Alaska & The Klondike: Early Writings and Historic Photographs

by Helen Hegener

Charting an unknown country, exploring a wondrous land, searching for gold, delivering freight and mail beyond where any roads would reach, these were the exciting topics of books which became northland classics, with titles such as Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled, The Land of Tomorrow, and Along Alaska’s Great River.

Wonderful photographs accompany the often colorful writings of Frederick Schwatka, Hudson Stuck, Robert Service, Josiah Edward Spurr, and many others as they tell of adventures, explorations, fortunes won and lost, and the magnificent promise of our great northern lands. Read the words of those intrepid travelers who accepted the challenge of the north and left an indelible mark in their writing of it. Their first-hand observations are invaluable to understanding the history, as when world traveller Frank Carpenter noted while touring the construction of the Alaska Railroad: “I was so fortunate as to see Anchorage in the stump, tent, and shack stage, though it was growing marvelously fast. I give you my notes just as I penned them when I was on the spot, seeing how Uncle Sam’s engineers and executives were putting through their big job.”

Selected excerpts are from the following books:
Golden Alaska, by Ernest Ingersoll
The Land of Tomorrow, by William B. Stephenson, Jr.
The Spell of the Yukon & Other Verses, by Robert Service
The Ascent of Denali, by Hudson Stuck
From Paris to New York by Land, by Harry DeWindt
Through the Yukon Gold Diggings, by Josiah Edward Spurr
A Woman Who Went––To Alaska, by May Kellogg Sullivan
The Land of Nome, by Lanier McKee
Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled, by Hudson Stuck
Along Alaska’s Great River, by Frederick Schwatka
Alaska: Our Northern Wonderland, by Frank Carpenter
A Dog-Puncher on the Yukon, by Arthur Treadwell Walden

Alaskan author Helen Hegener has compiled an engaging journey through the literary history of Alaska and the Klondike, and an introduction to some of the most compelling books ever written about the North.

324 pages, Paperback

Published May 10, 2018

About the author

Award-winning author of books on the history of Alaska, including Alaska and the Klondike, The Alaska Railroad 1902-1923, Alaskan Roadhouses, The 1935 Matanuska Colony Project, Along Alaskan Trails, The First Iditarod, The Yukon Quest Trail, The Beautiful Matanuska Valley, The All Alaska Sweepstakes, and others.

Over the past several years I have given presentations about the subjects of my books at the Alaska State Fair, the Palmer Historical Society, the Talkeetna Roadhouse, the University of Alaska, radio, television, and many other venues. I have also written articles for Alaska Magazine, Last Frontier Magazine, Alaska Dispatch, Mushing Magazine, The Frontiersman, and many others.

I’ve volunteered for several sled dog races, including the Yukon Quest, the All Alaska Sweepstakes, the Northern Lights 300, and the Copper Basin 300, and the Top of the World 350. I also organized and sponsored two ground-breaking Mushing History Conferences, in 2009 and 2010, which drew presenters and attendees from across Alaska and Canada, some of the most respected mushers, historians, researchers, documentarians, and authors.