Peter Garay

So whatever happened to the Hootsworths?

To this stranger and others like her, I bow low. And for a land that continues to endure, I give thanks.

After a long hiatus of 60-some-odd years, the reclusive Hootsworths are back in my life, and maybe even in a few other lives as well.

As Alaska turns from 2011 to the New Year, a team effort reminiscent of the famous serum run to Nome is under way to bring desperately needed fuel supplies to Nome.

In 1871 the New Bedford whaling fleet entered the Arctic Ocean in pursuit of the bowhead whale. This was the first large-scale commercial shipping operation to take place in the Arctic and was to end in disaster. That year 33 of the fleet's 40 ships became trapped in the ice and eventually were crushed and sunk.