Alfred Brooks was a geologist who traveled thousands of miles in Alaska and left his name on the state\u2019s northernmost mountain range. Twenty years before his death in 1924, he also left behind a summary of what Alaska was like more than one century ago, when \u201clarge areas (were) still practically unexplored.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his 1906 government report, \u201cGeography and Geology of Alaska. A Summary of Existing Knowledge,\u201d Brooks pointed out misconceptions about Alaska that endure. He wrote in his introduction:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf facts are presented which may seem elementary, it is because even well-informed people have been known to harbor misconceptions in regard to the orographic features, climate, and general character of Alaska. Those who read about the perils and privations of winter travel and explorations are apt to picture a region of ice and snow; others, again, who have personal knowledge of the tourist route of southeastern Alaska, regard the whole district as one of rugged mountains and glaciers.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Brooks\u2019 day, about 60,000 people lived in Alaska. They were scattered wider than people are today. The Klondike gold rush and the stampedes that followed had driven determined souls to the far corners of Alaska.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more venturous prospector found no risk too hazardous, no difficulty too great, and now there is hardly a stream which has not been panned by him, and hardly a forest which has not resounded to the blows of his ax,\u201d Brooks wrote. \u201cEvidences of his presence are to be found from the almost tropical jungles of southeastern Alaska to the barren grounds of the north which skirt the Arctic Ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n
While today\u2019s scientists sometimes use satellites and other remote-sensing tools to gain information about Alaska without leaving their offices, Brooks and his contemporaries at the U.S. Geological Survey spent their entire summers on traverses of Alaska. They performed their work without the help of the airplane, which had not yet been invented, nor the internal combustion engine.<\/p>\n
Brooks wrote of an 1899 expedition he made with topographer William Peters to map the country from Lynn Canal near Haines west through the mountains of the St. Elias Range and northward through what is today Wrangell St. Elias National Park. They filled in a void in Alaska\u2019s map until they reached the settlement of Fortymile on the Yukon River.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe journey was made with horses, with only five out of the original 15 reaching the Yukon,\u201d Brooks wrote.<\/p>\n
U.S.G.S. scientists penetrated Alaska by following rivers and trekking overland when they could, mapping one-fifth of Alaska by 1904. Brooks attributed the agency\u2019s success to its ability to choose a few good men.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf the twenty or more parties which the Geological Survey has sent to Alaska, hardly a single one has failed to execute the work allotted to it,\u201d Brooks wrote. \u201cThe parties have usually been made up of a few carefully chosen men, and the physical work and discomforts, as well as hardships, have been shared by leaders and men alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks, who later wrote about his personal experiences in Alaska, concluded his section on exploration of the territory by addressing critics of government spending who had no idea of the hazards of travel in Alaska.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlaskan surveys and explorations have never been and never will be easy,\u201d Brooks wrote. \u201cThroughout its history, the geographic investigation has been a tale of hardship and suffering and not infrequently of death. Let those who are not personally familiar with the character of the difficulties not judge it too harshly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Since the late 1970s, the University of Alaska Fairbanks\u2019 Geophysical Institute has provided this column free in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer for the Geophysical Institute. This column first appeared in 2003.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alfred Brooks was a geologist who traveled thousands of miles in Alaska and left his name on the state\u2019s northernmost mountain range. Twenty years before his death in 1924, he also left behind a summary of what Alaska was like more than one century ago, when \u201clarge areas (were) still practically unexplored.\u201d In his 1906 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[149],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28219"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}