Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic

Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic
by Kevin Krajick

Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic
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Book Summary Information

Author: Kevin Krajick
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2001-10
ISBN: 0716740265
Number of pages: 464
Publisher: W. H. Freeman

Book Reviews of Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic

Book Review: Real life adventure
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a true story, but reads like a novel. It is about the search for diamonds in northern Canada on a low budget. They follow one lead, that doesn't work, they follow another lead. They spy on the competition, the competition spies on them. They play tricks to mislead the competition, and eventually succeed in their quest. Parts of the book are hilarious.

Summary of Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic

In the tradition of Sebastian' Junger's The Perfect Storm and Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, Barren Lands is the extraordinary tale of two small-time prospectors who risked their lives to discover $17 billion worth of diamonds in the desolate tundra of the far north.

In the late 1970's, two men set out on a twenty-year search for a North American gem mine, along a fabled path that had defied 16th-century explorers, Wild West prospectors, and modern geologists. They are an unlikely pair: Chuck Fipke, a ragged, stuttering fellow with a singular talent for finding sand-size mineral grains, and Stew Blusson, an ultra-tough geologist and helicopter pilot. Inventive, eccentric and ruthless, they follow a trail of geologic clues left by predecessors all the way from backwoods Arkansas up the glaciated high Rockies into the vast and haunted "barren lands" of northern Canada. With a South African geochemist's "secret weapon," Fipke and Blusson outwit rivals, including the immense De Beers carte, and make one of the world's greatest diamond discoveries- setting off a stampede unseen since the Klondike gold rush.

A story of obsession and scientific intrigue, Barren Lands is also an elegy to one of earth's last great wild places, a starkly beautiful and mysterious land strewn with pure lakes and alive with wolves and caribou. An endless variety of primeval glacial rock formations hide copper, zinc, and gold, in addition to diamonds. Now that the barrens are "open for business," what will happen to this great wilderness region?

Barren Lands is an unforgettable journey for those who, in the words of a nineteenth-century trapper, "want to see that country before it is all gone."

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