Anybody see "Alone in the Wilderness?"

[Bob Schmall]

The local PBS station showed "Alone in the Wilderness," the story of a guy who went to the Arctic and built a log cabin (Obww) on a stunning lake under a mountain range. He carried a number of tools and made everything he needed, including the entire cabin right from standing trees to a snug home. He felled and trimmed the logs with an ax, cut them them to length with a hand saw, fitted them with a draw knife. He made the door from planks he ripped by hand, and made the hinges from wood with wooden pins.

The film was in rough shape since he started a number of years ago and the stock has deteriorated since then, but still had a sense of the immensity and brutality of the wilderness. It appeared that he shot the film himself, using a tripod to shoot himself working, walking, etc. In many of the shots his head is partially cut off and there are no shots of him in which the camera moves.

The film is narrated from his diary and it's amazing how such simple words and camera work can capture the majesty of the surroundings. I'm in awe of the man, whose name I never caught, and if I ever get lost in the woods, I'm calling him. He's over 80 now, but I'm pretty sure he could save me.

Bob

[Swingman]

That kind of self-reliance/self-sufficiency is rare these days. The current gene pool is sorely in need of a healthy dose of whatever it is that makes them so.

[George]

The survival instructors told us of a sure-fire way to be safe in the wilderness. Carry a deck of cards.

If you're lost and in need of saving, deal a hand of solitaire. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes before someone appears to remind you you could have played the red eight on the black nine....

, and if I ever get lost in the woods, I'm

[Markndawoods]

I think this link gets you some more info...

[patrick conroy]

[bynot]

[Charles Erskine]

There is a picture of the partially completed cabin here:

seem to recall he said he had the walls up in 11 days! I also thought it was interesting that he left the wooden handles of his tools behind to save weight and made new ones in the field.

[Mike Marlow]

These days??? Hell, I'm in my 50's Swingman and I don't know anyone from my generation or even from my parent's generation that did such a thing. I don't think that kind of self-reliance/self sufficiency was ever anything but rare.

[Joe_Stein]

Another thing you can do if you're alone and need help...providing there's a road nearby fell a tree so it crosses the road. A car will be along soon wanting through NOW. If you think you're alone...just take a leak out in the open. Joe

[Swingman]

That's really unfortunate .... but reinforces the gene pool thing quite nicely. :)

Particularly for those who didn't get much history in school (like the settling of the American West), are city born and bred, raised on TV, and not well traveled to the remoter parts of the world ... even in "these days".

[Mike Marlow]

Is that to say that you do know of people like Proenneke? I'm impressed if you do.

Ummmmm... I certainly did get my full share of American history, did not grow up or live in the city, was far from raised on TV and am very well traveled, although not necessarily to remote parts of the world. My wife might argue that where we live should be considered one of the remote parts of the world, and we do most things for ourselves, but I think I'd still be impressed to know anyone like this fellow. That's an extreme amount of self reliance by any standard.

[Swingman]

Speaking precisely of the self-reliance and self-sufficiency required to provide yourself with food and shelter, it wasn't all that long ago that I witnessed examples in the swamps of Southern Louisiana where I was raised; saw many more examples in travels down through the years, particularly in the Northern Territory of Australia in the early 60's; and served with a number of the breed in SE Asia where those solo long range reconnaisance missions were performed by individuals possessing the epitome of self-reliance and self-sufficiency even more extreme than providing shelter and food for yourself.

... and 35 years later I am _still_ in awe of the latter.

So you could say I've always been an admirer of the qualities and therefore fairly quick to recognize same. AAMOF, might've even posted that very sentiment a time or two right here in the past couple of years. :)

Regardless, chances are you and I, as modern Americans, are both to be considered 'coddled' when judged against the history of mankind providing himself with food and shelter on a daily basis ... that's probably why we ooh and ahh when we come across it..

[JMWEBER987]

I watched this with amazement. He lived alone there I believe the story said for 35 years. I was telling some friends about it and how I believed they didn't make men like that anymore. Just watching a single person use a large ripping saw to make lumber from logs made my arms ache. Mike in Arkansas

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I had to chuckle looking at the web page. He wanted to live in a place untouched by man. And then he starts chopping down trees!

He's got a lot of courage to do what he did. I'd wus out the first day. Nah, I'd wus out on the trip into the wilderness. Ed

[Bob Schmall]

Yesterday my wife and I took a walk in the woods. We passed a spot called Brady's Rocks where 100+ years ago an Irish stonecutter named (duh) Brady set up his household. He worked an outcropping of dolomite for years to provide a living for himself and his wife and 6 children. The eight of them lived in a 12x12 foot cabin.

I doubt that given a choice he would have chosen a 12-foot square home, but he had no choice. He did it because he had to, and so his family could survive in the harsh climate of southern Wisconsin.He wanted better things for his family in the future. I admire his self-sufficiency of course, but I doubt very much that his children would have chosen to emulate his sacrifice. Not because they were coddled, but simply because they wanted a more materially secure life. They could have it in part because his work helped provide it, but that was his goal in the first place.

Point is that the desire for better living conditions is normal and natural. What Proenneke did was the reverse, seeking lesser living standards. He wasn't weird but he certainly ran agrainst the grain (Obww) of human life. That makes him neither less nor more virtuous than those who accept better conditions and choose to prove themselves in a different way.

I said that I'd like to have him around if I were lost in the woods. But I'm not, and I'm content with that.

Bob

[Mike Marlow]

Coddled??? Coddled you say??? Hell, I've got both indoor plumbing *and* store bought toilet paper (even extra rolls on hand in the closet). I'm more than coddled, I'm living in the lap of luxury.

[Charlie Self]

Yes. The concept of 35 years alone is a bit bothersome particularly. You're away from what passes for civilization, which means medical care, among other things. Thus you'd best hope that genetics favors the bold, because things like appendicitis can lay you low and kill you faster than any animal or falling rock.

What he did is admirable, if not virtuous, but given a lot of thought, it isn't anything I'd chose for myself under any conditions I can think of. I've lived in the country and spent most of 20 years with nothing but wood heat, some of that without electricity (awful, really), and given any choice at all will not do either again.

I was going to put an emergency wood stove on an unused chimney here, but my wife vetoed that. Quite simply, she prefers turn-up-the-thermostat comfort. If we lose power, as we have, for more than a day or two, we just tough it out. Woodstoves are messy, and the wood itself is not a neat storage item. She had to put up with that as a child, along with coal heat when it got really cold, but wants no more of it.

Not a fight I could win. And, these days, my insurance company would probably have me paying $1500 or more for a suitable, UL tested, stove, instead of one I could weld up myself in a day or so out of scrap plate and lined with firebrick. That tends to take the charm out of the idea, and gives me some indication of why Mr. Proenneke moved into the woods.

I do wonder, though, how he made the money to pay for those things he couldn't make.

Charlie Self "Bore, n.: A person who talks when you wish him to listen." Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

[Mike Marlow]

I thought the very same thing right off the bat.

[Mike Marlow]

One word Charlie... Generator.

I have a wood stove in the living room still, that for 15 years was our primary source of heat. We live in Central NY and the winters here are long and cold. Every fall was a ritual of putting up firewood. Finally installed a furnace and haven't looked back. We still keep a couple of face cords of wood outside for "emergencies" when the power goes off - and it does regularly here, yet we almost never touch off the wood stove when it's so much more convenient to touch off the generator.

[bridger]

settling?

occupation.

lest we forget that this continent was in fact occupied when we got here.

of the American West), are city born and bred, raised on TV, and