Winter 2019
Reel deal videos of Clark Pederson
A few snippets of Clark Pederson (’10 Comm.) on the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch
Alaska
Winter 2019
Dream Flights on Arctic Nights
Review of children's illustrated rhyming book, Dream Flights on Arctic Nights » More ...
Winter 2019
Reel deal: Clark Pederson of Deadliest Catch
Clark Pederson, a Washington State University alumnus, married the daughter of Captain Sig Hansen on TV show Deadliest Catch, and that was just the beginning of the danger. » More ...
Fall 2018
Peonies from heaven
Come late summer, Alaska’s farmland blooms with romance and colorful ruffles. It’s the season for peonies in the north country—an unlikely floral industry that, thanks to bridal demand, has given rise to a surprising horticultural gold rush.
The lure is especially tempting for those with small parcels of land. Wayne ’76 and Patti ’75 Floyd, for example, joined the stampede in 2011 with only two acres, and have since created a successful business claiming both national and international markets.
“We’d had this farm bug in our hearts from the beginning but we were never in a place that we could do that,” says Patti. … » More …
Fall 2018
Video: A quick ride around Cool Cache Farms
Take a peek at the peonies on the Cool Cache Farms in Alaska, owned by Wayne and Patti Floyd.
Read about their peony venture in “Peonies from heaven,” Fall 2018.
Spring 2018
Briefly noted
On the Arctic Frontier: Ernest Leffingwell’s Polar Explorations and Legacy
Janet R. Collins
WSU Press: 2017
Arctic explorer and geologist Ernest deKoven Leffingwell(1875–1971) helped determine the edge of the continental shelf—the first solid evidence that searching for land north of Alaska was likely futile. He also left detailed, accurate maps of Alaska’s northeast coast, groundbreaking permafrost studies, and charted the geology and wildlife of the region. Collins, a Western Washington University librarian intrigued by Leffingwell’s work, reveals a relatively unknown, meticulous, and detailed explorer devoted to the Arctic.
Re-Awakening Ancient Salish Sea Basketry: Fifty Years of Basketry Studies in Culture and Science
Ed … » More …
Fall 2017
Bear watching
The headlines paint a dire picture: By the 2030s, global warming could completely melt Arctic sea ice, imperiling the 19 known polar bear populations that range across the United States, Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Norway.
Could, as some fear, the trend spell extinction for Ursus martimus?
For two of the country’s premiere polar bear researchers—wildlife biologists KARYN RODE ’99 MS, ’05 PhD, and DAVID C. DOUGLAS ’86 MS, both of whom work for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center—the answer is a decided “No.”
But neither is the future rosy for the animals, according to Douglas, who uses satellite tracking to monitor their … » More …
Spring 2017
Briefly noted
No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon
Erik Weihenmayer and Buddy Levy
Thomas Dunne Books: 2017
After Weihenmayer became the first and only blind man to reach the top of Mount Everest, he decided his next adventure would be to traverse the treacherous Grand Canyon by kayak. He and Levy, a Washington State University instructor, chronicle the turbulent whitewater journey, and the insights gained by Weihenmayer and other trailblazers he has met.
Unusual Punishment: Inside the Walla Walla Prison, 1970–1985
Christopher Murray
WSU Press: 2016
Murray was an employee of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services … » More …
Summer 2016
More than God Demands
Politics & Influence of Christian Missions in Northwest Alaska 1897–1918
Anthony Urvina ’85 with Sally Urvina
University of Alaska Press: 2016
Tucked away in cabinets and forgotten closets at the Alaska regional offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Juneau was a collection of old documents known simply as the Reindeer Files.
Anthony Urvina ’85, a natural resource manager at the BIA, began digging through them in 2003 while trying … » More …
Summer 2012
Alaska: A History
Claus-M. Naske ’70 PhD and Herman E. Slotnick
University of Oklahoma Press, 2011
In 1867 the Russia of Czar Alexander II was broke. As part of the solution, the country sold its North American lands to the United States for $7 million in a deal brokered by Secretary of State William Seward. The transaction angered many Russians, who felt they shouldn’t give up the colony. At the same time, … » More …