Alone in the Wilderness airs June 15 on KUAC TV 9/Alaska One

Submitted by Ann Dowdy
Phone: (907) 474-1890
06/09/04

Alone in the Wilderness airs on Tuesday, June 15 at 9:00 p.m. Alaska Time.

Thousands have had dreams to commune with nature in an idyllic wilderness setting, but Richard Proenneke lived them. He found a place, built a cabin and stayed to become a part of the country. This program is a simple account of the day-to-day explorations and activities he carried out alone and the constant chain of nature’s events that kept him company.

Proenneke (pronounced PREN-a-kee) moved permanently to Twin Lakes, Alaska, in 1968 at age 52 after retiring as a diesel mechanic and heavy-equipment operator in Kodiak. His impulse was pure--to live deep in the wilderness out of a need for simplicity rather than to escape his fellows.

"I call him a modern-day Henry David Thoreau," said John Branson, a Lake Clark park ranger and historian who was a long time friend. "Thoreau lived at Walden Lake for one year, Dick lived at Twin Lakes for 30 years."

Dick Proenneke, whose journals were published as the classic Alaska Memoir "One Man’s Wilderness," died at age 86 in 2003. "What a man never has, he never misses," Proenneke writes in this journal record of his first year at Twin Lakes, when he was living at a friend’s cabin and building his own.

He chose the perfect site, cut trees, built a log cabin and was a self-sufficient craftsman. This program takes you through the journey.

Serving Interior Alaska, KUAC 89.9 FM/TV 9 Alaska One/KUAC-DT 24, public radio and public television, is a multiple-media organization with a mission to provide quality noncommercial programming and services that enlighten, inspire, educate and entertain. KUAC is licensed to the University of Alaska.

Contact: Ann Dowdy, at (907) 474-1890 or fnajd@uaf.edu.