Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska My favorite Alaska books

I collect the old whalers accounts and diarys, gold seekers jounals, and most anything published.

My favorite is the Arctic, and further the personal accounts, no matter when, 200 years ago or yesterday. Explores and first contacts, accounts fromthe Franklin Expeditions, etc.

Of those, I love the descriptive first hand accounts of the Revenue Cutters and the scientists they brought along.
The Revenue Service (predates the Coast Guard) and the Navy both sent cartographers up the Kobuk and Noatak Rivers in the summer of 1884 and mapped the places. Kobuk River has mostly Inupiaq names, as they were accompanied by locals who could name them, though the guys who mapped the noatak had no loacls along, nor met any while they went up the river. (At that time of year people were down at the Ocean Hunting/Fishing, or on the mountain/ridges looking for Summer Caribou)

Anyways, these also came with the very first maps made of the areas, which is extra kiss kiss special, to me at least, as collecting maps is also a hobbie, and I have afew really good ones..





The map has the name ''Koowak'' spelled phonically, which was first named by the Dane Otto von Kotzebue, and its Germanic pronunciation, so its a ''long V'' rather than a ''W'' Koo-vuck'', later englishized to Kobuk..........