A Land Gone Lonesome: An Inland Voyage Along the Yukon River Paperback – June 26, 2007

Description of condition was spot on-well done !

Dan O'Neill is an adventurer, a historian, a "floater" (as Yukon River canoe campers are called), and an advocate for a people whose names may be last seen in these pages. This book is ostensibly a story about a float trip O'Neill makes from Dawson, in Canada's Yukon Territory, to Circle, in Alaska, through the Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve, administered by the National Parks Service. Actually, it is seven trips condensed into one. O'Neill is the spiritual descendant of John McPhee, whom he quotes extensively as the base-line Yukon River interpreter. The reader may be forgiven if he believes that he will be treated to a combination of float trip travelogue and history of the places and people who make the country what it is. Little by little we learn that O'Neill wants to do more than report; he intends to make a statement and to leave an impact.O'Neill makes (and re-makes) a compelling case that the National Parks Service is egregiously mismanaging the wilderness it is supposed to be protecting. The NPS faces the same conflict in the Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve that it has in other national parks. How do you preserve a natural area for people to enjoy in perpetuity when each person who visits incrementally damages the area? O'Neill argues that the Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve differs so radically from the nation's other parks that it requires fresh thinking and a more tailored conservation regime. The lament implicit in the title is that this dramatically attractive land, inhospitable as it is, once was home to scores of rugged, subsistence pioneers, and could safely be so again under a more creative land use policy.The enduring legacy of Dan O'Neill's book will not be his administrative prescriptions, though, but his deft, economical, and often sardonic descriptions of the land and its people. We learn a great deal about the geologic history of the region, including the fact that prior to the last ice age, the river ran southward, opposite its current direction. We learn where the gold-bearing strata are located and how they were exploited during the gold rush. We trap martin and lynx, and catch king salmon to feed ourselves and chum salmon to feed our dogs, We meet characters that couldn't conceivably be made up, like Dick Cook, whom we admire for his resourcefulness and indomitable spirit, and whose body we last see face down in the river that supported him. We poke through trash middens in a sort of contemporary archaeology, and learn how to handle irascible settlers and even more irascible grizzlies.O'Neill treats us to a world which few of us are likely ever to see. "Moose, wolf, and bear have signed the mud registry in recent weeks, and I make my own prints, climb the bank, and look for a trail..." He faithfully reports and interprets his observations and gently constructs his arguments. Regrettably, however, he is not a gifted writer, and this deficiency occasionally shows, as in his purple descriptions of scenery. "The river is molten gold...the sky is a dazzling, luminous yellow where fiery clouds flash gilded edges...then I remember that the whole spinning world is a miracle, and that sometimes reality dawns more golden than dreams." And then there is the occasional error that an editor should have caught, "Sudden death killed forty-four of the fifty-five Alaskans who died in boating accidents between 2001 and 2003..." The reader may well wonder how death can be the cause of death.I recommend "A Land Gone Lonesome" to armchair "floaters" and all who are curious about the forced depopulation of the upper Yukon watershed. You will meet the colorful denizens of a world just recently past, and the remarkable stage they have exited. And if you become motivated to visit the Yukon for yourself, you can thank McPhee and O'Neill for their contrasting depictions of the Yukon River and its fatal attraction.

This book goes very deep into what creates history... if you like to know details that are as detailed as how the art on a Hill Brothers coffee can describes the era such things found in old minors camps are from or, how various government entities created National parks and such and, how people evolved as a result...this book is for you! It is not just about the Yukon River, it is about the people that lived along its banks etc and more importantly, how they lived.

"A LAND GONE LONESOME" describes what happened in the years after "COMING INTO THE COUNTRY" depicted the alteration of life styles of "bush-dwellers, hermits, miners, trappers, and visitors to the region by the lawyers, politicians, and bureaucrats divvying up Alaska to make way for the pipeline from the North Slope. Shortly before McPhee's book, I kayaked through this region three times on my finally journey of 2,000 miles down the river to the ocean, so these books were of interest and informative to me as I knew some of the people affected by the new rulings of government power. These books depict a lot about how those in political power use and abuse those powers to force their personal ideas and philosophies on others trying to escaped the clutches of such webs of governmental control.

In A Land Gone Lonesome Dan O'Neill floats the Yukon River area visited by John McPhee over 30 years earlier. The differences over time are striking as are the differences in the authors. While McPhee was a perceptive visitor spinning a great tale, O'Neill is a long time resident, and his narration reveals a deep love of the land coupled with a keen eye towards historical perspective. He discusses in detail the effects of the National Park Service's administration, or perhaps mis-administration.If you liked McPhee, you'll love O'Neill. O'Neill has a comfortable free-flowing style appropriate for a tale about Alaska's greatest river. If you are into rural lifestyles, Alaska history, the Yukon River, or Alaska wilderness - this is a must read.

Thought it would be more about the experience of paddling the river. Rapids, exciting paddling stretches, etc. It is a great read if you want the history of the Yukon and the places people have lived along its banks and why they came to the Yukon. I would not recommend it if you a re looking for paddling adventure.

Ahh, the unintended consequences of self perpetuating bureaucracy. Alaska is different. Her parks and protected areas should be as well. Great narrative, incredible characters, and a harrowing bear attack. Sad that my generation will be the last to witness people of this mettle- who are able to engage in a true subsistence lifestyle that requires the tenacity and character described in these pages.

A very good, but sometimes sad, write up about a lost lifestyle-the homesteader's of remote Alaska along the Yukon River watershed. Government rules and regulations eliminated the homesteader's in this area, and in doing so allowed many historical sites and dwellings to be destroyed.

As I expected thank you!

This is not the run-of-the-mill type of book written by somebody bored town-dweller looking for the ultimate thrill, braving the Yukon in a canoe, looking forward to a life-threatening encounter with a hungry bear, or choosing the Yukon to test his survival skills.Dan O'Neill is focusing more on atmosphere and authenticity, on the people. He is a living encyclopedia on the Yukon. He gives a new lease of life to some of the legendary inhabitants of these climes and meets those who would like to continue the noble tradition. His is a travel back in time along the mighty Yukon once alive with real people who have, through sheer steadfastness, hard work and dedication been giving a meaning to both their lives and to this breathtaking wilderness. Visiting the remnants of Ivy City, he notes: "I drift by in silence, pondering a country where towns are as ephemeral as footprints in the snow." As we read along we see that this is not only a book about man trying to domesticate nature in the classical sense.There is more. Again and again O'Neill denounces the land management policies that are increasingly being implemented in this area. "From the park managers' perspective, people are a problem", he writes regretfully. His fear is that everything is being done to make the Yukon area into a liveless and sterile park. He strongly advocates the idea that PEOPLE made the Yukon into what it once was and should be today. And his references to forest fire management or to developments in other areas such as Yellowstone are examples of what mistakes have been made by the authorities in their hope to ensure conservation. Ignoring the frontiersmen of old, or the few modern survivors of that tough breed, is the worst that could happen to the Yukon, he believes. We do not need an arctic Disneyland, he argues. Present legislation only ends up in the dire fact that "for now, the land is lonesome by decree, artificially empty as if, to enshrine the trees, we banished the birds."The Yukon deserves another future than that thought up by teams of well-meaning bureaucrats throwing law books at their critics!O'Neill is fighting for it in every single sentence of this book.