I'd like to recommend a podcast to you. If you're interested in thinking about how communities develop nearly beyond the reach of the law, I think you'll like it.
It's called "Out Here," and it's a project of Erin McKinstry, a freelance journalist. The "out here" the title refers to is the "town" of McCarthy, Alaska, a tiny dot in the middle of the vast wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. (We're talking VAST. It's the size of Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the country of Switzerland combined.) Long ago a copper mining boom town, McCarthy was abandoned for decades until a few intrepid souls moved there to scratch out a solitary existence back in the 70s. Over the last several decades the population has slowly grown. The residents have struggled with change, with development, with community-building -- all in a place so remote that there's virtually no recourse to (or desire for) law.
McKinstry weaves a quiet, lovely narrative with the threads of the stories of residents, some of them old-timers and some of them more recent arrivals. There's plenty to entertain -- moose and bear encounters, failed and successful romances, and even a traumatizing murder rampage that took the lives of a sizable percentage of the town's year-round population. Evocative original music. And, on the show's website, stunning photos of life "out there," like this picture of the mail shack in "downtown" McCarthy.
I really enjoyed it. Perhaps you will too. It's on iTunes and in all of the other usual places for finding podcasts.
Thanks for this, Eric. I grew up in Alaska and actually visited McCarthy (since then, I gather it's become something of a jumping-off point for some mountaineers in the Wrangell-St. Elias Park.) Fascinating.
Posted by: Richard W. Garnett | June 18, 2018 at 03:02 PM