Two in the Far North

Two in the Far North
by Margaret E. Murie, Terry Tempest Williams

Two in the Far North
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Book Summary Information

Author: Margaret E. Murie, Terry Tempest Williams
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-06-01
ISBN: 088240489X
Number of pages: 369
Publisher: Alaska Northwest Books
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9780882404899
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of Two in the Far North

Book Review: A Wonderful Book on Many Levels
Summary: 5 Stars

Margaret (Mardy) Murie (née Thomas) was a truly extraordinary person who lived for 101 years. This book is not really an autobiography although it is autobiographical, recounting her adventures in Alaska before she met Olaus, mainly with him, and then visits after his death. Anyone who has been to Alaska, is going to go, or has an interest in wilderness should read this book. Murie was a talented writer, leaving us an enjoyable legacy of vivid descriptions and, at the end, thoughtful reflections. Hang in there: this is a long review because the book is so worthy.

The Murie and Thomas families represent a one-two punch that must be highly unusual if not truly unique. Both Olaus and Mardy had sibs ten years their junior, brother Adolph Murie marrying sister Louise (Wheezy) Thomas, born 1912 and still living last I heard. Both wives were devoted outdoor enthusiasts who accompanied their eventually famous, field biologist husbands into the wilds of Alaska and elsewhere.

There are four major parts to Mardy's book, the first being when she came to Fairbanks at age nine. (At least one web site claims she was five, but that's not what she herself says.) Even today, one can get a sense of the town she describes for 1911. The streets are the same, the city having resisted tearing up downtown and instead forcing the shopping centers and other sprawl north of the Cheny River or south of the old town. Yes, there are now large hotels and an incredibly beautiful and absorbing visitor's center, but by and large the buildings remain modest. Some of the old cabins have been moved downtown and are occupied (with modern conveniences to be sure). The Masonic Lodge is still as Murie mentioned it, if a bit decrepit.

The railroad was coming and the old relay system of dog sleds and horse-drawn coaches came to an end. At age 15 Mardy was the last ever passenger on a perilous journey by dog sleds to meet her genetic father and half brother. In some ways this is the most exciting story of the book.

In the second major part she makes an incredible journey into wild Alaska to meet Olaus for their wedding in 1924, then setting off with him to study caribou in the drainage of the Koyukuk River. Alas, Coldfoot is no longer the "cluster of cabins" she found, but rather the major truck stop on the Dalton Highway, which parallels the trans-Alaska pipeline. Across the road is the modern interagency visitor's center, a joint venture of the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. Nearby is an airstrip, home to Coyote Air run by Dirk Nickisch and his wife Danielle Tirrell -- both competent bush pilots and the kind of people Mardy Murie would have liked.

Less than 15 miles farther upriver is Wiseman, which has managed to maintain an updated version of the settlement Murie describes. A new post office was built, but the old one she saw has been preserved. The dance hall, where she had to dance for nine hours as one of the few women in town, is also still there. In fact, that is where I bought her book, as building is now the breakfast room of the charming Arctic Getaway B&B run by Berni and Uta Hicker -- again likable people of whom Murie would have approved.

The book's third part is about a 1926 trip to the far north on the Yukon border in order to band geese. Although I've never been there, the chapter resonates, bringing up my own memories of banding birds. The Muries had their new baby son along, reminding me of research camping trips when our sons were still babies. The Muries had it much tougher than any modern field biologist as their boat's motor broke irreparably, they suffered the worst mosquito infestation known to Alaskans, and they had gear that was primitive by our standards. My wife, incredible as she is, never had to face the hardships in the field so cheerfully borne by Mardy Murie.

Fast forward to 1956, after Olaus left government service and became head of the Wilderness Society. Cosponsored by three organizations and the University of Alaska, the expedition of the Muries and three other biologists were taken by bush plane to north of the divide in the Brooks Range, into an area then only proposed as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. How familiar to anyone who has camped anywhere along the north side of that vast east-west expanse of Alaska's major mountain range well above the Arctic Circle! Murie describes the wonderful world of miniature plants on the tundra, the rocky expanses separated by tiresome tussocks of muskeg, creeks and rivers, often serene lakes, towering mountains, large mammals, diverse bird life, and of course the changeable Arctic weather, which at times can be just plain dreadful.

At the end of the book there are two comparatively short additional parts about much of the aftermath: creation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 1960, a return to the Arctic in 1961, Mardy's activities following the death of Olaus in 1963, in the Rose Garden for President Johnson's singing of the Wilderness Act in 1967, her eloquent campaigning to keep the pipeline from changing the Alaskan lifestyle forever, and so on. I think she never mentions the honorary doctorate conferred upon her in 1976 by the University of Alaska. After the book was written, she received in 1998 the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the country. Mardy Murie died in 2003 at her home in Wyoming.

Read this book as a partial autobiography, or as a travelogue, or as an adventure story, or as a historical record, or as an enthusiastic celebration of wilderness, or just as an enjoyable "read" by a good writer.

A Naturalist in Alaska
Wapiti Wilderness
The Wolves of Mount McKinley
Journeys to the far North
Animal Tracks (Peterson Flashguides)
Wilderness Visionaries: Leopold, Thoreau, Muir, Olson, Murie, Service, Marshall, Rutstrum
Travels in Alaska

Summary of Two in the Far North

This enduring story of life, adventure, and love in Alaska was written by a woman who embraced the remote Alaskan wilderness and became one of its strongest advocates.  In this moving testimonial to the preservation of the Arctic wilderness, Mardy Murie writes from her heart about growing up in Fairbanks,  becoming the first woman graduate of the University of Alaska, and marrying noted biologist Olaus J. Murie. So begins her lifelong journey in Alaska and on to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where along with her husband and others, they founded The Wilderness Society.  Mardy's work as one of the earliest female voices for the wilderness movement earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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