The Last White Man In the Arctic (Video)
Just watched a cool winter outdoors land documentary and decided to share it with fans of Adirondack land, wilderness recreation and hunting.
In its premiere episode, the film crew of Far Out visits Heimo Korth, the last white man still living in the 19 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
(and learn about the $1,000 gift
certificate giveaway!)
I just happened to hear about this because my friend's Brooklyn band Live Footage had a number of their eclectic songs featured. Their songs are at 23:00, 26:00, and 45:20 during the hour-long documentary show.
In the episode, Korth hunts grouse, squirrel, caribou, and bear, while setting traps for salmon and rabbit. It's interesting to watch Tom Morton, an obviously non-Arctic host of the show who lives in New York City, encounter the Alaska winter and outdoors for the first time. There's even some action, as the humans engage in a battle of wits with a roving bear to see who survives: man or bear.
Photo: Alaska Grizzly Bear Attribution: Frank Kovalchek
I was waiting for an epic struggle for survival against the elements, like in Jack London's "To Build A Fire". But alas, the film crew visited early enough in the season that there was only light snow during their visit. A near death snow survival experience would have made for better drama, but I suppose they also had to consider minimum operating temperatures for their cameras.
While caribou don't venture as far south as New York (their bodies are adapted to the harsh northern cold), much of the other hunting showcased in the show, like bear and small game, seemed very similar to what one would find here in New York's Adirondack North Country.
Korth isn't living off the land free of civilization as much as one might imagine. He
lives there with his eskimo wife, Edna, and they managed to raise their kids there, though one died in a canoeing accident. They have many accoutrements of civilization to help them
survive. They have guns and ammunition. They're even able to rig up an antenna for a radio, and run a generator so they can watch DVDs. Still, once you see how they live, I think any reasonable person would say they're definitely roughing it. Thousands of miles from the nearest hospital, and hundreds of miles from the nearest human, they have to fight off wild animals, and hunt and trap a lot of their food. As the last of 7 remaining live-hunt-trap permit holders in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Heimo is truly an Arctic vox clamantis in deserto, at least as far as white men are concerned.
Here's the Far Out documentary episode on Heimo Korth. Warning: images of animals being gutted and skinned
