Richard Proenneke: Wilderness Forager

Written by Candice V Morgan

Monday, June 23rd 2008

on beach "Free to plant and do as I please."

Richard Proenneke, or Dick, as he is better known, became just that, free, when, in 1968, at the age of 52, he set off for a character-challenging year in the Alaskan wilderness. And what was to be a year of mettle-testing turned into a 30 year exploration of the Twin Lakes region of Alaska. It was there that Proenneke, all on his own, built a cabin using the bare minumum of tools and where he provided the world with the most extensive record of animal habits, plant species, and climate changes ever made of the Twin Lakes region through his daily journals and video records. His cabin and the land it inhabits have been maintained as a national park and landmark since 1998, when Proenneke, at age 82, finally retired from a life in the wilderness--the harsh Alaskan winters had, at long last, proven too much of a “chore,” as the hearty homesteader once described it. In April of 2003, Richard Proenneke died, leaving behind him a legacy of environmental observationism, self-sufficiency, and sustainability the likes of which the modern world had not yet seen.

dick's cabin
Alone in the Wilderness, the DVD version of Proenneke’s memoir of the same name, details the wilderness forager’s arrival in the Twin Lakes region of the Alaskan back country. We watch as he builds his cabin from scratch, even down to carving the entirety of a hammer, which he uses to great effect in the building of his cabin. The simple grace and ease with which Proenneke saws and carves wood is entrancing. Were it not for the charming, uncomplicated, and, at times, stunningly simplistic narration of the video diaries of Proenneke, the near how-to of Proenneke’s cabin building would have been lost on the easily distracted. However, with gems such as the following quotes and bits of wisdom, the narration is exactly what wins the viewer over, especially when accompanied by the trance-inducing rapidity with which Proenneke ekes out a home in the wild: RP portrait

“This was something I had to do, not just dream, but do it.”

“What was I capable of that I didn’t know yet?”

“As it stands now, the cabin looks as though logs are sticking out all over it, like the quills of a riled porcupine.”

“I finished the day cleaning the litter of wood chips. I mounted them in front of the door beaver-lodge style. Quite a pile for eleven days work, enough to impress that beaver.” (Close up of a beaver nibbling as he bobs in the lake’s water.)

“These fillers should be called squirrel frustraters--give those characters an entrance and they can ruin a cabin.” (Narrated as Proenneke “caulks” the narrow cracks between logs on the roof of his self-made log cabin with carved-to-fit hunks of wood.)

And my personal favorites:

“Too many men work on parts of things. Doing a job to completion satisfies me.”

“Tomorrow is Sunday. I will go someplace.” (Proenneke is then shown hiking to the top of the nearest peak.)

“This lake can really change it’s personality in a hurry. Like a woman, all smiles one minute and dancing a temper tantrum the next.”

With his matter-of-fact style and straight-forward cinematography, Proenneke’s life’s work is even more impressive in light of the fact that the journals and video records of his life were created for Proenneke’s own pleasure and for relaying information of his well-being and lifestyle to his brother, Ray Proenneke, back in the continental United States. An inspiration to all, Proenneke’s life is especially relevant to the conservation movement, be it in the attention to detail he paid to his surrounding environment or his ambition to live off the land in as sustainable a way as possible (“I feel guilty about the tar paper and the polyethylene, but I am convinced they will do a better job of keeping the weather out,”) we feel the effect of this great life on our own contemporary, and increasingly ecologically conscious, society. Dick Proenneke, we salute you!

cabin covered with snow