The inspiration for The Last Alaskans--the hit documentary series
now on the Discovery+--James Campbell's inimitable insider account of a
family's nomadic life in the unshaped Arctic wilderness "is an icily
gripping, intimate profile that stands up well beside Krakauer's classic
[Into the Wild], and it stands too, as a kind of testament to the
rough beauty of improbably wild dreams" (Men's Journal).
Hundreds of hardy people have tried to carve a living in the Alaskan
bush, but few have succeeded as consistently as Heimo Korth. Originally
from Wisconsin, Heimo traveled to the Arctic wilderness in his twenties.
Now, more than three decades later, Heimo lives with his wife and two
daughters approximately 200 miles from civilization--a sustainable,
nomadic life bounded by the migrating caribou, the dangers of swollen
rivers, and by the very exigencies of daily existence.
In The Final Frontiersman, Heimo's cousin James Campbell chronicles
the Korth family's amazing experience, their adventures, and the tragedy
that continues to shape their lives. With a deft voice and in
spectacular, at times unimaginable detail, Campbell invites us into
Heimo's heartland and home. The Korths wait patiently for a small plane
to deliver their provisions, listen to distant chatter on the radio, and
go sledding at 44 degrees below zero--all the while cultivating the
hard-learned survival skills that stand between them and a terrible
fate.
Awe-inspiring and memorable, The Final Frontiersman reads like a
rustic version of the American Dream and reveals for the first time a
life undreamed by most of us: amid encroaching environmental pressures,
apart from the herd, and alone in a stunning wilderness that for now, at
least, remains the final frontier.
