Sam O. White, Alaskan

Jim Rearden

Description

"This was an excellent book about a true pioneer! A very interesting story about the life of an amazing man. Sam was generous, courageous, and a friend to everyone who had the privilege of knowing him." 

Sam O. White was a tough, deep-voiced, six-foot-tall, two-hundred-pound former Maine lumberjack and guide. From 1922, for half a century he crisscrossed wild Alaska by foot, with packhorses, dog teams, canoe, riverboat, and airplane. He helped map the Territory, trap fur, and became the world’s first flying game warden. White wrote exciting tales about his Alaska adventures, and those writings make up the bulk of this volume. 

In 1927, he arrived at Fort Yukon as a game warden when millions of dollars worth of fine arctic furs annually arrived there. The hardy frontier trappers considered the new game warden a joke, but he quickly taught them to respect conservation laws. 

He was frustrated by the impossibility of adequately patrolling thousands of square miles by dog team, boat, and on foot, so with his own money, he bought an airplane. Pioneer pilots Noel and Ralph Wien taught him how to fly it. White then startled remote trappers and others by suddenly arriving from the sky. 

In 1941, lack of backing from Juneau headquarters caused him to resign as a wildlife agent. At Fairbanks, Noel Wien made him Chief Pilot for Wien Airlines. For the next two decades White flew as an Alaskan bush pilot, admired for his flying skill and the superior service he provided residents who flew with him, and who depended upon him for receiving mail and supplies. 

He had countless friends—one hundred arrived for his seventieth birthday party. His integrity and principles were of the highest. Decades after his death, he is still spoken of with awe by the long-time Alaskans. 

Near Clear Creek Buttes, as we came to a straight stretch of trail, we saw a contraption moving toward us. A man was pulling it. Smoke was rising from it. I stopped and looked, but couldn’t figure it out.
Todd stopped his team near mine and explained, “That’s Old George Nelson. He traps here, and lives on Clear Creek. His sled is twenty-two inches wide with canvas stretched over it like a covered wagon. He has a tiny wood-burning stove in it, with his sleeping bag. When he hits the trail, he has his camp right with him. He’ll go out for several days with it and camp whenever he gets tired. Or, he’ll stop and snooze whenever he feels like it. He has no dogs.”
We came to Old George and he insisted we have a hot cup of coffee. George sat inside his covered sled and reached out and poured for us as we sat on the edge of my sled.
I couldn’t help but think, “What country this is, with people like Van Bibber, the Johnsons, and the Nelsons. Who could resist its call?”

Sujets

• Sports
• Biography
• Air Queensland
• Recreation
• Trapping
• Hunting
• Conservation

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 04 avril 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780882409344
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Sam O. White, Alaskan
Tales of a Legendary Wildlife Agent and Bush Pilot
Sam O. White in 1964 . S AM O. W HITE , COURTESY DRAH
Sam O. White, Alaskan
Tales of a Legendary Wildlife Agent and Bush Pilot
by J IM R EARDEN
Copyright 2006 by Jim Rearden
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
The print edition is available from
Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Inc.
pictorialhistoriespublishing.com
Library of Congress Control Number 2006938470
ISBN 978-1-57510-130-9
ISBN (e-book) 978-0-88240-934-4
C OVER A RT Rusty Huerlin, Trapper on Snowshoes , 15 19 .
T YPOGRAPHY B OOK D ESIGN Arrow Graphics
Published by Alaska Northwest Books
An imprint of

P.O. Box 56118
Portland, Oregon 97238-6118
503-254-5591
www.graphicartsbooks.com
Contents
Frontispiece
Two-page Map of Alaska
List of place Names
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Acknowledgments
B OOK O NE : T HE E ARLY Y EARS
1. Memories of Eustis Ridge
2. The Maine Years
3. Mapping Alaska
4. My First Alaska Winters
5. The Good Life: Fairbanks in the Mid-1920s
6. Sheep Hunt
7. Canoeing the Salcha
8. Reconnaissance, Shaw Creek to Eagle
9. Eagle to Fairbanks by Canoe and Trail
10. Sam O. White, Alaskan
B OOK T WO : G AME W ARDEN /W ILDLIFE A GENT
11. Fort Yukon Game Warden
12. Fort Yukon Old-timers
13. Mary Burgess White
14. Learning to Fly
15. Kantishna Patrol
16. Roadhouses and Sled Dog Trails
17. A Beaver Sealing Trip
18. Village Traders I Have Known
19. The Wild Man of Nation River
20. A Steese Highway Patrol
21. Nowitna River Patrol
22. Arresting Aliens
23. Kuskokwim and Stony River Patrols
24. Medicine Lake and Mahoney
25. Alaska-Yukon Boundary Patrol
26. The Hugo Stromberger Case
27. Sam Resigns
B OOK T HREE : B USH P ILOT
28. Sam O. White, Bush Pilot
29. Koyukuk Mail Runs
30. Geodetics in Winter
31. More Winter Geodetics
32. Close Calls While Flying
33. Archie Ferguson
34. Flying the Bush from Ruby
35. Life Along the Yukon
36. Jack Sackett
37. Flying for a Coastal Survey
38. Alaska Peninsula Bear Encounters
39. Flying to Utopia
40. The Early Bush Planes
41. Les and Pat James, Hughes Traders
42. Sam and the Wien Family
43. Sam White s Legacies to Alaska s Wildlife
44. Sam
45. Flight Plan Closed
References
Index
A LSO BY J IM R EARDEN
Forgotten Warriors
O F THE A LEUTIAN C AMPAIGN
Alaska s Wolf Man
T HE 1915-55 WILDERNESS ADVENTURES OF F RANK G LASER
The Wolves of Alaska
A FACT-BASED SAGA
Castner s Cutthroats
S AGA OF THE A LASKA S COUTS
Koga s Zero
T HE F IGHTER T HAT C HANGED W ORLD W AR II
Travel Air NC9084
T HE HISTORY OF A 75-Y EAR -O LD W ORKING A IRPLANE
Jim Rearden s Alaska
F IFTY Y EARS OF F RONTIER A DVENTURE
Arctic Bush Pilot
F ROM N AVY C OMBAT TO F LYING A LASKA S N ORTHERN W ILDERNESS
Tales of Alaska s Big Bears
In the Shadow of Eagles
F ROM B ARNSTORMER TO A LASKA B USH P ILOT , A F LYER S S TORY
Shadows on the Koyukuk
A N A LASKAN N ATIVE S L IFE A LONG THE R IVER

Sam O. White s Alaska
Alatna
D3
Anchorage
D5
Arctic Village
E2
Barrow
C2
Beaver
E3
Bettles
D3
Big Delta
E4
Birch Creek
E3
Birches
D4
Black River
F3
Bristol Bay
B6
Cape Espenberg
B3
Caro
E3
Caswell
D4
Central
F3
Chandalar
E3
Chandler Lake
D2
Charley River
F4
Chatanika
E4
Chicken
F4
Cinder River
C6
Circle City
F3
Circle Hot Springs
F3
Coleen River
F3
Colville River
C2
Curry
D4
Diamond
D4
Dillingham
C5
Eagle
F4
Eagle Summit
E3
Fairbanks
E4
Flat
C4
Fort Yukon
E3
Goodnews Bay
B6
Hagemeister Island
B6
Harding Lake
E4
Holy Cross
B4
Howling Dog Rock
F3
Hughes
D3
Huslia
C3
Iliamna Lake
C5
Joseph Creek
F4
Joseph
F4
Juneau
H6
Kaltag
C4
Kantishna
D4
Kechumstuck
F4
Ketchikan
H7
Kiana
B3
Kivalina
B3
Kobuk
C3
Kobuk River
C3
Kotzebue
B3
Koyukuk River
D3
Koyukuk
C4
Kuskokwim River
C4
Ladue River
F4
Lake Minchumina
D4
McGrath
C4
Medicine Lake
F3
Melozitna River
C3
Mount McKinley
D4
Mt. Hayes
E4
Nabesna
F4
Naknek
C6
Nancy
D5
Nation River
F3
Nenana
E4
Nikolai
D4
Noatak River
B3
Nome
A4
Northway
F4
Nowitna River
C4
Nulato
C4
Osviak Lagoon
B6
Palmer
E5
Peard Bay
C2
Platinum
B6
Porcupine River
F3
Port Heiden
C6
Richardson Highway
B5
Ruby
C4
Salcha River
E4
Shaw Creek
E4
Shuman House
F3
Steese Highway
E3
Stevens Village
E3
Stony River
C5
Stony
C5
Susitna Station (Susitna)
D5
Takotna River
D4
Talkeetna
D4
Talkeetna River
E4
Tanana River
F4
Tanana
D3
Tetlin
F4
Toklat River
D4
Tonzona River
D4
Topagoruk River
C2
Twelvemile Summit
E3
Utopia (Indian Mtn)
D3
Valdez
E5
Venetie
E3
Walker Lake
C3
Wiseman
D3
Wood River
D4
Wrangell
H6
Yukon Flats
E3
Zane Hills
C3
Foreword
Sam O. White was bigger than life; he was a big man physically, big at heart, big-voiced, a big personality, and huge in generosity. My brother Merrill, my sister Jean, and I grew up on Kellum Street in Fairbanks directly across the street from Sam s home. Our families were close, and though not a blood relative, Sam was fully as close to us as a blood-related uncle to three kids could have been.
I can still hear his booming voice when I knocked at his door. Come in Richard. How s it goin ? Pull up a chair. How about some ginger ale? was the usual ritual. He loved ginger ale and always had it on hand, and never spared it when we arrived.
When we were comfortably settled, and after inquiring about our lives, a story would usually begin. As the reader will learn from this volume, he was a consummate story teller, with much descriptive detail. We sat at the edges of our chairs as he took us on his adventures to the far reaches of Alaska or of his early life in Maine. He seldom talked about his World War I experiences.
I m one of the few living Alaskans who knew some of those who were part of Sam s early life in the Territory. I also worked with Sam in his later life, and followed his career as a bush pilot. I was greatly influenced by his countless stories of high adventure.
I was too young to remember much about his game warden adventures, but his flying adventures made a deep impression. Flying, of course, was always an important topic in our house because of my father s aviation career, and the careers of both Merrill and me. It seemed perfectly natural to us that Sam would be in the same business.
My father Noel and Sam White were the two men who influenced me most as a child and a young man, and I can safely say that was also true for brother and sister.

Richard Wien, October 2006 .
A UTHOR
Nothing characterized Sam more than his high standards and moral principles. With his stories, he somehow instilled in us a deep sense of what was right, and what was wrong. He also impressed on us how important it was to do things safely; do it safely, and you could survive almost anything, he preached.
We three Wien kids were not the only ones who were influenced by Sam. Many other young people came under his wing and absorbed his philosophy.
Merrill remembers with awe an example of Sam s generosity. At the age of 17 he had just received his private pilot s license. At about the same time Sam arrived in Fairbanks with his brand new L5 Stinson. That airplane represented most of Sam s net worth.
Merrill, go fly it, Sam offered. During lunch hour at school, after seeing Sam land, Merrill ran all the way from school to Weeks Field. He flew the plane around the pattern, and raced back to school before the bell rang.
Upon learning of the plans for this book, Merrill commented, Sam s stories gave us a great insight on wildlife. Our hunting trips with him were inspirational. His ability to survive in the wilderness was so great that we never worried about him when, in deep winter, for weeks at a time he flew geodetic crews into the remotest parts of Alaska. We knew he could handle virtually any situation.
Sam s loyalty was unwavering for those he respected. The friendship and bonds between Sam, my Dad, and