TV show survivalists pay close attention. This is the story of a man who loved the wilderness so much that he built his own cabin with only hand tools. His craftsmanship is remarkable… and he filmed the entire process! What is even more remarkable is that after he built his cabin, he lived in it… alone in the wilderness for over 30 years! Richard Proenneke’s life and legacy are one of the greatest examples of the American spirit of independence and self-reliance we have to learn from.

Proenneke lived alone but he was not a hermit. He had a few friends in the area and maintained distant friendships through letters and wrote back to anyone who desired correspondence with him. He kept journals and filmed his activities to share with the world a life untethered to it.

Friends and admirers have turned Proenneke’s material into these publications:

Sam Keith, hiking and fishing buddy to Dick Proenneke, published the book One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey.

The National Park Service and the Alaska Natural History Association published More Readings From One Man’s Wilderness: The Journals of Richard L. Proenneke, 1974-1980, edited by John Branson, a Lake Clark National Park employee and friend to Dick Proenneke.

Also edited by John Branson, The Early Years: The Journals of Richard L. Proenneke, 1967-1973. The Early Years journal entries overlap those in Sam Keith’s One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey, but unlike Keith’s book in which Proenneke’s writing style is frequently modified, The Early Years presents Proenneke’s journals entirely intact, although Branson includes footnotes providing backgrounds for names and places.

Nature photographer Bob Swerer has taken the best footage from Proenneke’s films and has created these three films:

Alone in the Wilderness
Alaska, Silence and Solitude
The Frozen North

The cabin Richard Louis Proenneke (1916-2003) built at Twin Lakes, Alaska is now the centerpiece of a National Register Historic Site. You can take a virtual tour of Proenneke’s cabin… or visit in person!

For more video instruction on handcrafting log cabins… learn from a master teacher and builder… Robert W. Chambers’ Building Log Homes shows hand-tool and chainsaw techniques for how to build scribe-fit log home walls.

Have you ever dreamed of living alone in the wilderness… or have you ever?

Speak Your Mind Below!!!

Like this article? AWESOME it is! Awesome YOU ARE!