The Last Settlers (Emerging Writers in Creative Nonfiction) - Hardcover

Jennifer Brice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820702900 ISBN 13: 9780820702902

Publisher: Duquesne Univ Pr, 1998

Synopsis

When Jennifer Brice and Charles Mason began this project in 1991, examining the lives of two 20th century pioneer families in the Alaskan wilderness, neither realized that they were documenting the ending of American migration to the frontier. In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner declared the closing of the American frontier, because westering settlement was lapping at the shore of the Pacific Ocean. However, the federal Homestead Act remained in effect for nearly a century in Alaska, and in 1934 the Homesite Act was enacted, providing up to five acres of preselected land to settlers committed to living on it. In 1981, blocks of land totalling 30,000 acres near Lake Minchumina were opened to homesites, businesses and mineral leases. Two Years later, 10,250 acres in eastern Alaska, near the Ahtna village of Slana, were opened to settlement as well. Would-be settlers besieged the Fairbanks office of the Bureau of Land Management with letters and phone calls. Over time, however, the hype and the illusions have faded. Fewer than 100 people now make their homes on what is truly the last federal frontier. Of these few last settlers, two families, the Hannans and the Spears, are at the centre of this clear, unsentimental portrait of people whose daily existence is forged out of the crucible of myth. The wilderness surrounding Minchumina and Slana has little in common with conventional beauty, this book tells us. Some patches of it, as Brice says, look downright blighted, bringing to mind the prophet Jeremiah's description of wilderness that was 'desolate because no man layeth it to heart.' The Last Settlers is the story of unbeautiful land and the people who have laid it to heart.

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Reviews

"Energetic, individualistic, libertarian, wildly optimistic: these are the qualities instilled by the frontier." And these are the qualities that continue to draw would-be pioneers to the wilds of Alaska. In her first collection of essays, Alaska native Brice explores how the original appeal of wilderness for two families was more a concept than a geography. In the mid- 1980s Jill and Dennis Hannan settled near Deadfish Lake, Bob and Helen Spears "in the rough-and-tumble community of Slana." Although the Hannans ventured to the wild country with elevated values of spiritual renewal and connection with nature, they adjusted to the deeply practical needs of living 100 miles from the nearest public road--needs like killing a charging 1500-lb. bull moose at 30 yards. The Spears, who evoke "images of the Great Depression or Appalachia," were motivated more by the promise of their own land--if possible with satellite TV. But they've both managed better than most; 80% of homesteaders of the 1980s lost their land by badly miscalculating the distance between their dreams and their abilities. One such settler carried in an electric chain saw with a 300-foot extension cord; another planned to farm alligators. Unlike other would-be pioneers who "cut their wisdom teeth on Walden," Brice believes the Hannans succeeded because they learned that wilderness itself "lacks the power to transform," and that "among its lessons is one about the futility of making a fresh start in the wilderness when you can never leave your true self behind." Brice's text offers a compelling and sobering analysis of the Last Frontier psyche. 22 b&w photos. (Aug.) FYI: This is the latest in Duquesne's Emerging Writers in Creative Nonfiction series.

Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

If you've ever dreamed about homesteading in Alaska, you'll think twice after reading essayist Brice's description of backbreaking labor, isolation, and fear in her detailed portrait of two very different families living off the land. The Hannans, 150 miles from the nearest city in "a wilderness so profound that a case of appendicitis or a cut by an ax could be fatal," live simply in a dugout cabin, supplementing their store-bought provisions with food they grow, find, or hunt. Their two sons are home-schooled, and what little money they need is earned by trapping and seasonal jobs with an oil exploration firm. The Spears are also homesteaders, but they live on the road system. Though they have some modern conveniences, their primitive existence in a loosely organized community brings its own challenges of survival as they struggle to rebuild a church torched by an arsonist and deal with the "gut level hatreds, slander, property disputes, transciency and crime" of a diverse group of neighbors. Brice is at her best when letting the families speak for themselvesAher endless commentary about "personality and place" gets tiresome. The twin Collins sisters, on the other hand, make homesteading sound like one big adventure. Sure, they work hard; sure, they've been threatened by grizzly bears, volcanoes, muddy bogs, and frigid weatherAbut it seems there's nothing these gals can't handle with their trusty sled dogs and Icelandic horses by their side. Raised in the Alaskan wilderness since childhood, they went to college but returned home to hunt, trap, fish, and garden, writing about their experiences in various publications. While their writing lacks the telling details of the Brice book, their tales of adventure are exhilarating. Purchase the Collins book for the sheer fun of it and save Brice for sociology students.ACharlotte L. Glover, Ketchikan P.L., AK
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Duquesne Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0820702900
• ISBN 13: 9780820702902
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 171