Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Central Brooks Range

by Robert Marshall, Robert Marshall

Exploring the great wilderness of Alaska's Brooks Range was Robert Marshall's joy and delight during the decade between 1929 and 1939. Marshall traveled this spectacular country, from the Upper Koyukuk drainage to the Arctic Divide, making maps, recording scientific data, and exalting in the beauty of that incredibly pristine landscape. Although his early death at thirty-eight ended an exceptional life too early, he left journals and letters to describe his favorite place on earth. These were edited by his brother George Marshall and were compiled to create this classic of environmental literature, now in its third edition after nearly fifty years in print and with a new foreword by Rick Bass.

Genres: Nonfiction, Adventure, Travel

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Joanne Fate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read a lot of books about Alaska. This is one of my favorites ever. You can sense Marshall’s love of the land, sense of adventure, respect for the people, and his knowledge and curiosity of the natural world. He had foresight, which is relevant today as some politicians and corporations want to destroy this area. If you’re looking for a non-fiction book about Alaska then you can’t go wrong with this.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable and detailed account of Bob Marshall's exploration of the Brooks Range near Gates of the Arctic National Park. Parts of the account were dry, but they were punctuated with eexciting encounters with grizzlies, flooded camps, and the like. This book stood out from other exploration books for a couple reasons:

1) For a white man in the 1930s, he was very careful to chalk up his 'firsts' only as a first to white men, acknowledging that native Alaskans may well have explored some of these areas before.

2) He really conveys the difficulty of getting the complex geography correct. He did this not by whining, but by freely and humorously sharing his incorrect deductions of which river must have drained down which range. He was also quick to share the credit with his traveling companions for his accomplishments.

By the way, this dude was a beast! Offhandedly mentioning 30 mile trailless days, some harrowing scrambles, etc. His love of wilderness areas, the native Alaskans, and the pioneers of the area really shine through in this book. It's a fitting legacy that such a wide swath of American wilderness bears his name today.

[Garret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. This is one of the best adventure narratives I've ever read. It certainly helps that the Brooks Range is amazing, and that there really aren't any guidebooks to the range and this 1950's book about 1930's-1940's travels is still one of the closest things there is. However, the prose is excellent. It captures love of the wilderness and adventure as well as the humor and the suffering.

[Billy Goddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read if you are interested in the Brooks Range.

[Dan Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not sure how my friend came upon this book, but he mentioned it to me and within the first few pages I was captivated beyond expression. There is no book in memory that has made me want to explore a region of the planet more - than this book. The sense of freedom, exploration, and sheer excitement the author writes with seemed to pour over me. The days i did not have the chance to read this book, i was eagerly awaiting the moment when I could again share Robert Marshall's journey. It is now one of my dreams to take a journey with my closest friends and my younger brother into the heart of the brooks range at some point in life.

[Nola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned quite a bit about the geography of the Brooks Range and got a totally unrealistic impression of what is physically possible. The author is unbelievably cavalier about the most amazing physical feats,such as hiking 20-30 miles a day over difficult terrain with heavy loads. His love of the country and what he was doing shines throughout the book. It is really nice to understand the meaning of the term "Gates of the Arctic", not to mention having an idea of the location of major rivers of the area.

[Teri Robus]

I would like to read this again.

[Mark Lipowicz]

One of the best nature books of all time. First man to document and map much of what is now Gates of the Arctic NAtional Park