Arctic Village: A 1930's Portrait of Wiseman, Alaska

by Robert Marshall

This classic is an original work of literature by one of America's foremost conservationists and is an account of the people of the north, both Native and white, who give Alaska its special human flavor. First published over fifty years ago, the book is still a favorite among old-time Alaskans and, over the years, has prompted numerous readers to pack up and move to Alaska.

The richness of statistical coverage in this book, and Marshall's careful descriptions of the characters he met, provide readers with a window to the world of 1930 and a nearly complete record of the Koyukuk civilization as he saw it. Readers learn what the people of Wiseman thought about sex, religion, politics, and the myriad of ways they found to cope with and enjoy life in a wilderness community.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Adventure

428 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

Reviews

[Janie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goodreads two-star rating is "it was okay," not as negative of a rating as it might seem. I was disappointed in this book after reading so many others about life in Alaska. Marshall's Arctic Village was centered on the community of Wiseman along the Middle Fork Koyukuk River in the Brooks Range. I was drawn to the book after reading Mardy Murie's wonderful book, Two in the Far North, much of it centered along the Koyukuk River. Although both books were similarly placed geographically, Murie's book was far more interesting.

Some of Marshall's lines were enlightening, but the rest were rather tedious. One of the main reasons for the tedium was the author's penchant for statistics, as I had read in the preface: "Hiking brought him [the author] happiness, and so did his other great passion in life: statistics. At a young age Marshall developed an insatiable thirst for precision, a love for compiling statistics that would serve him well as a scientist and an observer of human nature." And compile he did! Hardly a page goes by without a line or two of some statistic, and hardly ten pages go by without a table or three of minute statistics. At first this was interesting but quickly faded into weariness.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book to anyone living in interior Alaska. The author spent more than a year researching life among the 127 people living in the 15,000 square miles of the upper Koyukuk in the early 1930s. He was thorough and insightful.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable book about a small village in Alaska. At times it is a little dated, but in general it's great to see how few prejudices the people have. The author obviously had a great love for the place, which shone through, but they also explored the place in quite a methodical way.

[Jesse D · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview of life in the Koyukuk River valley in northern Alaska.

[M Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very in-depth cultural history of what life was like in a small town in northern Alaska. I enjoyed it.

[Kathy Geiges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible historical and cultural expose'...a microcosm of the Alaskan experience...sweet, beautiful, i teresting, hard to put down.

[Martin Chevreau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really pleasant ethnographic text (which read more like a novel than a study), first because of the content - very interesting and the novelty of reading a travel book from almost a century ago definitely contributed - and second because of the way it was arranged, with descriptive passages and regular testimonials from citizens. As a side note, the five stars do not endorse some of the words and stereotypes used that may not have passed the editing process in the 21st century, owing to the different social norms at the time of writing.

[James Hiebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book for a description of what arctic Alaksa was like before the arrival of industrial oil development. Marshall's vignettes and organization provide a greater level of detail that one might expect. That said, it's not exactly a cohesive story which makes it kind of a dry read unless you _really_ care about what Alaska was like.