The books are also great reads. The first one wasn't written by Proenneke, but is a faster read. What amazed me was that here was a guy who moved up to Alaska to live on his own, but reading his journal, he has far more visitors in a month than I have in years. I guess that was the price of his fame. 8^ )
Still, he was an incredibly industrious and resourceful fellow with one heck of an energy level.
Actually, he didnt have ANY fame til AFTER he finished living in Alaska for nearly 30 years. His tapes were meant for his family, and he had no knowledge or intention of them being made into a documentary. He also had very few visitors and was alone far more often than not. He only had people show up every now and then, and sometimes months would go by, especially in winter when he was snowed in and it was nearly impossible to get there.
But his tapes werent made into a documentary til just about a year or so before he died, which was after he moved back from Alaska, and from what I remember, he died within a year of the documentary first airing.
If you haven't read "More readings from one man's wilderness: The journals of Richard L. Proenneke", I highly suggest that you do. He achieved notoriety after just a few years and mentions this in his journal entries. His first book "One man's wilderness: An Alaskan odyssey" was first published in 1973, five years after he first built his cabin in 1968. He was being paid for his films and photographs and much of his footage was used to create an early movie about the area. He had numerous visitors at his cabin at Twin Lakes over the years. I'm about 2/3 through this book at this point and my rough guess is that he had visitors at least twice a month and sometimes much more often. He also interacted with national park figures (they were trying to get the area designated as a national park), guides, hunters, backpackers, etc. There were other cabins within walking distance on the lake.
He also often left Alaska during the winter months, at least early on. He writes about visiting his brother and other relatives/friends during the winter and coming back to his cabin in the early Spring. He definitely toughed out a few in Alaska, but it's hard to say just how many he stayed there, at least at this juncture in the book. He complains about other people using his cabin while he's away, so there are definitely winters that he wasn't there.
If you have other reference material on Proenneke, I'd very much appreciate your guidance on where to find it.
All in all, he was an impressive fellow. I came away from his first book in awe, thinking that here was a guy who toughed it out alone for 30 years in the wilderness. The second book is really opening my eyes to the reality of the situation. The first book was written by Sam Keith, who took a few liberties here and there. The second book is Proenneke's journal entries with very little editing. What I learned is that he more or less became a famous figure, had people bringing him loads of supplies and treats, had some difficulty keeping up with all of the letters he had to write (whole classrooms would write him after seeing his movie, which he complained about), and in general became a bit of a political figure in his own right. He cleaned up kills from other hunters, fished via a "trot line", and ate a bunch of porcupines (which he called "porkypines") who liked to chew on his cabin, chairs, etc. He also spent a fair amount of time cleaning up other people's messes, mostly hunters. So it wasn't so much being "alone in the wilderness" as "living in a cabin in Alaska with lots of visitors."
I've watched the "documentary" two times and always came away with the impression that **** lived in his cabin all alone, all those years. Shame on PBS for misrepresenting the life of **** Proenneke. Nevertheless, his skill-set was most admirable.
~ Chance
^ Good post. :thumbsup:
Highlander, what are you doing with all the money you've saved by not buying cigarettes?
~ Chance
Yeah, not matter how many shipments of sugar and salt and coffee he had flown up to him and dropped off, no matter how much his suppplies were suplemented from outside, the fact is that he did build an extremely well made log cabin by himself, with logs he cut by hand and processed by hand, using only un-powered hand tools back in the day when there were no cordless tools and no electricity at his cabin. That and he did live there for many winters and its REALLY cold there!
I watched another survival documentary filmed by this younger guy who went into southern Canada to survive just for a few months starting in late summer when it was still very warm, and he had all kinds of supplies including over a hundred lbs of dried beans and rice, coffee, sugar, salt. He also carried a shotgun and a hunting rifle, and a whole load of fishing tackle of all sorts and a few rods, yet even with all that stuff, during the warmer weather, about all this guy did during the whole 2 months he was up there was lie around, literally crying about being alone and unable to find ANYTHING to eat, even though there should have been all sorts of plants and fish and animals he couldve eaten, and even though he did still have some of the dried food left. The main problem was that he simply didnt seem to be motivated at all, and seemed very lazy and apathetic, which could be viewed as an illustration of our modern society and the general feelings of entitlement and a complete reliance on instant gratification, which leads to many of the health related 'issues' and an increasing lack of independence for many people. Then he gave up after like 2 months and came back!
Thats^ in stark contrast to **** Proenneke's experience in a much colder and more remote setting back during a past era. Actually, Proenneke started his odyssey at about the same time that the new social movement was just getting started that led us to the lack of self sufficiency and apathy we suffer from today.
Are you talking about the popular recreation Into The Wild? Because it sounds like the same thing to me. The character from Into The Wild just seemed lazy to me. I think it's likely that the real person he was based off was not nearly as lazy as the actor that played him...
**** Proenneke is an inspiration. He is remarkable not just because he was able to live in the woods by himself for such a long stretch of time, but because of his insight into the life of many who, to this day, have similar lifestyles. He is not lesser for having food shipped in, or having visitors. He was living his life; he was not making a major motion picture for our enjoyment. Purism is entertaining, but a life well led is better.
I understand there is a split there. I praise him for his documentation, but I claim that those films weren't the important part of his life. I say the life he led is one that a lot of forgotten people lead, but I think his film is secondary to his life. I'm not going to rectify that, except in saying that we all really enjoyed his words and films and deserved or not, he is one of my heroes.