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Sounds like they didn't survive the Alaskan wilderness on a homestead, and instead survived in a city or in a provided structure while occasionally heading out into the wilderness and wasting their time producing nothing much of a value.

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Are there any successful tales of Alaskan homesteading? It seems like we fetishize those foolhardy lone wolves like this couple or Alex McCandless from Into the Wild, but where are all those people who moved out there and actually managed to live happy, simple lives?

One of my favorite book series is Woodswoman, about a lady who set out into Vermont to build herself a lakeside cabin from scratch and made a living off maple farming. The several books detail her trials and tribulations, but also her joyful swims and happy encounters with the neighbors.

I would love to hear about more encounters like that in Alaska, not just the people who trek out there but never make it.

Dick Proenneke is one of the more well-known ones. He built his cabin all on his own, filming the whole process, as well as his life there. He lived in his cabin for thirty years.

https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/historyculture/proennekes-cab...

The film, “Alone In the Wilderness” is terrific.

https://vimeo.com/767376634

Plenty. But here's the rub, most that do do not want to be seen, heard, and care very little for the internet. The life also is not simple.

Yeah a friend of mine married a lady who grew up in the Alaskan wilderness. The family was desperately poor yet still had an airplane, interestingly. They were the kind of people who don’t use the internet at all.

There were ~3500 successful homestead claims in Alaska. My ex-wife's dad grew up on one of them, near Soldotna; she and I went out to visit once. It was not seen as an unusual experience in that area.

I don't imagine those folks spend much time writing about their lives on the internet.

These college friends did it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3NWdFll2X8

Not super long term, but interesting!

Two examples I can think of off-hand:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke

and

https://www.jeanaspen.com/about-us

Sounds like they divorced and then the father died in a car accident while trying to make life in the wilderness work. And the mother moved to the city and never came back, which helped her have a long life with her daughter, so probably that was the better decision.

Sort of tragically ironic that he died in a car accident while trying to live outside of modern civilization.

> wasting their time producing nothing much of a value.

they lived. that is not nil. it enriched their lives.

But, eh, I wouldn't say they lived and thrived there.

Some other people have done the very far out life. Here's one: https://hellscanyon.tours/2022/08/15/all-about-buckskin-bill... is one example.

I think its very feasible.... for people who know what they are doing. This probably requires basically an apprenticeship.

Maybe their value system is different to yours.

Im honestly curious where this hostility is coming from?

Ideas of value are obviously subjective.

I would call it more of an honest statement about what happened there, as opposed to an overly positive one.

Having said that, I do have a long-standing issue with the relatively small group of people who try to go their own way from society without a modicum of understanding about what kind of work and skills will be required. As well as an issue with the larger group of people who cheer on these folks and either enable this behavior or become subject to this behavior themselves.

Where do my feelings on the subject come from? Well, "into the wild" was required reading my freshman year of college. And I was forced to engage in dozens of discussions treating McCandless as a tragic hero, instead of an idiot.

My issue isn't necessarily with people wanting to get away from mainstream society, but it is going about it in an absolutely boneheaded manner. I have an immense amount of respect for people like dick proenekke

That makes sense, and I share your sentiment about the naiveite and idiocy for some of these people. that is to say, I think the dream of self-reliance is a noble one, but simply holding a noble ideal doesnt make someone praiseworthy. Execution speaks volume.

I think what I was most reacting to was your statement "wasting their time producing nothing much of a value". I took this to mean value to the greater community, and I strongly disagree that this should be the main benchmark which people should be judged against. It strikes me as oddly entitled to their labor.

That's fair - when I talked about value I was only talking about what they themselves valued, not any value to a larger group. If they succeeded, the homestead could provide them value even if literally no one else in the world knew it was there.

They were trying to build a house, but they failed miserably. Because they lacked some very basic skills, and the ability to plan. I think most people should realize that building a 5 story A-frame as your first home, by yourself, in the wilderness, is not the easiest of tasks. Maybe try a 1 story A-frame first? Or a log cabin.

Do you not see the irony in your post? Just like the people you lambaste, you also do not have a level-headed opinion, based on a 3rd party account and not personal experience.

I would put "getting my values from editorialized stories and school teachers" as one step below "getting my values from Reddit and Twitter" on the "how divorced from reality are my sensibilities" scale. Better, but not great.

Please, do point out the irony, since I clearly don't see it. I never claimed someone needed to have personal experience in this area to make a judgement. Everyone during the discussions was judging McCandless as he was presented in the book. Whether it was heavily editorialized or not is irrelevant, because everyone who was making the judgements were working with the same information. It could have been 100% fabricated, and it would still be ridiculous (in my opinion) to call him a hero.

Everyone is the hero of their own story, and everyone is an idiot in some way. I think you took the wrong message from that book. But college kids are often idiots, so it’s ok!

There's an obsession with the old ways. As if they were better. As if sitting in a cabin in the woods and breaking your back every day to not die of starvation is some kind of accomplishment. It's not.

I think it obviously is a difficult accomplishment. I agree that some people probably romanticize the "old ways" and more radical forms of self-reliance, but ultimately it is question of taste and interest.

I have enough experience with it to know it is far harder than most people imagine, but still think there is a lot that I think is positive about it.

Is running a marathon an accomplishment?

why isn’t that an accomplishment? who are you to decide what other people get validation from?

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