lot more of what he had: respect for nature and the things that live in it, less focus on accumulating things, the satisfaction of a good day's hard work, and an appreciation for the simple beauty that's all around us, but that we miss because we're too busy rushing around.
Proenneke died in 2003 after spending a total of almost 30 years living in the cabin that he built with his own two hands. In fact, you can still visit the cabin today; he bequeathed it to the National Park Service and it's a popular tourist destination (as popular as it can be for being in remote Alaska) to this day. There's also a short documentary about his life, which is called "Alone in the Wilderness". While it's fun to read about people doing incredible things like this, there are some important lessons to take away from his story. By examining our own lives through the lens of conscientious responsibility for which Proenneke advocated while pursuing his dream of a simple life, we can ensure his legacy lives on to inspire future generations.
Pros:
- Gorgeous photography from Proenneke himself
- Man vs nature
- Proenneke is, quite possibly, The Coolest Man Ever™
Cons:
- Written in diary format, which is both a pro and a con as you know exactly what's going on when, but 1) the days can be a little repetitive sometimes and 2) there are jumps in the entries, which can be a little disorienting if you're not paying attention
- This is from a few decades ago and, very rarely, a comment will reflect a view from that time that would probably not go over super well today
- There are some disturbing scenes if you're an animal lover, but he doesn't get super gory with descriptions
Final rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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