Eye on the Caribou: Inside the Alaska Lands Bill
By Chris Carlson; Ridenbaugh Press; $16.95
The blurb: Told from the perspective of one who was on the inside, here's the story of the passage of the Alaska Lands Act. It was an effort spanning 80 years, from the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt and culminating with President Jimmy Carter signing into law what many consider the greatest piece of conservation legislation in history. It is a story of grit, greed, political double-crosses and shrewd strategy that achieved what many thought unobtainable.
Excerpt: (Cecil) Andrus, while still serving as Idaho's governor in November of 1976, extended an invitation to the then president-elect to take a fly-fishing float trip on Idaho's Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Andrus issued the invitation while standing in the Carter's kitchen at the former president's home in Plains, (Georgia) following his interview to be the next Secretary of the Interior. Carter accepted the invitation from the incoming 44th Interior Secretary, and he kept his word.
The float trip turned out to be both serendipitous and fortuitous. As the two couples sat around the evening fire, the men would first settle up on the day's bet regarding who caught and released the most cutthroat, the largest and the first. They usually bet $1 on each. Then the conversation would turn to larger matters.
The timing could not have been better. Just a month earlier, Andrus had taken 15 of the nation's premier journalists on a week-long tour of Alaska covering many of the sites being contemplated as additions to the nation's great systems of protection and conservation: wilderness, national parks, national wildlife refuges, national monuments and wild and scenic rivers. The trip garnered extensive publicity for setting aside and protecting anywhere from 80 million to 103 million acres of federal lands. This would satisfy the commitment to the environmental community to accept the settlement of the long unresolved land claims of Alaska's Natives. It also allowed the trans-Alaska pipeline to proceed in exchange for a promised significant increase in the great preservation and conservation programs that over the years the United States, more by luck than coordinated planning, has been able to achieve.
With his Alaska trip fresh in his mind, and knowing that the president's No. 1 goal for the nation's major environmental organizations was passage of the Alaska lands legislation, Andrus took full advantage of time spent by the evening camp fire to discuss his media tour of Alaska, the status of the then negotiations, the likelihood that Alaska's Democratic Senator, Mike Gravel, would prove to be the dog in the manger and do everything he could to stall and delay any legislation.
Always able to look down the road and over the horizon to anticipate what would be coming, Andrus began to lay out his fall-back strategy to the president should Gravel not only succeed in torpedoing the current legislation but also block an extension of the deadline for resolution of the lands issue contained in the 1971 Land Claims Act.
The idea involved achieving the goal by using the presidential land withdrawal power under the Antiquities Act to create national monuments by the stroke of a pen. Andrus thought President Carter might have to designate as many as 17 new or expanded national monuments to protect both the lands and congress' option to act in compliance with the previous Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act requirement.
Andrus had the complete trust of the president. The two had worked closely together when both were serving as governor of their respective states and became acquainted at National Governor Association meetings. In later years Carter would say Andrus was the only person he considered for the Interior post. He relied heavily on Andrus' views with regards to most western issues and backed up every decision Andrus later made on Alaska. Andrus had been reading about Alaska since childhood, in particular Jack London's stories about Alaska and the Yukon. He also fondly recalled that the barbershop in the nearest town to their little farm used to save the old Outdoor Life magazines, and he and his brother, Steve, would read every issue from cover to cover, and dream about some day visiting there.
Murder on the Last Frontier: A Charlotte Brody Mystery
By Cathy Pegau; Kensington Books; $15
The blurb: There are many who feel the Alaska Territory is no place for a woman on her own. But Charlotte Brody, suffragette and journalist, has never let public opinion dictate her life choices. She's come to the town of Cordova, where her brother Michael practices medicine, for the same reason many come to Alaska — to start over.
Cordova is gradually becoming civilized, but the town is still rougher than Charlotte imagined. And when a local prostitute — one of the working girls her brother has been treating — is found brutally murdered, Charlotte learns firsthand how rough the frontier can be. Although the town may not consider the murder of a prostitute worthy of investigation, Charlotte's feminist beliefs motivate her to seek justice for the woman.
As Charlotte searches for answers, she soon finds her own life in danger from a cold-blooded killer desperate to keep dark secrets from seeing the light of day.
Excerpt: The weak smile she managed faltered when Charlotte caught a glimpse of Darcy's now-shrouded body behind him. She looked down into the mug and swallowed hard. "I remember you becoming ill when I gashed my forehead falling off the swing in the yard. Always wondered how you'd manage being a doctor."
"I guess my desire to heal overcame my nausea after a while." He gently tugged a loose lock of her hair. "Maybe having you bang yourself up all the time helped too."
... But it wasn't the blood, she realized, so much as Darcy's situation. Surely the girl had known she was pregnant.
"You were her doctor. Didn't you know?"
Michael's lips pressed together, and he looked pained again as he shook his head. "I haven't conducted a full exam on her for a couple of months. Mostly just quick visits and a few swabs to test for syphilis and other diseases. She'd said everything was fine with her menses."
"So she lied to you."
"Probably." Michael let Charlotte hold the mug. "It's possible she didn't know for sure. But more likely she lied and tried to hide it from me. She might have been afraid of being let go from Brigit's. Babies aren't particularly good for that business."
Charlotte drank the last of the water, then set the mug on the counter. "What would she have done once the baby arrived? How would they have made do?"
"If she'd kept it and Brigit didn't want her around? Server at one of the cafes or clubs. Laundress. She could have found something." His gaze focused elsewhere as he became lost in thought. After a moment he shook off whatever he'd been considering and met her eyes. "I can finish up the rest of the examination and report. Go lie down for a bit."
She straightened in her chair and picked up the pen. "No, I'll be all right." He started to protest, but she held up a hand. "Honest. It was just a bit of a shock, but I'm fine."
Liar.
She knew exactly what the dead girl on the table had gone through. Passing off morning sickness as a bit of a cold or a bout with bad food. Explaining away tiredness as having stayed up too late or working too hard. Secrets to be kept, hidden away from friends and family until a solution could be found.