Maternity ward? A cabin in Eagle Alaska—in January. Obstetrician and nurse? A young husband. New mother? The kind of woman who becomes an Alaskan.
If the history of the subarctic north fascinates you, people who choose to live there especially fascinate you. The weather, the terrain, the geology, all downright hostile, draw utterly unique people who choose to live there because of the difficulty and danger, not in spite of it.
Link to another story “John Hajdukovich”
Throughout the twentieth century, the prospect of free land has drawn people from the lower 48 to Alaska. During the seventies high wages from contractors constructing the Trans-Alaska Pipeline drew thousands. Most of those people turned around and headed back home as soon as possible.
The ones who stayed became Alaskans.
A year or so ago researcher Chris talked me into signing up for a massage. Turns out the therapist grew up on her parents’ homestead near Eagle Alaska! For those of you unfamiliar with Alaska geography, that’s about as far north as you can get.
I didn’t get the whole story, of course. I got excited and talked too much. But I did get the story of the birth of my therapist’s big sister, her Mom’s first child, and the “maternity ward” in Eagle.
The Yukon River flows out of Canada and across northern Alaska on its way to the Arctic Ocean. Eagle sits beside the river just after it crosses the border. In January the snow gets deep and the temperature gets cold. Stuck in their snow bound cabin, the baby girl didn’t contact the rest of humanity for four weeks.