Portland Public Library

Finding the Arctic, history and culture along a 2,500-mile snowmobile journey from Alaska to Hudson's Bay, Matthew Sturm

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

mapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

Finding the Arctic

bibliography

747947278

Matthew Sturm

history and culture along a 2,500-mile snowmobile journey from Alaska to Hudson's Bay

"The history of the Arctic is rich, filled with fascinating and heroic stories of exploration, multicultural interactions, and humans facing nature at its most extreme. In Finding the Arctic, accomplished arctic researcher Matthew Sturm collects some of the most memorable and moving of these stories and weaves them around his own story of a 2,500-mile snowmobile expedition across arctic Alaska and Canada. During that trip, Sturm and six companions followed a circuitous route that brought them to many of the most historic spots in the NorthThey stood in the footsteps of their predecessors, experienced the landscape and the weather, and gained an intimate perspective on notable historical events, all chronicled here by Sturm. Written with humor and pathos, Finding the Arctic is a classic tale of adventure travel. And throughout the book, Sturm, with his thirty-eight years of experience in the North, emerges as an excellent guide for any who wish to understand the Arctic of today and yesterday. Matthew Sturm is a leader in the Arctic climate change research community and has led over twenty-five expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic."--Publisher's description

Tracks North -- Ballad of the arctic science bandits -- Changes north -- Rosebud realities -- The quest's older cousin -- The Iditarod -- Porcupine hospitality -- Quarantine Island -- Poignant passing: the Mad Trapper of Rat River -- Who was the Mad Trapper of Rat River? -- Big Mac -- Snow and ice roads -- Finding the Douglas Cabin -- Black Lake ice -- The shield and the cordilleran -- Fort Confidence -- The Northern Cross -- Kugluktuk -- Inuksuk -- Sea ice going, going, gone -- The starvation trail -- The diamond confluence -- The complex calculus of Barrenlands Diamond Mining -- The oldest rocks in the world -- Braided strands: the first interloper -- Whiteout on Aylmer Lake -- Strange wooly attractors -- The Braided Strands: the last refugee