Kantishna: Mushers, Miners, Mountaineers - The Pioneer Story Behind Mount McKinley National Park

by Tom Walker

In the aftermath of the 1898 Klondike gold rush, hardy pioneers forged through trackless wilderness on foot or by dog team to prospect every remote drainage in Interior Alaska. A chance discovery of gold in the Kantishna hills in 1905 sparked a wild stampede for riches. The rush to the Mt. McKinley region lured hundreds of people. The Kantishna is rife with stories of courage, loyalty and challenges met head-on. Bouts with wild beasts, isolation, disease, accidents and cosmic cold. Here to are darker tales¬…of armed robbery, attempted murder, suicide and insanity. Market hunters slaughtered the wildlife. Unscrupulous trappers poisoned animals for their fur. Mt. McKinley drew adventurers of another sort. For a decade a few eastern sportsmen and sourdoughs challenged the icy slopes. The stories of defeat and deception set the stage in 1913 for the ultimate triumph. Out of the detritus of the great Alaska/Yukon gold rushes emerged two men of a different stripe. Men of adventure and vision, rising above the lust for gold, proposed a national park where wildlife would be free of the epic slaughter that accompanied America’s northern expansion. Carving a national park out of this wilderness would not be easy. Alaskans would fight to protect their way of life. Here are the stories of these tough pioneers, tales similar to those that inspired Robert Service and Jack London…only these stories are true.

Genres: Nonfiction

242 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2005

Reviews

[Kelly Kitka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty fun read about the history of Kantishna and kind of the interior of Alaska as a whole. The only part I didn't enjoy was the part about market hunting, but that is was more personal than about the quality of writing.

[Nola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I had just read Hudson Stuck’s book The Ascent of Denali, I was very interested to find that this book tells more about Harry Karstens, who accompanied him in climbing Denali. At the end of the book, it turns out that Harry Karstens became the first superintendent of Mount McKinley National Park. It was quite sad to find out that he did not get along with Stuck after their ascent. This was never mentioned in Stuck’s book. It was even sadder to find in the appendix that Walter Harper, who was the first person on the summit of Denali, died when the Princess Sophia went down. Walter Harper was half Athabascan, and he had wanted to become a doctor. He had just married and he and his wife were traveling to the college he was going to attend. This book also described some other interesting characters in the Denali-Kantishna area, but it could have used more editing. At times there were too many people to keep up with and extensive use of quotes instead of summarizing bogged the book down. I did learn who the major players were and what the major issues were when the park was formed. Also, I learned a bit about the background of the game laws, which really interested me. I keep finding myself wondering why we have the game laws we do, so I appreciate the early perspective from this book. Kantishna obviously required a lot of research. It has some good photographs and a good notes and bibliography section.