The Alaskan Homesteader - Paperback

by Mel Adkins (Author)

Mel Adkins describes life in Alaska in the early days of statehood by a family from the plains of Oklahoma. They learned to be inventive and self reliant in a land untouched by humans after moving more than twelve miles from the nearest road, to a one hundred and sixty acre homestead on the Kenai Peninsula. To a young man just entering his teens this was a dream come true, but the physical labor that had to be done the first year, simply to survive, was more than he had ever imagined. Cutting firewood with a manual cross cut saw, packing water from the spring, working on a sawmill, and packing supplies in to the homestead on his back left little time for hunting and fishing. The family almost starved and froze out that first year, but sheer will power, stubborness, and rugged determination for a better way of life persevered; A family of the greenest chechocko's that ever homesteaded in the land of the midnight sun.

Author Biography

Born in Guymon Oklahoma in 1947, Mel Adkins has lived the life he writes about. He came to Alaska in the spring of 1960, only a few months after statehood to a homestead his parents picked out sitting at the kitchen table in Oklahoma. He got to experience the raw, rugged, untouched beauty of Alaska as only the early pioneers had. Going head to head with mother nature and winning gave him the confidence to live a life of adventures. He has worked as a commercial fisherman, oil field worker, gold miner, heavy equipment operator, teamster, merchant marine and professional sled dog racer. In later life he has been a rancher, team penning cowboy, and trail ride operator in Utah. He how resides in Kanab Utah with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Mandy.