Building Alaskan Dreams 

Building Alaskan Dreams

By Jade Murphy with Jason Highcamp

(2014)

Available at www.buildingalaskandreams.com $22.00.
    Review written by Dr. Alf H. Walle III, Ph.D.

Jason Highcamp is one of the last pioneers to live on the same tract of land that he carved out of the Alaskan wilderness during the twilight of the homesteading era. Most of those who accepted the challenge of free land in exchange for sweat equity were defeated by the challenge.

Age has caught up with the minority that was successful. Few of these original settlers live on their land; Jason remains as a last leaf on the tree.

 A few years ago, Jade Murphy met Jason due to the fact that he makes classic Athabascan fur garments that are true works of functional Alaskan art. In the process, she began to hear stories of how Jason tamed his virgin land during the 1980s and has maintained it since then.

Eventually Murphy visited Jason’s homestead in a remote part of Interior Alaska that he shared with sled dogs, small livestock like geese and rabbits, and the local wildlife. Carved out of the wilderness was a personal Shangri-La. Murphy became convinced that Jason’s story had to be told, to be preserved as a bit of Alaskan history.

The account is notable because it deals with both psychology and action. Why would someone give up all to venture into the wilderness of Alaska? In Jason’s case, divorce, economic reversals, and legal troubles stemming from vagrancy and homelessness drove him. Nothing was going right. Desperation was creeping in. A vision emerged, however, when he read an article in Mother Earth News magazine that reported that homesteading was alive and well in Alaska. Dreaming of starting over, he gained a goal and purpose. Once a grubstake had been saved, north he went, driving his late 1940s Ford ton-and-a-half flatbed truck.

Once in Alaska, more years were spent working in places like Haines, Alaska in order to patch together a meager, but adequate, financial foundation by working as a fisherman and doing whatever else provided a living. The goal of homesteading remained foremost.

Eventually Jason said goodbye to Southeast Alaska and came to the Interior to stake his claim. Murphy provides an intriguing portrait of both what Jason thought and what he did.

Particularly interesting are the somewhat detailed accounts of how he singlehandedly put up log buildings and examples of how he was able to make do with the barest of resources. Creating his own lumber out of raw logs, he recalls, “I cut over $4,000 worth of logs and boards with that Jonsred saw that I paid $389 for.” (p. 134.) To this day, furthermore, Jason uses doors from an
old brothel in Haines that he was hired to demolish. Carted to his land, these scraps have been given a second life. In the process, Jason was reborn too.

On many occasions, authors do not appreciate the full impact or implications of what they create. Various readers, for example, reported to Murphy that the book was inspirational to them personally. “If Jason could overcome these obstacles,” these readers concluded, “I too can succeed.” Surprised by this response, Murphy states that her goal was to preserve a snippet of northern history and nothing more.

Whatever else the book might do, Murphy does accomplish her goal of rescuing an account of the pioneer spirit from the twilight of forgetfulness. The homesteading era is a key part of American history and much has been written about it. Most available accounts concern the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In Alaska, however, the homesteading tradition continued into the 1980s although relatively few accounts of this latter era are available. As a result, this little volume is a welcome addition to those who are interested in the American frontier, in general, and Alaska in specific.