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In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder, and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898
In the fall of 1897, eight whaling ships became trapped in the ice on Alaska's northern coast. Without relief, two hundred whalers would starve to death by winter's end. Mercifully, an extraordinary missionary, Tom Lopp, and seven Eskimo herders embarked on a harrowing journey to save the whalers, driving four hundred reindeer more than seven hundred untracked miles.
At the heart of the rescue expedition lies another, in some ways more compelling, journey. In a Far Country is the personal odyssey of Tom and his wife Ellen Lopp -- their commitment to the natives and the rugged but happy life they built for themselves amid a treeless tundra at the top of the world. The Lopps pulled through on grit and wits, on humility and humor, on trust and love, and by the grace of God. Their accomplishment would surely have received broader acclaim had it not been eclipsed by two simultaneous the Spanish- American War and the Alaska gold rush. The United States and its territories were transformed abruptly and irrevocably by these fits of expansionist fever, and despite the thoughtful, determined guidance of the Lopps, the natives of the North were soon overwhelmed by a force mightier than the fiercest Arctic the twentieth century.
At the heart of the rescue expedition lies another, in some ways more compelling, journey. In a Far Country is the personal odyssey of Tom and his wife Ellen Lopp -- their commitment to the natives and the rugged but happy life they built for themselves amid a treeless tundra at the top of the world. The Lopps pulled through on grit and wits, on humility and humor, on trust and love, and by the grace of God. Their accomplishment would surely have received broader acclaim had it not been eclipsed by two simultaneous the Spanish- American War and the Alaska gold rush. The United States and its territories were transformed abruptly and irrevocably by these fits of expansionist fever, and despite the thoughtful, determined guidance of the Lopps, the natives of the North were soon overwhelmed by a force mightier than the fiercest Arctic the twentieth century.
424 pages, Paperback
First published November 20, 2006
15 people are currently reading
260 people want to read
About the author
John Taliaferro
17 books30 followersA graduate of Harvard College, John Taliaferro is a former senior editor at Newsweek.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
February 21, 2025
2 stars (= ok)
I started reading this book a year and a half ago but I haven’t touched it for several months. I’m just gonna admit to myself that I’m never going to finish it and move it off my “Currently Reading” list.
One of the benefits of reading multiple books at a time is that books I continue to enjoy get read, while books that really don’t hold my attention will eventually wither on the vine. Well, it’s time to snip off this dried-up prune.
That feels kind of mean. It really isn’t a bad book. There’s some interesting history here, but the story is dragging and I just don’t expect this one to climb above the two-star level for me, and I don’t have enough time to be reading two-star books.
Bob wrote a nice review and summary:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I started reading this book a year and a half ago but I haven’t touched it for several months. I’m just gonna admit to myself that I’m never going to finish it and move it off my “Currently Reading” list.
One of the benefits of reading multiple books at a time is that books I continue to enjoy get read, while books that really don’t hold my attention will eventually wither on the vine. Well, it’s time to snip off this dried-up prune.
That feels kind of mean. It really isn’t a bad book. There’s some interesting history here, but the story is dragging and I just don’t expect this one to climb above the two-star level for me, and I don’t have enough time to be reading two-star books.
Bob wrote a nice review and summary:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
December 27, 2017
Survival in a harsh climate always makes interesting reading for me, partly because I love wild places so much. It’s my vicarious pleasure, in this case, to visit Alaska’s northern coasts, and most especially, to get to know the remarkable Lopp family, Ellen and Tom. The Lopps were missionaries in the mid 1800’s, genuinely respectful of the people they hoped to serve, without a hair of condescension.
The book covers their years living above the Bearing Straits, focusing on the importation of reindeer to the region. Originally intended to provide the native people a more dependable food/materials source than caribou, the plans became muddied by various egos, motives, greed and ignorance.
This well researched and equally well written story describes the perhaps unnecessary overland rescue operation to provide reindeer meat to whalers stranded above the Bearing Sea. It’s a complicated tale with a fine cast of characters. The most compelling portions focus on Ellen’s letters to relatives back in the states; I would love to read more of these. She was an honest, chatty and positive voice throughout their tenure. Because the book covers so much territory (whalers and whaling, indigenous cultures and white impact upon them, mining and the gold rush) sometimes its focus feels unclear. Still, it was an enjoyable glimpse into a wilderness past, thoroughly recognizable today.
The book covers their years living above the Bearing Straits, focusing on the importation of reindeer to the region. Originally intended to provide the native people a more dependable food/materials source than caribou, the plans became muddied by various egos, motives, greed and ignorance.
This well researched and equally well written story describes the perhaps unnecessary overland rescue operation to provide reindeer meat to whalers stranded above the Bearing Sea. It’s a complicated tale with a fine cast of characters. The most compelling portions focus on Ellen’s letters to relatives back in the states; I would love to read more of these. She was an honest, chatty and positive voice throughout their tenure. Because the book covers so much territory (whalers and whaling, indigenous cultures and white impact upon them, mining and the gold rush) sometimes its focus feels unclear. Still, it was an enjoyable glimpse into a wilderness past, thoroughly recognizable today.
January 25, 2018
This would have been a 4-star read for me had it been 65 pages shorter. Really. The writing here is very good, the author a former editor at Newsweek, and there is much to learn about Alaska at the turn of the last century. I enjoyed the story of the Lopp family, how reindeer were imported to the Yukon, and the reason why the whaling trade lasted so long (corsets, believe it or not). However, at times it seemed like I was TRAPPED in this narrative. I had the feeling that the author had become so obsessed with this subject that he felt compelled to tell me every single detail from his research. Less is more, as they say. This text could have used some judicious editing to make it stronger and allow the details of the Overland Rescue Expedition shine. Good read that could have been better.
August 2, 2019
This is a story about a Christian missionary who goes up to Alaska in the 1890s and is involved with the Eskimos there and eventually leads to a herd of 500 reindeer 700 miles to “rescue“ several hundred stranded whalers in Barrow Alaska. It turned out that the whalers we’re not in need of rescue as they had plenty of food. The story is very interesting as it gives a picture of Alaska and the Eskimos at the turn of the century.
The story really begins with the American Missionary Association which was started in 1839 to support a group of African slaves who rebelled against their masters on the Spanish ship Armistad. The AMA went on to help establish several black colleges including Fisk and Talledega and set up schools for Indians on the great plains. They turned their attention toward Alaska in the 1880s primarily because of the efforts of one man, Reverend Sheldon Jackson. In 1877 he went to Southeast Alaska and observed the debauchery and disease of the Indians inflicted by the rapacious white settlers. He was determined to do something about this.
With the support of the federal government he set up mission schools throughout Alaska in order to teach the “Esquimaux” in order to bring them into modern times. The program was to educate first and convert to Christianity later.
Tom Lopp a college grad and school teacher from Ohio applied for a job in Alaska and was chosen by Jackson along with another man, Thorton to set up the school at Cape Prince of Wales on the Bering Straits.
The governor of Alaska at that time Alfred Swineford vouched that the native Alaskans “are industrious and provident ...these people it should be understood are not Indians they are a whole different race from the Indian tribes inhabiting other portions of the US.” Jackson felt they were “a people worth saving.” And he decided the way to save them was by teaching them to herd imported reindeer.
It turns out reindeer are simply domesticated caribou. They did not exist in Alaska prior to Jackson importing them from Siberia. It is thought that Caribou were domesticated 2-3000 years ago by the Chukchi, a Siberian tribe who by the way loved the larvae the infested their reindeer as well as gruel made from semi-digested food in reindeer stomachs. Yum, yum. As the Caribou migrated away from Western Alaska the Eskimos relied more and more on expensive pelts of reindeer bought from Siberia.
Meanwhile Lopp and Thornton were doing their best to educate native children. Lopp married a Ellen Kittredge, a graduate of Carlton who had been teaching in Wilmington North Carolina and wanted a colder climate. They eventually had six kids.
The Lopps understood and got along with the Eskimos well whereas the Thorton’s were, aloof, fearful and haughty and were eventually sent home. Eskimos kept coming to the teachers houses to stop by and chat. They were very friendly and sociable people. This freaked the Thornton’s out as they were sure these people are going to molest them or steal their things. In fact, somethings were stolen from the Lopps who did not freak out but simply told the villagers. The villagers tracked down the three thieves and ask them how they want to be killed, killed them and then left their bodies out for the dogs to eat. There you go for swift and complete judgment and punishment.
Jackson ended up buying and importing Siberian reindeer along with some Chukchi herders as well as some Laplanders. The Eskimos thought that the Laplanders looked like the face cards in card decks with their bright hats and outfits.
That the Eskimos needed saving at all can be pinned on one distinct vanity of the Gilded Age, the corset. The stays of corsets were made of baleen the frond-like bones that hang from a bowhead whales’ mouth. Whales, a staple of the native diet had been hunted to near extinction. The largest bowheads would provide 120 barrels oil and 3000 pounds of whalebone and eventually whales were hunted simply for the bone.
In the fall of 1897 eight whaling ships with 200 men got caught in the ice near Barrow Alaska. The news made headlines all across the US and Jackson seized the moment to save the stranded men by sending a herd of 500 reindeer with Lopp and several Eskimos to provide food for the supposedly starving men. Turns out the men had plenty of food. One was an extraordinary duck hunter and shot several thousand ducks including 430 in single day. They also found Caribou by the thousands grazing nearby bringing in 10 to 20 every day. The natives brought in some 30,000 pounds of fish not counting the whales they caught.
The crews of all whaling ships were filled with the lowest form of men. The men were bored and cold. The rules were that the officers could order the men around on the boats but not on land. The men stole things from local Eskimos. The condensation in the huts they stayed in collected on the floors sometimes a foot think. They stunk. Walking by the open door of a hut the odor “would knock you over.” Every face was black.
But Jackson seized on this incident and had Lopp make a 700-mile journey through winter wilderness mostly in the dark with a herd of reindeer which he brought up there and then brought back. This would’ve been the “rescue“ of the century, however, shortly thereafter the Spanish American war broke out and the reindeer rescue dropped from the national news. The tents of the Lopp and his herders were sometimes buried several feet beneath the snow in the morning with the dog’s noses the only thing sticking up through the snow. Reindeer are remarkable creatures. They prefer to walk into the wind as they can smell predators. They can fall through the ice then climb out again and continue as thought nothing happened. They live on moss.
When all was said and done the Eskimos never took to herding reindeer. They didn’t watch their flocks well and the deer often went wild. They were a hunting fishing people and would continue to do that. The Navajos never took the farming either though that’s what the federal government wanted them to do to become true American citizens. The Lopps stayed in Alaska for 12 years and then retired to Washington State where Tom eventually ended up being the head of the reindeer program in Alaska. Interestingly reindeer became quite valuable particularly as Koreans valued the horns for sexual virility. However, Viagra put an end to that market and the prices of reindeer has plummeted. So many of the imported reindeer have gone native that the previously vanished caribou herds are now restored in Alaska.
Miscellany:
Walruses Live on icebergs and feed on shellfish which they stir up on the seafloor with their tusks.
Hooch is an Alaskan Indian word to describe self-distilled alcohol.
Hawaiian natives were in dispensable on US whaling ships.
Eskimo huts were made of driftwood and were entered by a tunnel like crawlway, a covered trench three or 4 feet lower than the floor of the house entering the house through hole in the floor. This created an airlock turning away the arctic cold.
The huts were quite warm and Eskimos men and women generally went nude front the waist up. Oil and smoke from their lamps clung to their skin which was cleaned off with urine. They stunk.
The men pierced their lower lips with ornaments off carved stone or ivory while the women tattooed their chins with a series of vertical lines.
Hooked on tobacco by Russian traders 100 years earlier their huts were also filled with tobacco smoke.
The Eskimos were also kind to their children, had an infectious sense of humor, and were exceedingly honest, ingenious, industrious, determined and courageous.
The story really begins with the American Missionary Association which was started in 1839 to support a group of African slaves who rebelled against their masters on the Spanish ship Armistad. The AMA went on to help establish several black colleges including Fisk and Talledega and set up schools for Indians on the great plains. They turned their attention toward Alaska in the 1880s primarily because of the efforts of one man, Reverend Sheldon Jackson. In 1877 he went to Southeast Alaska and observed the debauchery and disease of the Indians inflicted by the rapacious white settlers. He was determined to do something about this.
With the support of the federal government he set up mission schools throughout Alaska in order to teach the “Esquimaux” in order to bring them into modern times. The program was to educate first and convert to Christianity later.
Tom Lopp a college grad and school teacher from Ohio applied for a job in Alaska and was chosen by Jackson along with another man, Thorton to set up the school at Cape Prince of Wales on the Bering Straits.
The governor of Alaska at that time Alfred Swineford vouched that the native Alaskans “are industrious and provident ...these people it should be understood are not Indians they are a whole different race from the Indian tribes inhabiting other portions of the US.” Jackson felt they were “a people worth saving.” And he decided the way to save them was by teaching them to herd imported reindeer.
It turns out reindeer are simply domesticated caribou. They did not exist in Alaska prior to Jackson importing them from Siberia. It is thought that Caribou were domesticated 2-3000 years ago by the Chukchi, a Siberian tribe who by the way loved the larvae the infested their reindeer as well as gruel made from semi-digested food in reindeer stomachs. Yum, yum. As the Caribou migrated away from Western Alaska the Eskimos relied more and more on expensive pelts of reindeer bought from Siberia.
Meanwhile Lopp and Thornton were doing their best to educate native children. Lopp married a Ellen Kittredge, a graduate of Carlton who had been teaching in Wilmington North Carolina and wanted a colder climate. They eventually had six kids.
The Lopps understood and got along with the Eskimos well whereas the Thorton’s were, aloof, fearful and haughty and were eventually sent home. Eskimos kept coming to the teachers houses to stop by and chat. They were very friendly and sociable people. This freaked the Thornton’s out as they were sure these people are going to molest them or steal their things. In fact, somethings were stolen from the Lopps who did not freak out but simply told the villagers. The villagers tracked down the three thieves and ask them how they want to be killed, killed them and then left their bodies out for the dogs to eat. There you go for swift and complete judgment and punishment.
Jackson ended up buying and importing Siberian reindeer along with some Chukchi herders as well as some Laplanders. The Eskimos thought that the Laplanders looked like the face cards in card decks with their bright hats and outfits.
That the Eskimos needed saving at all can be pinned on one distinct vanity of the Gilded Age, the corset. The stays of corsets were made of baleen the frond-like bones that hang from a bowhead whales’ mouth. Whales, a staple of the native diet had been hunted to near extinction. The largest bowheads would provide 120 barrels oil and 3000 pounds of whalebone and eventually whales were hunted simply for the bone.
In the fall of 1897 eight whaling ships with 200 men got caught in the ice near Barrow Alaska. The news made headlines all across the US and Jackson seized the moment to save the stranded men by sending a herd of 500 reindeer with Lopp and several Eskimos to provide food for the supposedly starving men. Turns out the men had plenty of food. One was an extraordinary duck hunter and shot several thousand ducks including 430 in single day. They also found Caribou by the thousands grazing nearby bringing in 10 to 20 every day. The natives brought in some 30,000 pounds of fish not counting the whales they caught.
The crews of all whaling ships were filled with the lowest form of men. The men were bored and cold. The rules were that the officers could order the men around on the boats but not on land. The men stole things from local Eskimos. The condensation in the huts they stayed in collected on the floors sometimes a foot think. They stunk. Walking by the open door of a hut the odor “would knock you over.” Every face was black.
But Jackson seized on this incident and had Lopp make a 700-mile journey through winter wilderness mostly in the dark with a herd of reindeer which he brought up there and then brought back. This would’ve been the “rescue“ of the century, however, shortly thereafter the Spanish American war broke out and the reindeer rescue dropped from the national news. The tents of the Lopp and his herders were sometimes buried several feet beneath the snow in the morning with the dog’s noses the only thing sticking up through the snow. Reindeer are remarkable creatures. They prefer to walk into the wind as they can smell predators. They can fall through the ice then climb out again and continue as thought nothing happened. They live on moss.
When all was said and done the Eskimos never took to herding reindeer. They didn’t watch their flocks well and the deer often went wild. They were a hunting fishing people and would continue to do that. The Navajos never took the farming either though that’s what the federal government wanted them to do to become true American citizens. The Lopps stayed in Alaska for 12 years and then retired to Washington State where Tom eventually ended up being the head of the reindeer program in Alaska. Interestingly reindeer became quite valuable particularly as Koreans valued the horns for sexual virility. However, Viagra put an end to that market and the prices of reindeer has plummeted. So many of the imported reindeer have gone native that the previously vanished caribou herds are now restored in Alaska.
Miscellany:
Walruses Live on icebergs and feed on shellfish which they stir up on the seafloor with their tusks.
Hooch is an Alaskan Indian word to describe self-distilled alcohol.
Hawaiian natives were in dispensable on US whaling ships.
Eskimo huts were made of driftwood and were entered by a tunnel like crawlway, a covered trench three or 4 feet lower than the floor of the house entering the house through hole in the floor. This created an airlock turning away the arctic cold.
The huts were quite warm and Eskimos men and women generally went nude front the waist up. Oil and smoke from their lamps clung to their skin which was cleaned off with urine. They stunk.
The men pierced their lower lips with ornaments off carved stone or ivory while the women tattooed their chins with a series of vertical lines.
Hooked on tobacco by Russian traders 100 years earlier their huts were also filled with tobacco smoke.
The Eskimos were also kind to their children, had an infectious sense of humor, and were exceedingly honest, ingenious, industrious, determined and courageous.
March 25, 2025
I learned sooo much from this book. It is the story of one family and one rescue but each chapter is full of its own stories about Alaskas history, substance, whaling, mining education etc etc etc. So we'll researched and an amazing story of resilience persistence faith and adventure!
August 26, 2018
Excellent story of education and missionaries in NW AK. Herding reindeer over 700 miles to save whaling ship crews from starvation.
March 17, 2010
This man and his wife live in 1890's Alaska and experience see through the eyes of non-natives. The book is fascinating... whaling and mining industries and its impact on the natives in Alaska at that time. The Lopps, stationed in a town along the Bering Strait, are missionaries who set out to bring Christianity to the natives of Alaska but end up learning more from the natives over their 12 or so years while stationed there. In spite of the COLD conditions, lack of even the basics,lack of communication with their lower 48 relatives, the Lopps love living their life in Alaska. This book reveals the details of the Overland Relief Expedition (which I knew nothing about) to bring supplies to whalers who got themselves iced in for the winter during 1898. Great history of reindeer/caribou populations. I learned a great deal about the geography of Alaska as I flipped back and forth between the map and the story. So now I know where the Chuckchi Sea is!
The author brought these characters alive. I cared about their lives and the others around them.
The author brought these characters alive. I cared about their lives and the others around them.
November 16, 2015
This book started out so interesting that I missed my stop. The background of the missionaries dividing up Alaska, how the reindeer idea came into being, all of that was fascinating. Life in the missions was also pretty interesting.
The actual trek and ending was less interesting to me than the beginning, since I have read a few arctic travel books in my day. The whalers camp stuff was almost distracting, since it seemed less detailed than the rest of it.
A very strong first half, which somewhat peters out, but overall a good read. (I have been waffling between 3 & 4 stars and changed it several times already.) The small details (e.g., the roofs dripped when the thaws came) about daily life were pretty neat, though
The actual trek and ending was less interesting to me than the beginning, since I have read a few arctic travel books in my day. The whalers camp stuff was almost distracting, since it seemed less detailed than the rest of it.
A very strong first half, which somewhat peters out, but overall a good read. (I have been waffling between 3 & 4 stars and changed it several times already.) The small details (e.g., the roofs dripped when the thaws came) about daily life were pretty neat, though
July 3, 2017
a fascinating read. Tom, and then his wife Ellen, move to Alaska as missionaries and although they teach the bible they feel that basic education and respect for the natives is far more important. If left to the Lopps it would have been unlikely that much of this story would have been known due to their modesty but without them the introduction of reindeer from Siberia and certainly the reindeer rescue would not have had the success it did. At no time did the Lopp family really make anything of the lack of amenities and hardship of living in Alaska, making friends and working alongside natives earning mutual respect.
March 15, 2016
I did not think that I would be interested in this history, but I read it over three days and was consumed by it. Even though the murder happened 100 pages or so into the history and I asked myself, What will sustain my interest now? But Taliaferro writes in such an engaging, intelligent way that I could not let the story drop.
If you want to read an unusual book that has a great many variables, impossible situations, superhuman courage as an everyday event, I recommend it wholeheartedly.
If you want to read an unusual book that has a great many variables, impossible situations, superhuman courage as an everyday event, I recommend it wholeheartedly.
April 30, 2016
Interesting subject (missionaries/school teachers in remote Alaskan village, late 19th century) but could have used a good editor; this book would be more interesting (to me anyway) at half its length. Still, I learned about the attempt to introduce raindeer ("imported" from Siberia) to Alaska. The focus of the book, Tom and Ellen Lopp, were an extraordinary couple, with great respect for the locals with whom they lived for many years. They had a strong belief that education and job opportunities were what was needed, even more than the gospel.
August 27, 2008
This book is well written and is a true story that really helped me to gain some understanding about Alaskan history. It is amazing what the people in this book were able to accomplish in their time. Parts of the book read like a novel, and parts read like a history book, but overall it was quite interesting and enjoyable.
June 22, 2008
The "mission", "marriage" and "murder" were all quite interesting and I really enjoyed reading about Tom & Ella Lopp and their family living in one of the most frigid and remote places on earth at the end of the nineteenth century. But the reindeer rescue which--filled in the final half of the book--just went on too long and I didn't find it all that fascinating.
January 13, 2009
Talliaferro has done an excellent job of weaving excitement, emotions, terror, anger, frustration and romance into a carefully told documentary. Photographs are very complimentary to the story, and the background information the author has included is more than enhancing of the excitement and wonder of this epic story.
Read
February 15, 2011Great book - true story, about a missionary couple in northeast Alaska and their experiences. The main story is of herding reindeer to whalers whose ships were frozen in the ice above the arctic circle, but there is so much more to this book. The author has researched documents such as letters, journals, and newspaper articles from the time, as well as government reports.
Read
February 4, 2008 The story of the Lopp family and their experiences in northern Alaska has much to teach us about how we handle the people we come across in our lives and the respect that we should have for other cultures.
June 22, 2009
This is a great story about amazing people that have been forgotten by history. I love reading books like this. I think the book is well written. As far as striking a balance between exciting adventure story and history text, the book tends towards historical scholarship, but I didn't mind that.
August 4, 2012
A wonderful narrative of adventure, commerce, faith, and devotion in Alaska at the close of the nineteenth century. I used this book for reading analysis in a graduate-level education course at Christopher Newport University.
August 24, 2013
Very interesting history of a couple who went to Alaska as missionaries to convert the Indian tribes of Alaska. It was very enlightening and I'm glad that I didn't have to live back then. Even in the late 1890's the people expected the government to bail them out when they made stupid choices.
June 15, 2021
Greed, religion and personal sacrifice — on ice
In a Far Country, by Taliaferro, is a fascinating and well-researched look at a little-known episode in American history. In 1898, a Christian missionary in the farthest reaches of Alaska was pressed into service by the federal government to drive a herd of reindeer — recently introduced from Siberia in an experiment to bring new industry to the frozen north — 700 miles across uncharted territory to bring food “on the hoof” to a group of starving whalers stuck in the ice and forced to winter-over without adequate resources.
The subtitle lets readers know exactly what we’re in for: “The true story of a mission, a marriage, a murder and the remarkable reindeer rescue of 1898.” And the author more than delivers on the expectations set by that catchy, alliterative lead-in. Taliaferro was a senior editor at Newsweek and has written several nonfiction works prior to this. He is a top-notch researcher and a strong writer.
And he picked an incredibly interesting subject to explore with multiple layers to peel back. It brings together the best of arctic adventure stories (ice-bound ships and frozen adventurers driving dogsleds snow-blind through endless blizzards) with a critical look at the effects of religion (the missionaries) and capitalism — in the form of whaling, the gold rush and reindeer — on the indigenous people of Alaska.
The primary focus, since it’s about missionaries, is religion. I’m not a huge fan and while the protagonist of this book, Tom Lopp (and to a lesser degree, his amazing wife Ellen; that’s the “marriage” in the subtitle) was much better than most missionaries, I still find the underlying desire to educate and “civilize” indigenous peoples presumptuous and arrogant, and an incredible abuse of disproportionate power, so it’s hard to sympathize. To be clear, the Lopps seemed to actually respect the natives and their culture and tried to protect them from the worst influences of civilization — alcohol, disease and sexual predation. However, the best way to protect native cultures would be to not force them to accept Christianity or receive a “proper” education. Their colleagues were on the other end of the spectrum, including one missionary who may have sexually abused young girls there. Happily, he got a whale harpoon through the guts as a reward (that’s the “murder”).
The Lopps made the best of it though, adopting to the local customs and raising their growing family on the frozen edge of nowhere eating seal blubber and living in brutal winter conditions. Their rough but somewhat appealing existence was shaped by three currents of capitalism converging on the area.
The first was an attempt to create a reindeer industry. Reindeer, a domesticated version of caribou (I think I got that right), were raised by Siberian herders because the animals could survive — thrive even — in the icy conditions. They were a source of meat and dairy (barely) and could pull sleighs. Reindeer advocates saw an opportunity to make money, increase connectivity — reindeer sleighs could more easily deliver the mail — and (way down the list) possibly increase native self-sufficiency. Reindeer were introduced to Alaska and did well enough, even though natives were prevented from eating them and non-local herders were brought over from Siberia and Europe.
The second current was whaling, an industry in decline. The ships often passed the mission on Alaska’s northern coast, engaging in trade with the natives as well as introducing alcohol, venereal diseases and unplanned pregnancies. As the demand for whale oil waned, only the whale bones — used in corsets — was valuable, leading to the mass destruction of whales solely for their baleen. This part was grotesque to read about, but provided important context for what came next. Falling prices caused the ships to take ever greater risks, traveling deeper into the ice and staying longer in the season to slaughter more whales, take their baleen and leave the carcasses of these magnificent creatures to rot. In 1898, about 300 sailors on a handful of ships stayed a little bit too long and got stuck in the ice without enough food for the winter.
Their fate was made worse by the third current of greed, the Klondike gold rush. Thousands of miners, dreaming of vast wealth for minimal effort and unprepared for a winter in the Yukon, rushed north and ended up needing all the food and shelter that might have otherwise been diverted to the stranded whalers.
Yellow journalism in the lower-48 whipped up disproportionate support to rescue the unfortunate whalers, even though they were pretty awful people stranded by their own greed and shortsightedness, compounded by poor planning. And, thanks to the natives, they had more than enough food for the winter. Still, a harebrained scheme was hatched — drive a herd of reindeer more than 700 miles in the dead of winter to feed the stranded whale-killers. Missionary Tom Lopp was pressed into service and — leaving his wife and kids behind — set out across an impossibly arduous journey by dogsled and reindeer sleigh, much of it across unmarked territory.
I won’t spoil the outcome of the trip, but suffice to say that the whalers were more inconvenienced by the fact that hundreds of them were crammed into a building suited for no more than a dozen, unable to bathe while eating rotten meat and slowly going insane, while the officers shared a huge home with unused rooms and feasted. A perfect example of how wealth inequality never seems to change.
It’s a riveting tale of greed, capitalism and ideology run amok. Only the Lopps come out of it with any sense of decency. The letters of Ellen Lopp, Tom’s wife, back home form a trove of source documents and her spirits and resolve were unflagging. She was on a dogsled in minus thirty degree weather while pregnant like it was a stroll in the park and cheerfully defended and helped those who lived in her village. She and Tom were part of the village, not above it. Still, helping others should not come with ideological strings as it did with them, given their status as missionaries.
This is a great read, maybe even too rich in detail at times, that well captures hallmarks of “the American experiment” — greed, racism, environmental destruction and short-sightedness, all with a patina of religion for a convenient justification. And it brings to life an interesting chapter in U.S. history.
In a Far Country, by Taliaferro, is a fascinating and well-researched look at a little-known episode in American history. In 1898, a Christian missionary in the farthest reaches of Alaska was pressed into service by the federal government to drive a herd of reindeer — recently introduced from Siberia in an experiment to bring new industry to the frozen north — 700 miles across uncharted territory to bring food “on the hoof” to a group of starving whalers stuck in the ice and forced to winter-over without adequate resources.
The subtitle lets readers know exactly what we’re in for: “The true story of a mission, a marriage, a murder and the remarkable reindeer rescue of 1898.” And the author more than delivers on the expectations set by that catchy, alliterative lead-in. Taliaferro was a senior editor at Newsweek and has written several nonfiction works prior to this. He is a top-notch researcher and a strong writer.
And he picked an incredibly interesting subject to explore with multiple layers to peel back. It brings together the best of arctic adventure stories (ice-bound ships and frozen adventurers driving dogsleds snow-blind through endless blizzards) with a critical look at the effects of religion (the missionaries) and capitalism — in the form of whaling, the gold rush and reindeer — on the indigenous people of Alaska.
The primary focus, since it’s about missionaries, is religion. I’m not a huge fan and while the protagonist of this book, Tom Lopp (and to a lesser degree, his amazing wife Ellen; that’s the “marriage” in the subtitle) was much better than most missionaries, I still find the underlying desire to educate and “civilize” indigenous peoples presumptuous and arrogant, and an incredible abuse of disproportionate power, so it’s hard to sympathize. To be clear, the Lopps seemed to actually respect the natives and their culture and tried to protect them from the worst influences of civilization — alcohol, disease and sexual predation. However, the best way to protect native cultures would be to not force them to accept Christianity or receive a “proper” education. Their colleagues were on the other end of the spectrum, including one missionary who may have sexually abused young girls there. Happily, he got a whale harpoon through the guts as a reward (that’s the “murder”).
The Lopps made the best of it though, adopting to the local customs and raising their growing family on the frozen edge of nowhere eating seal blubber and living in brutal winter conditions. Their rough but somewhat appealing existence was shaped by three currents of capitalism converging on the area.
The first was an attempt to create a reindeer industry. Reindeer, a domesticated version of caribou (I think I got that right), were raised by Siberian herders because the animals could survive — thrive even — in the icy conditions. They were a source of meat and dairy (barely) and could pull sleighs. Reindeer advocates saw an opportunity to make money, increase connectivity — reindeer sleighs could more easily deliver the mail — and (way down the list) possibly increase native self-sufficiency. Reindeer were introduced to Alaska and did well enough, even though natives were prevented from eating them and non-local herders were brought over from Siberia and Europe.
The second current was whaling, an industry in decline. The ships often passed the mission on Alaska’s northern coast, engaging in trade with the natives as well as introducing alcohol, venereal diseases and unplanned pregnancies. As the demand for whale oil waned, only the whale bones — used in corsets — was valuable, leading to the mass destruction of whales solely for their baleen. This part was grotesque to read about, but provided important context for what came next. Falling prices caused the ships to take ever greater risks, traveling deeper into the ice and staying longer in the season to slaughter more whales, take their baleen and leave the carcasses of these magnificent creatures to rot. In 1898, about 300 sailors on a handful of ships stayed a little bit too long and got stuck in the ice without enough food for the winter.
Their fate was made worse by the third current of greed, the Klondike gold rush. Thousands of miners, dreaming of vast wealth for minimal effort and unprepared for a winter in the Yukon, rushed north and ended up needing all the food and shelter that might have otherwise been diverted to the stranded whalers.
Yellow journalism in the lower-48 whipped up disproportionate support to rescue the unfortunate whalers, even though they were pretty awful people stranded by their own greed and shortsightedness, compounded by poor planning. And, thanks to the natives, they had more than enough food for the winter. Still, a harebrained scheme was hatched — drive a herd of reindeer more than 700 miles in the dead of winter to feed the stranded whale-killers. Missionary Tom Lopp was pressed into service and — leaving his wife and kids behind — set out across an impossibly arduous journey by dogsled and reindeer sleigh, much of it across unmarked territory.
I won’t spoil the outcome of the trip, but suffice to say that the whalers were more inconvenienced by the fact that hundreds of them were crammed into a building suited for no more than a dozen, unable to bathe while eating rotten meat and slowly going insane, while the officers shared a huge home with unused rooms and feasted. A perfect example of how wealth inequality never seems to change.
It’s a riveting tale of greed, capitalism and ideology run amok. Only the Lopps come out of it with any sense of decency. The letters of Ellen Lopp, Tom’s wife, back home form a trove of source documents and her spirits and resolve were unflagging. She was on a dogsled in minus thirty degree weather while pregnant like it was a stroll in the park and cheerfully defended and helped those who lived in her village. She and Tom were part of the village, not above it. Still, helping others should not come with ideological strings as it did with them, given their status as missionaries.
This is a great read, maybe even too rich in detail at times, that well captures hallmarks of “the American experiment” — greed, racism, environmental destruction and short-sightedness, all with a patina of religion for a convenient justification. And it brings to life an interesting chapter in U.S. history.
January 7, 2008
so far very interesting...
November 30, 2013
Had trouble getting into it, couldn't finish....was trying to read it because someone else wanted me to.
Read
January 26, 2010Quite an adventure. Really enjoyed the descriptions of the country and the people. Will be going to Alaska later this year and I will certainly have a "feel" for the country!
November 10, 2010
Okay I tried to read this. But it lacked something did not finish it. I realized this is a non fiction work but the writing just didn't make the characters interesting
December 3, 2011
The author brilliantly evokes in the reader the mind numbing boredom of the traveling thousands of kilometers in the arctic wilderness in winter. Masterful.
January 16, 2012
Like it very uch. Much admiration for Tom Lopp and the native Alaskans in his story. The other Americans, not so much. Corruption in business and Congress are nothing new.
July 7, 2013
Having a difficult time connecting emotionally so far. Must give it more of a chance.
February 2, 2013
A very interesting tale of Alaska and reindeer.
February 15, 2014
Great untold story of the early missionaries to the great North!
Gets a little laboriously long at times.
Gets a little laboriously long at times.
January 31, 2015
I enjoy this genre and I stumbled across this really interesting and offbeat tale
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