I just finished a book called “One Man’s Wilderness” by Sam Keith. It’s the book form of Richard (Dick) Proenneke’s diary. Proenneke moved to Alaska in the late 1960′s and kept detailed diaries of his adventures.

It’s a great book for those interesting in reading more about someone who moved away from “civilization” (like An Island To Oneself). Proenneke, like Neale, wasn’t really a hermit like person. He liked other people. Both of them looked to prove to themselves that they could survive with their own hands. One man did it on a deserted island, the other in the Alaskan wilderness.

One of the really cool things that Proenneke did was take a 16MM movie camera with him. He used this not only to film the wildlife, but he also documented the construction of his cabin. Proenneke was obviously a master carpenter and all around handy-man. The construction of his cabin is nothing short of amazing. Luckily, much of the film has been transferred to DVD. A set of two DVDs and the Book are available from Bob Swerer Productions for $58.90. If you are interested in the wilderness and want to be in awe of what a man can build with his own hands, I recommend them. The book is really descriptive, but the DVD does better justice to the workmanship involved.

When watching the DVD take a look at how fit the guy is — he was in his early 50′s when we went out to the wilderness! This guy can haul logs around like they were toothpicks. In fact, he stayed in the wilderness for the next 30 years, finally leaving when he was in his late 80′s (and couldn’t handle the winters anymore).

If you’d like to learn more about Proenneke, there’s a decent (though incomplete) bio at wikipedia. The National Park Service also published a second set of his diary entries, but it’s hard to find. Luckily they have scanned the original and it can be download from here (it’s a very big PDF file). I’ve just started reading it (hard to read on the computer screen)–but it seems to have much more detail about his life than the limited wiki article.