{"product_id":"cold-mountain-path-the-ghost-town-decades-of-mccarthy-kennecott-alaska-paperback","title":"Cold Mountain Path: The Ghost Town Decades of McCarthy-Kennecott, Alaska - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eTom Kizzia\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this history of life in an isolated ghost town, bestselling Alaska author Tom Kizzia unfolds a deeply American saga of renunciation and renewal. The spirit of Alaska in the old days-impetuous, free-wheeling, and bounty-blessed-lived on in the never-quite-abandoned mining town of McCarthy. While the new state boomed in the pipeline era, cagey old-timers and young back-to-the-landers forged a rough wilderness community that lived by its own rules.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the T'ang Dynasty mountain poet Han Shan wrote, \"If your heart was like mine, you'd get it and be right here.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Wrangell Mountains developed a reputation as a hermit kingdom, \"contrary and self-reliant, where settlers tougher than the rest of us salvaged, in post-apocalyptic fashion, the rusted relics of a profligate past.\" But history had its eyes on McCarthy. Pressures grew to improve access for tourists and speculators, and to cordon off the wild surroundings in a national park. Here is the story, hopeful but haunted, of those latter-day pioneers-from the afternoon the last copper train left the valley, to the icy morning when a man with a rifle brought the lost decades to an end.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCold Mountain Path is loaded with vivid accounts of heroes and lovers, crackpots and con artists, feuding prospectors and daring bush pilots. An outlaw who became Alaska's iconic art-museum sourdough. A secret government plan to explode an atomic bomb. A young Harvard graduate who followed the path of ascetic Chinese poetry into marriage with a mountain man. A loner who decided Nature would be better off with all of them gone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd tying the half-century together, the life story of a cantankerous and idealistic homesteader, Jim Edwards, who lived in the valley longer than any of them, \"the ghost in Alaska's rear-view mirror.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeyond the whimsical reminiscing of old-timers, the book is also a serious environmental history: a meditation on ghost towns, a funhouse-mirror reflection of modern Alaska, and an on-the-ground recounting of the conservation battle to create the country's largest national park.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTom Kizzia's previous book, Pilgrim's Wilderness, was named Alaska's best True Crime book by the New York Times. Amazon pegged the book at Number 5 among its Top 100 Best Books of the Year. Outside Magazine called it \"a gripping nonfiction thriller told with masterful clarity.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow the author brings those narrative skills to the untold story of a town that dreamed it could stay hidden in the snows of the past.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 346\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.77 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 05, 2021\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAward:\u003c\/strong\u003e Benjamin Franklin Award (2022)\u003c\/div\u003e\n                \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAward:\u003c\/strong\u003e Benjamin Franklin Award (2022)\u003c\/div\u003e\n                ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51978582917421,"sku":"9781736755815","price":22.55,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0938\/3185\/6429\/files\/cWFVTC9NM3gyYzRaa0ZZTnZIZDhMUT09.webp?v=1775805980","url":"https:\/\/ishookbooks.com\/products\/cold-mountain-path-the-ghost-town-decades-of-mccarthy-kennecott-alaska-paperback","provider":"iShook Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}