Alaska: Where the Long Trail Led

Alaska--Where the Long Trail Led chronicles the many facets of a small-town boy's life during the 1930s Great Depression and how his wanderlust steered him in many directions--from a high school dropout "bindlestiff" to an accomplished artist and illustrator. The long trail led Robert Gilmore from Oklahoma's tornado alley to Alaska where he endured the Great Alaska Earthquake. He eventually realized a boyhood dream of exploring the virgin north country and of building a log cabin in the wilderness. The last 45 years have been one continuous adventure as Robert found his real home in the Great Land.

An Alaskan since 1962, Gilmore has been painting and illustrating most of his life. He was born in Texas in 1928, but grew up in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. As a teenager, he traveled, unconventionally, throughout the West from the Mississippi to the Pacific and from Mexico to Canada by hitchhiking and hopping freight trains. Although he was a high school dropout, he returned to school and excelled in art, English and journalism. He attended Oklahoma State University for two years--his studies were in English and Geology. His art training comes from correspondence courses in commercial art and years of practice. For many years he was an illustrator in the oil and aerospace industries. During the 60s he did free-lance design and illustration for the Anchorage Telephone Book, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Industry Magazine, Concrete Association of Alaska, and various advertising agencies. In 1978 he illustrated and published a calendar of his paintings of Alaska. He has had several one-man shows and has exhibited in galleries in Anchorage and Juneau. A Gilmore painting can be recognized by the brilliant colors he employs, and by his realistic interpretations of present and past lifestyles. He works mostly with acrylic on canvas, although, for a change of pace he may use pen and ink on paper with watercolors for dramatic effect. From 1966 to 1991 he was a scientific illustrator for the U. S. Geological Survey in Anchorage where he was in charge of illustrating, compiling, publishing and distributing scientific publications for Water Resources Division.