Free land has drawn people from the lower 48 to Alaska throughout the twentieth century. Free land or no, most of those people turned around and headed back home after the first winter. The ones who stayed became Alaskans.
A few months ago, one of those Alaskans, Shirley Balinski, commented on one of my posts about the Alaska Highway; said she had traveled it several times as a kid because her family “lived homesteading in Alaska”.
I asked her to tell me about the experience and here is her response.
Yes, as a kid I lead a very interesting life many experiences!! Some good and some not so good. I guess that is why I always related to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s adventures in her books. Life was similar.
A man, our friend and neighbor, wrote a book about his adventures called “Go North Young Man”. His name was Gordon Stoddard. It is still available on Amazon. In this book, he writes about our community, Anchor Point [near Homer on the Kenai Peninsula].
He talks about our neighbors and there are pictures. We lived in his home when we arrived until we pushed further back onto our homestead. He also gave us our beloved pet dog, Kiska. He does a much better job than I could ever do!
I was born in Alaska before it was a state. My mother, brought me out (to the lower 48), when I was 3 months old, to see grandparents! So, many stories, of old, original Alaska, when it truly was a frontier. If you ever see Mr. Stoddard’s book, do not look at the pictures and think, “it couldn’t have been that rough”, “these people don’t look too bad”. Believe me, it was rough!!
Amazon does, indeed, have Gordon Stoddard’s book, Go North Young Man. I bought it, read it, and highly recommend it.
More recently I met another Alaskan.
High wages on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline drew this young lady’s parents north. Free land kept them there. And one story from this young couple’s adventure tells you all you need to know about Alaskans.
Young mom, pregnant for the first time, came to Eagle on the northernmost boundary of Alaska. The rough cabin she built with her husband became, in January, her maternity ward. Only her equally young husband attended the birth of her daughter. Stuck in that snow bound cabin, the baby girl didn’t contact the rest of humanity for four weeks.
Alaskans!
Mother Earth News take on Homesteading
Very good read
Thank you, Thomas. I especially enjoyed this one.
Thank you thomas for the share. We as a young man i had move and took advanage of such a place. But as a old man now i wouldnt be able. Will always be a dream of mine.
Can someone still get free land there?
Not any more.