Parallel Destinies, An Alaskan Odyssey
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Parallel Destinies is the North's history in a microcosm, from wilderness to
modernization. Through Montenegrin fur trader John Hajdukovich, Swedish roadhouse owner Rika Wallen and
Interior Natives, Alaska evolves from trail to highway, from runners to telegraph and telephone. Researched in
Montenegro, Sweden and Alaska, Parallel Destinies has archival photographs on every page as well as maps.
Rika's Roadhouse, a lodge built in Big Delta in 1914, was the hub of civilization between Fairbanks and the
Canadian border between 1904 and 1942. John Hajdukovich, a Montenegrin, and the builder of Rika's, was the
law, a trader and the life support system to the Natives of the Upper Tanana River. Hajdukovich was a force
behind the 1930 Tetlin Indian Reserve and was the Interior's best-known big game guide. Although never a
successful miner, Hajdukovich prophesied there were enough minerals in the Goodpaster (home today of Pogo
gold mine) and Tanana valleys to support generations of residents. A sort of John Muir and Johnny Appleseed
personality, Hajdukovich was a father of today's Tanana River Valley economy. A lone female, Rika Wallen
kept a wilderness roadhouse, home base to Hajdukovich, which she ran 1917-1950s. She depended on the
rabbits she shot, her garden and fields, apiary and dairy. Parallel Destinies is the parallel stories of the
immigrants and Alaska Natives, a young land growing up.
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