Go North, Young Man

First published in 1957, this is the story of how a young West Coaster forsakes civilization for the rugged satisfactions of homesteading in Alaska.

Like many other World War II veterans, Gordon Stoddard headed up the Alcan Highway because he found civilian life too tame. He had heard of easy money in construction and fishing and he was on the lookout for adventure, but most of all he wanted a homestead.

Go North, Young Man tells of his first four years as a homesteader on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. With wit made sharp by frontier life, he presents this exactly as he found it. Food and shelter get main attention. Leaving big game to stateside hunters, he concentrates of fish, snowshoe rabbits, spruce chickens, ptarmigan, ducks and geese: food for his larder.

Guided by a ‘How to Build a Cabin’ pamphlet, he puts up his first cabin in just three days; then insulates it with cardboard cartons he picked up in Homer. Later comes the fancy cabin with its mail-order stove to keep his food, his feet, and his malamute warm. The day he installs lighting and running water causes neighborhood celebration!

Not since Mark Twain has there been a writer to match him for provocative wit, originality, and the knack of catching the heady flavour of a lusty new land.