Sisters: Coming of Age & Living Dangerously in the Wild Copper River Valley

by Samme Gallaher, Aileen Gallaher

In 1926, Aileen Gallaher, a beautiful young woman, runs away from her difficult life in California, traveling alone by train to Seattle, then by steamship to Valdez, Alaska, where she is met by trapper Clyde C. "Slim" Williams, and travels deep into the Copper River Valley. There, Aileen finds an even more difficult life. Slim Williams had stayed behind after the Klondike gold rush was over, living off the land. Although she is half his age, Aileen finds happiness in their raw existence spent in isolated cabins, facing the unrelenting challenges of wilderness survival. The fierce cold is worse than Aileen ever imagined, but she comes to love Slim and the wild Copper River country. The only thing missing is female companionship. Enter Samme, Aileen's irrepressible teenage sister. This sibling memoir reveals their emotional coming of age in a remote region even by Alaska standards. Yet, the sisters live a charmed life, and come to love a wolf from the wild. Samme Gallaher was 92 and living in Thousand Oaks, California when Sisters was published. Aileen Gallaher died just short of her 89th birthday in 1994.

Genres: Travel, Family, Memoir, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

Reviews

[Lkelly6 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two amazing, adventurous young women from Fresno, CA somehow had parents willing to let them GO forward to adventure. The sections of the book as written by each sister:
Aileen 1926-32; 1931-32 and then to 1957
Samme 1927-28; 1930-31

This is an amazing story that will stay with me for a long time, perhaps forever. How can I count the reasons why?
1. The relationship between sisters born 7 years apart and yet so close in temperament, ideas, personality, desires, values = my relationship with my sister Susan, younger than I by 6 years.
2. The parents of these women astonish me, letting them go individually on such a trip to the wilderness of Alaska, in the 1920s. My parents sheltered me and barely allowed me to go on a road trip of a hundred miles, heavily supervised by well-known adults.
3. The spunkiness of these 2 city girls to learn to shoot, hunt, trap, raft, train dogs, run a dog-sled, camp in the most primitive conditions also astonishes me. I am somewhat adventurous, but in safe, careful, limited ways. I can identify with their soaring spirit to meet the challenges of nature, but my mechanical and physical abilities do not equal theirs. I am resourceful when necessary. My imagination has often given me the idea to solve a problem when no help was around.
4. The relationship between Aileen and her wolf, Hoppy, so closely matches the relationship I have experienced with my dogs. There can be a connection of spirit and mind between person and animal that surpasses that between 2 human beings - at least in my experience, and evidently in Aileen's. She found husband-partner-men in her life and made good relationships, but none matched the connection she had with Hoppy, the noble wolf whom she raised. The fact that her husband Slim became so jealous of this wolf that he found an excuse to murder him breaks my heart every time I remember this tragic event. He was not just killing an animal; he was killing the thing Aileen had nurtured like a child (she had no human children ever) and loved with her whole heart. I wanted to shoot him!
5. I am amazed that in the writing of Aileen (Apparently, she had written about her life in Alaska for her writing classes at Fresno State College after she left Alaska) and in the writing of Samme, neither showed animosity toward Slim Williams as they wrote about his exploits and adventures during the rest of his life.
6. I am overjoyed that Samme was able to reconnect with Lucy Craig, an Alaska Native girl with whom she was friends in 1927. They were both 15, the only teenagers in Copper Center area. Both had gone on to live terrific lives.
7. I am really bonded with their LOVE of this MOUNTAIN WORLD. I bonded with the mountains of Colorado at age 7 when my parents took me camping. This strong bond continued through my adult life as we continually returned to mountains for winter/spring skiing and summer hiking/camping. We finally moved to Colorado in 1999, when I was 54 years old. We built our dream mountain home in Twin Lakes, finishing in 2005, moving in full time in 2013 when I finally retired from 44 years teaching school.
Just walking, running, being on mountain trails, gazing at distant mountain peaks - enriches my soul.
P104 Samme writes - and what she writes is also how I feel about the things, people, and places I have shared with my sister Susan:

One morning Aileen and I walked up on the slope of Mt. Sanford. It was a bright winter day with our whole world in view. We could see the great Copper River Valley spread out below us. Across to the north we could see the majestic Alaska Range. We stood in awe of the glorious sight. Aileen said, "You know, I think we are the only people who have ever been right here before."
I (Samme) replied, "And the only people with such dirty necks." With that we began laughing at ourselves, two California city girls standing at the bottom of a glacier with Mt Sanford rising majestically above us. We had guns on our backs, moccasins on our feet, shells in our pockets, and grins on our faces. This was the best day of my life in Alaska. It tied Aileen and me together with a very strong love for each other, and I have never forgotten it."

That depth of shared feeling coupled with irrepressible joking joy = SISTERS

[Greyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the best "sourdough" account I've personally read; Samme Gallaher tells of her sister's six years in the Copper River Valley and two trips of her own. Love the shade thrown at the end where they call out Dick Morenus for excluding them entirely (!) in his biography of Slim Williams. No doubt he was an interesting character and important to the Alcan movement, but these stories tell a great deal about the day to day life for trappers/dog breeders in the shadow of Mt. Sanford and Mt. Drum.

Plus, they raise a wolf pup.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a first-person window into life in the Alaskan wilderness in the 1920s. Written in separate sections by two sisters Samme and Aileen, it is straightforward storytelling about their time living with Aileen's older husband Slim, a trapper, and their crew of dogs. Although not glistening literature, they conveyed the excitement and trials of their lives in a way that felt very real. What an amazing time!

[Lee Harmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book from a little store this weekend while on our camping trip to the Copper River valley. We visited McCarthy and the Kennicott Mine, along with Valdez and the Worthington Glacier. Reading stories from this book that involved all of these same places back in the 1920's was intriguing and fun. There are some wild experiences, close calls, and it is another good AK adventure book to add to the collection.

[Georgene Ingwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author of this book is Samme Gallaher who is a woman who writes of her own and her sister's experiences in Alaska in the twenties.... My husband bought this book to read about places he had visited in Alaska. But I read it as a story of two strong independent women when women were not expected to be so adventurous. It is an enjoyable read.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting biography of two sisters who lived in alaska wilderness between 1926 and 1932 with Slim Williams, a dog musher and trapper. A glimpse of early alaska life in copper river valley, north of Valdez.

[Carol McClain · Rating 2 out of 5]

the book was okay. I wanted more details and I wanted the emotional package. Just okay.

[Steve Voiles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting view of two California girls moving to Alaska in the 30's. Great info about the time in history. I was particularly interested in the relationship with a captive wolf kept by a trapper who married one of the girls, the behavior of the wolf and its offspring and the emotion it aroused in the people who kept it.
Many harrowing adventures recounted in this late-in-life recounting of youthful Alaskan times.

My niece raised her family while running the Gakona Roadhouse in the 80's and 90's and she gave us the book.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason the actual title of this book was different than what I found on Goodreads -- it's Sisters: Coming of Age and Living Dangerously in the Wild Copper River Valley. Reading this book is like listening to your grandmother and her sister tell tales of "way back when". It was really neat to read about early settlers in Alaska. Although the writing is not overly sophisticated, it is very descriptive and I could almost hear and see the experiences of these ladies. A quick, easy and fun read.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love hearing people's stories of how they came to Alaska. Alaska has changed so much in the last 100 years and understanding just how much has changed so quickly helps me to better understand this beautiful place where I live and work. This book is not full of metaphors and flowery language, but what it lacks in prose, it makes up for in heart. The sisters' stories are a fast, fun read that will make you fall in love with the Copper River Valley.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1926, Aileen Gallaher leaves a difficult life in California and travels alone to Alaska to meet trapper Clyde "Slim" Williams. She comes to love both Slim and the Copper River Valley. Later, her 15-year-old sister, Samme, travels north to spend a year with the couple. This is a story of their life in isolated log cabins, trapping, hunting, and traveling in this fiercely cold wilderness.

[Elaine Cantrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about Alaska in the early days of the 2oth century.

[Susanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

GREAT to read a real story about tough women in Alaska in the early 20th century.