Richard Allison is a paleontologist who lives in Eagle, Alaska and has conducted scientific research in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. His wife, Carol Allison, was also a paleontologist who did extensive work in the region.

Originally from Maryland, Andy Bassich moved to Alaska in 1980. He lives on the Yukon River in northeastern Alaska where he follows a seasonally-based lifestyle of fishing, hunting, and trapping. He splits his time between a home in the community of Eagle, Alaska and a remote cabin out on the river, and maintains a team of sled dogs that he uses for transportation. For twenty years, he worked as captain on the Yukon Queen tour boat that ran in the summertime on the Yukon River... Read More

Originally from North Dakota, Nate Becker moved to Eagle, Alaska in 2009 to mush dogs and trap. Previously, he spent six years working as a seasonal employee for the National Park Service at Grand Canyon National Park as a flight medic and firefighter. After arriving in Eagle, Nate first worked as a winter guide for Wayne and Scarlett Hall with their business "Bush Alaska Expeditions" guiding tourists on multi-day and multi-week dog sled adventures, which later shifted into a full-time... Read More

Born in New York City in 1935, Robert "Bob" Belous came to Alaska in 1972 and began working for the National Park Service in Anchorage. As a member of the National Park Service Task Force in Alaska, he was heavily involved in the effort to develop and pass the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). As part of this activity, he was the primary architect of the subsistence provisions (Title 8). Bob devoted many years of his life to the complicated subsistence issue, worked... Read More

Born in California, Jack Boone moved to Alaska as a young man and settled in Juneau, where he started a family and built a home. He moved his family to Eagle in 1973, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a "jack of all trades," excelling at most of his endeavors. Known as an accomplished mechanic, builder and successful businessman, he also was committed to the service of his community, serving many years on the Eagle City Council, as an assistant mayor, as a trainer and... Read More

Originally from Sweden, Helge Boquist settled in the village of Circle, Alaska. His wife, Gladys, was an Athabascan woman whose family was also from the Circle area. According to Helge, Gladys' father worked for Jack McQuesten, a well-known trader and prospector along the Yukon River in the late 1800s; his job was to collect gold that local miners owed McQuesten. The Boquists lived a subsistence lifestyle, which included hunting, fishing and trapping, and Helge also did some gold mining at... Read More

Zorro Bradley was an archeologist who worked for the National Park Service for more than 30 years. He came to Alaska in 1972 to take on the job of chief of the Cooperative Park Studies Unit (CPSU) on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, where he also served as adjunct professor of archeology. As one of the first National Park Service anthropologists in Alaska, he helped plan the new park areas established by passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in... Read More

Born in Seattle in 1930, Bill Brown was a long-time employee of the National Park Service, working in park planning, publication writing and editing, park management, and as regional historian. He came to Alaska in 1975 and was a member of the Park Service's Alaska Task Force that conducted research and worked with local people around Alaska to better understand the areas that were to become new national parks. He played an important role in planning for Yukon-Charley Rivers National... Read More

Faye Chamberlain lived on the Yukon River at Twenty-One Mile and Six Mile near Circle, Alaska for several years while married to Richard Smith. They lived a subsistence lifestyle based on fishing, hunting, and trapping. Faye felt that establishment of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve and the subsequent management regulations made it hard for local people living in the area. Later, she moved to Dawson City, Yukon-Territory, Canada.

Born in 1936 in Arizona, John E. Cook worked for the National Park Service (NPS) for 43 years. He began his NPS career in 1953 as a seasonal packer, and then worked as a laborer, fire fighter and ranger.  By 1966, he was superintendent of Canyon de Chelly National Monument, and went on to be a deputy regional director, and associate director in Washington, D.C. In 1979, he came to Alaska to be Director of National Park Service Alaska region, when new park areas were being proposed as part of... Read More

Dave Evans was born and raised near Boston, Massachusetts, and his family spent summers in New Hampshire. From an early age, he spent his summers working on a farm, and he speaks fondly of the hard work. After spending some time in Canada's Yukon Territory, in 1974 Dave moved to a cabin on the Nation River in eastern Alaska, where he lived a subsistence lifestyle along with many other "back to the landers." He enjoyed the remote lifestyle of fishing, hunting, trapping, and working with his... Read More

Bob Howe had a long career with the National Park Service. He entered the Service in the 1940's, working in various parks around the country, and came to Alaska during the period when new park areas were being established after passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980. Throughout his tenure with the Park Service, Bob developed a reputation for getting along with people and knowing how to get around in the backcountry. He was a member of the Park Service... Read More

Originally from California, Carolyn Kelly and her husband moved to Alaska and lived in a remote cabin at Andrew Creek in what is now Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. They lived a subsistence lifestyle based upon fishing, hunting, and trapping. They developed a negative attitude towards the National Park Service after establishment of the Preserve, feeling that the management rules and regulations were too restrictive for local residents. This led them to move into the community of... Read More

Matthew Malcolm was born in Eagle, Alaska in 1926. His father was born in Canada and his mother in Nunuvik. He served in World War II. After returning from the war, he worked at the dredging operation at Coal Creek in 1949 and was married in 1951. After marrying his wife, Martha, he worked for the Alaska Road Commission on the Taylor Highway and continued to live a subsistence lifestyle along the Yukon River.

Dave Mihalic came to Alaska in the 1970s to work as Outdoor Recreation Planner for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Fairbanks. He went on to work for the National Park Service in Alaska, where he was a member of the Ranger Task Force/Alaska Task Force which got him involved with the planning of new conservation units under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980. He then became the first Superintendent at Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, where he... Read More

In the 1970s, Sage Patton lived in remote cabins on the Yukon and Nation Rivers in what is now Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve in northeastern Alaska. She and her then husband, Dave Evans, spent ten years living a simple, subsistence-based life of seasonal movement based upon fishing, hunting and trapping opportunities. In the 1990s, Sage was living in Fairbanks, Alaska and working for the U.S. Forest Service's Institute of Northern Forestry.

Louise Paul was a Han Athabascan elder from the village of Eagle, Alaska. Her parents were Eliza and Joe Malcolm. She grew up following a traditional subsistence lifestyle of hunting, trapping, fishing, and berry picking in the upper Yukon River region. After she married, Josie Paul, they lived for some time on Snare Creek and at the Coal Creek Mining camp where he worked. In her later years, Louise Paul was known for her expertise in her Native Han language and worked with linguists at the... Read More

Originally from Oregon, Lynette Roberts came to Alaska in 1974 and moved to Eagle with her husband, Steve Ulvi, and his brother, Dana. They soon moved out into the country and lived in remote cabins they built on the Kandik and Nation Rivers in what is now Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. They lived a simple, "no frills" subsistence lifestyle based on hunting, fishing, trapping, and doing as much from scrath and by hand as possible. She was an equal participant, although there turned... Read More

Sonja Sager was born in 1979 in Eagle, Alaska to Elisabeth and Mike Sager. She grew up at their remote cabin on Trout Creek, about 40 miles down the Yukon River from Eagle, where she enjoyed a nature-based childhood and a semi-nomadic winter lifestyle of traveling by dogteam and moving between cabins along a trapline. Her sister, Iris, was born at Trout Creek in 1983. Around 1988, the family moved into Eagle, where Sonja finished school and made many friends both in Eagle and in the Native... Read More

Originally from Michigan, Richard Smith came to Alaska in the 1970's with his mother and stepfather, Arlene and Ray Bell, who settled in Central, Alaska. Richard worked on the dredge at the Coal Creek mine in the late 1970s and has a cabin at Forty Mile on the Yukon River, up river from the village of Circle. He has spent many years living a subsistence-based seasonal lifestyle at the cabin, on the river, and at Woodchopper Creek, where he traps for a living and hunts and fishes to sustain... Read More

Al Stout was an early pioneer in Alaska who did a variety of things, including working on the Whitehorse-Dawson telegraph, working at Circle Hot Springs starting in 1933, mining at Mission Creek, and trapping at Forty Mile and other places along the Yukon River. He settled in Eagle, Alaska, from where he traveled up and down the Yukon River by boat in the summer and dogteam in the winter. He spent time mining at Coal Creek, Woodchopper Creek, and Seventy Mile. He enjoyed hunting and... Read More

Born in Walnut Creek, California in 1951 and educated at the University of Oregon, Steve Ulvi came to Alaska in 1974 with his brother, Dana, and homesteaded on the Yukon River near Eagle. He married Lynette Roberts and they moved to Fairbanks when their children became of school age. Steve became a subsistence specialist for Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve and Gates of the Arctic National Park. He was interviewed for the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve Project Jukebox because... Read More

In the early 1970s, Melody Webb worked for the National Park Service in Fairbanks, Alaska on Native Historic and Cemetery Sites studies. She also conducted historical research in the Wrangell-Saint Elias area and the Yukon-Charley Rivers area, in particular a historic resource study where she traveled with and was guided by Dave Evans, a former resident of the Nation River. Melody published a number of works on Alaska, including her book, The Last Frontier: A History of the Yukon Basin of... Read More