July 28, 2019
I have just finished reading the book, “Roughnecks and Gentlemen,” by Harold McCracken. It was given to me by a true friend, Dr. Michael Livingston, as a surprise. Mike is a native of Cold Bay.
I remember his father from when he and his family lived near Trout Creek some forty-nine years ago. Mike and I have corresponded over several years via the internet, and he has been exceptionally helpful in my endeavors to record the history of my year at the tip of the Alaska Peninsula. I am grateful beyond words for his support and appreciation of my work. This book is one of the greatest gifts that I have ever received. I will try to explain.
Among many other interests and occupations, McCracken was an outdoorsman, hunter, anthropologist, and adventurer who wrote of his experiences on the “Peninsula” in this book. He first visited that part of Alaska in 1916, one hundred and three years ago. While reading his words, I relived the sights, sounds, touches, and even the smells of my eleven months in that remotest of regions where some say the “weather of the world begins.” Place names such as Glazenap, Izembek Bay, Frosty Peak, Amak, Morzhovoi, Pavlov Volcano, Shishaldin Volcano, etc., brought back explicit visions and memories of the greatest of my personal adventures. Even nouns such as ptarmigan, fox, bear, alder, geese, tide, wind, snow, ice, Aleut, and trail induced senses that I once experienced. I’ve re-tasted the salt in the moist air that blew in from the Bering Sea. I’ve re-heard the flapping of the wings of thousands of geese. I’ve re-felt the hair on the back of my neck tingle from entering the alder on the side of Frosty where the great bear might be napping. I once again bounced with the springiness of stepping on the tundra tops. Also, I have re-tasted and re-smelled the ptarmigan that I ate on the side of Baldy. These are but a few of the multitude of my remembrances as I devoured this book.
Thank you, Michael Livingston, for giving me all of this and more. “Roughnecks and Gentlemen” has been permanently placed on my bookshelf next to my copy of “The Thousand Mile War.”
Ron Waggoner