ready to live like heimo korth (Fairbanks, Koyuk: jobs, houses, banks)

[alaskaorbust]

My husband and I have been researching Alaska for the past 1 1/2 years. We understand the top 3 needs for survival are food, heat, and shelter. We ahve also watched several documentaries, and read over 20 books on Alaska, wilderness survival and most recently the story of Heimo Korth. We are tired of working meaningless jobs just to make enough money to pay our bills and go to the movie once in a while. We are ready to work our butts off every day , knowing that if we don't, we die. So the question here is how do we go about this? I mean we are ready to each have a pack and be bedded down with warm clothes, boots, gloves, etc and be dropped in the middle of nowhere, but is that legal? Do we HAVE to purchase 5 acres from the "over-the-counter- sales on the dnr site or can we really just pick a spot near a body of water and start building a shanty? Please give us some insight to this last but most important detail of our moving to Alaska.

[stiffnecked]

Sure you can be dropped off in the middle of nowhere and build your shanty. Just dont be upset if the FED's or the STATE evict you and burn the place down. It happens more than once each year. I'd do it on the safe side and buy a piece of land. There are plenty of realtors in Alaska that have land in the middle of nowhere that you can legally buy. It would also be helpful to leave a note behind in permanent marker maybe in a plastic bag with instructions on what should be done with your remains. That happens every year as well.

Good website on land sales in Alaska.

Remote Listings

[Rance]

Scroll down to the property on a lake thread. There's your wilderness property. But if your just gonna get dropped of and go squatting...why not pick northern Canada? I think you'll find it more remote.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by alaskaorbust

My husband and I have been researching Alaska for the past 1 1/2 years. We understand the top 3 needs for survival are food, heat, and shelter. We ahve also watched several documentaries, and read over 20 books on Alaska, wilderness survival and most recently the story of Heimo Korth. We are tired of working meaningless jobs just to make enough money to pay our bills and go to the movie once in a while. We are ready to work our butts off every day , knowing that if we don't, we die. So the question here is how do we go about this? I mean we are ready to each have a pack and be bedded down with warm clothes, boots, gloves, etc and be dropped in the middle of nowhere, but is that legal? Do we HAVE to purchase 5 acres from the "over-the-counter- sales on the dnr site or can we really just pick a spot near a body of water and start building a shanty? Please give us some insight to this last but most important detail of our moving to Alaska.

First of all, the three most important things for survival, in order of importance, are: Shelter, Water, & Food. Hypotherma and exposure will kill you faster than dehydration or starvation, and dehydration will kill you faster than starvation. A few more tips:

1. You will need more than just a "shanty" if you expect to survive an Alaskan winter unless you are planning on living in southeastern Alaska. Asumming you have a good wood-burning stove, you will need a minimum of 9 cords of birch to heat a 20 foot by 20 foot cabin all winter. If you don't have a good wood-burning stove yet, don't buy one until you get to Alaska. Alaska has a large selection of wood-burning stoves and you won't have to hassle with moving something you can buy here. You will also need to build a cache to store your food and emergency gear. The property you've chosen may not have enough spruce of adequate size to build your cabin.
2. Buy the land, don't squat. Before you buy, visit the property personally. That is the only way to know how difficult it will be to get to your property and see what the conditions will be like. If there is a lot of permafrost or muskeg on your property, then the spruce will be stunted and unsuitable for building. Or if the spruce on the property has been killed by the spruce beetle, and usable for building, you can't tell unless you pay a first-hand visit.
3. Unless you are planning on building a cabin using hand tools from the 18th and 19th century, you will need fuel for your chainsaw(s) and a means to get it to your property. You will also need a potable water source, a well placed outhouse, a sizable garden, and lots of canning equipment. Buy your seeds and starters, for your garden in Alaska, from Alaskan greenhouses.
4. You will also have very limited time to grow your garden and build your cabin, so it would be prudent if you came up with a "Plan B" in case you fail to keep to your schedule. Don't attempt to endure an Alaskan winter unprepared, you will only end up dead. If necessary, ferry your building materials to the site in the winter and use two or three summers to build the cabin right, before risking a winter where you may not be able to get any help.

Lastly, it would also be a good idea if you, your husand, or both of you were to take the EMT-W course with the Red Cross. If you or your husand were to get injured, you would have only yourselves to rely on for possibly days or weeks at a time.

[warptman]

I blame movies like Jeremiah Johnson and Into The Wild for people with ideas like this. They need to think of what they're about to do before we find a couple of dead bodies in the wilderness.

[Metlakatla]

PLEASE--do not move up here and "just start building a shanty in the wilderness". I'll turn you into the feds myself if I see you.

[drew4008]

Jeremiah Johnson was awesome. But seriously, I think you should ease into a plan like this. Maybe move to Alaska/Yukon/NWT first, and have a real life there and see if you enjoy it enough that you don't have to kill yourself just yet.

[stiffnecked]

I vote that all newcomers to Alaska that are going "into the wilderness" must come by foot through Canada first. There the RCMP can inspect them and make sure they have their 1000 pounds of provisions they will need to survive the winter.

[earls]

Of all the worst times to come is now.

look at an Alaska map - see all those areas called parks? well that is where most people settled in the 'ol days' then they got kicked out.

next look at Athabaskan map - that land belongs to them and the only English they know is: KEEP OUT I SHOOT

If you just have to try this 'romantic' way of life buy a piece of land so that you can at least have a title. Find out about well water depth and quality and cost, find out about perma frost depth during summer this will tell you if you even have a chance to grow veggies. some soils are so sloppy a ATV is useless, etc

[Marty Van Diest]

I'll be a little bit of a contrarian here. I believe in letting people live their dreams as long as they don't risk someone else's life.

I have lived or camped on the Innoko, Alatna, John, Koyukuk and some of the other rivers. I have trapped in the Brooks Range, Yukon River areas and still play around in the banana belt of south central.

If I were you I would first come up and spend one summer and winter in Fairbanks in a "dry cabin". Get jobs locally and stockpile all the tools and clothes you need for winter survival.

Talk around to as many locals as you can for places to go. I know of some myself where you can spend the winter as a "caretaker". But they won't take someone who hasn't had at least some experience in Alaska. That's why you need at least one winter in Fairbanks in a dry cabin. You will be close to town if you give up while still getting some experience of real winter living.

During the first winter do several campouts in a wall tent when it is at least 20 below zero. You need that experience too. Learn and experience as much as you can the first winter.

Then you can find a place to go the next winter. You will find that there are in fact places you can build a trappers cabin legally. But it will always only be a trappers cabin used for winter trapping. I'm not going to tell you more about that until you have real experience under your belt.