One man’s wilderness (50 page)

An event he will never forget happened in the spring of 1976 when he flew a Piper J3 Cub up from Iowa. He and his brother Raymond had serviced this plane and brought it to perfection. All that summer he kept it moored between
occasional flights in the bight opposite his cabin. Enroute home in the fall, it almost killed him. He had been following the Alaskan Highway. At Sheep Mountain Pass his carburetor iced up. The motor quit. A forced landing was imminent. With a deadening jolt, he plowed into an up-slope. When he regained consciousness, he could barely move. No one would find him where he was. Somehow he painfully bellied his way up to the highway edge. A couple in a passing pickup truck stopped to help him. They drove him to Gulkana, where he received emergency treatment. From there, he was transferred to Anchorage and hospitalized for serious back trauma. It proved to be a lengthy, frustrating experience, but he returned in the spring to his cabin.

That ordeal over, he focused on his cameras. Over the years he has exposed many rolls of 35mm film, as well as reels of 8mm and 16mm. The National Park Service produced
One Man’s Alaska
, featuring his striking photography. A videotape followed,
The Frozen North
, from Bob Swerer Productions at Fort Collins, Colorado. [While neither film is currently available, Swerer’s recent documentary on Dick’s adventure,
Alone in The Wilderness
, is available on VHS and DVD.]

During Dick’s long tenure, Twin Lakes became part of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. Today, a ranger station is situated near the foot of the lower lake. Dick has had contact with it by “walkie-talkie.” Travelers, many from other countries, have flown in for float trips down the Chilikadrotna River, which begins there. The cabin’s guest register lists hundreds of visitors, including former governor of Alaska Jay Hammond and the late singer John Denver, who have come over the years to meet and talk with Dick.

This year, Dick formally entrusted his homestead to the Park Service. His cabin will be maintained as a historic site. He may return to stay in it anytime he wishes. And while he may not make the trip physically again, his spirit will always linger in the perfect notches of his logs.

Sam Keith
Anderson, South Carolina
September 28, 1998

About the Author

Alaska was always on Sam Keith’s mind. Ever since Keith was a child, his father, a wildlife artist and naturalist, had instilled in him the dream of going there. During the Depression, Keith was a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Northeastern Oregon. In World War II he served in the Pacific as a combat air crewman in the first Marine “Billy Mitchell” bombing squadron, “The Flying Nightmares.”

After being discharged, he attended Cornell University where he majored in English and elected wildlife courses. Keith then moved to Alaska where he immersed himself in “The Great Land”—Kodiak Island, the Alaska peninsula, and the Kenai. After more than three years, he returned to New England, where he “camped” behind a typewriter, and pursued a career as a writer.

Writing did not come easy for Keith, and he felt stalled at a crossroads until he married Jane. She gave him not only a lovely daughter, Laurel, but also the direction to enter a teaching career, which lasted 26 years. At one point he fortuitously seized the opportunity to spend two weeks with Dick Proenneke, his former Alaskan partner, to see a cabin, a cache, and untamed country.
One Man’s Wilderness
was launched.

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