>
First Wilderness
My Quest in the Territory of Alaska
BY SAM KEITH
Author of One Man’s Wilderness
REVISED EDITION
with Color Images
Text and photographs © 2014 by Sam Keith, Brian Lies, and Laurel Keith Lies
First Printing of Revised Edition 2018
This edition:
ISBN 9781513261652 (paperback)
ISBN 9781513261829 (hardbound)
ISBN 9781513261836 (e-book)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the earlier edition as follows:
Keith, Sam.
First wilderness : my quest in the territory of Alaska / by Sam Keith.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-941821-09-1 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-941821-19-0 (e-book)
ISBN 978-1-941821-34-3 (hardbound)
1. Keith, Sam. 2. Keith, Sam—Travel—Alaska. 3. Wilderness areas—Alaska. 4. Outdoor life—Alaska. 5. Frontier and pioneer life—Alaska. 6. Pioneers—Alaska—Biography. 7. Adventure and adventurers—Alaska—Biography. 8. Proenneke, Richard—Friends and associates. 9. Kodiak Island (Alaska)—Description and travel. 10. Kenai Peninsula (Alaska)—Description and travel. I. Title.
F909.K28A3 2014
979.8—dc23
2014017710
Edited by Tricia Brown
Maps by Ani Rucki
Alaska Northwest Books®
An imprint of
Proudly distributed by Ingram Publisher Services.
Printed in the United States of America.
GRAPHIC ARTS BOOKS
Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Marketing Manager: Angela Zbornik
Editor: Olivia Ngai
Design & Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger
To my sister, Anna, and my wife, Jane.
I think of you and I think of home.
The Land of Beyond
Have ever you heard of the Land of Beyond,
That dreams at the gates of the day?
Alluring it lies at the skirts of the skies,
And ever so far away;
Alluring it calls; O ye the yoke galls,
And yet of the trail overfond,
With saddle and pack, by paddle and track,
Let’s go to the Land of Beyond!
Have ever you stood where the silences brood,
And vast the horizons begin,
At the dawn of the day to behold far away
The goal you would strive for a win?
Yet ah! In the night when you gain to the height,
With the vast pool of heaven star-spawned,
Afar and agleam, like a valley of dream,
Still mocks you a Land of Beyond.
—From Rhymes of a Rolling Stone by Robert W. Service
Contents