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Tip of the Iceberg by Mark Adams


Summary ( Amazon):
"In 1899, railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman organized a most unusual summer voyage to the wilds of Alaska: He converted a steamship into a luxury "floating university," populated by some of America's best and brightest scientists and writers, including the anti-capitalist eco-prophet John Muir. Those aboard encountered a land of immeasurable beauty and impending environmental calamity. More than a hundred years later, Alaska is still America's most sublime wilderness, both the lure that draws one million tourists annually on Inside Passage cruises and as a natural resources larder waiting to be raided. As ever, it remains a magnet for weirdos and dreamers.

Armed with Dramamine and an industrial-strength mosquito net, Mark Adams sets out to retrace the 1899 expedition. Traveling town to town by water, Adams ventures three thousand miles north through Wrangell, Juneau, and Glacier Bay, then continues west into the colder and stranger regions of the Aleutians and the Arctic Circle. Along the way, he encounters dozens of unusual characters (and a couple of very hungry bears) and investigates how lessons learned in 1899 might relate to Alaska's current struggles in adapting to the pressures of a changing climate and world."

Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mark-adams/tip-of-the-iceberg/

Publisher Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-101-98510-6

(E.H. Harriman - Wikipedia)

PBS: "Harriman Expedition Retraced": https://www.pbs.org/harriman/1899/1899.html
and movie by Bullfrog Films: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/hmanhv.html.

(https://www.ninilchikcabinsandrv.com/2015/04/the-1899-harriman-alaska-expedition/)

Interviews:
Powell Books: https://www.powells.com/post/qa/powells-qa-mark-adams-author-of-tip-of-the-iceberg

Penguin Random House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJgWQOxaVPM

(alaskacollection.com)

"A pair of northeast looking photographs, both taken from the same location on the west shoreline of Muir Inlet, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska showing the changes that have occurred to Muir Glacier during the 113 years between September 2, 1892 and August 11, 2005. The 1892 photograph shows the more than 100-meter (328-feet) high, more than 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide tidewater terminus of the glacier with a face capped by angular séracs. Some icebergs, evidence of recent calving, can be seen floating in Muir Inlet. The mountain located right-of-center is Mount Wright. Mount Case is in the background. Note the absence of vegetation. (H. F. Reid photograph, muir1892_417, courtesy of National Snow and Ice Data Center). In the 2005 photograph, Muir Glacier is no longer visible, as it has retreated more than 50 kilometers (31 miles).  During the interval between photographs, Muir Glacier ceased to have a tidewater terminus. Note the lack of floating ice and the abundant vegetation on many slopes throughout the photograph. (USGS Photograph by Bruce F. Molnia)."





Author's website: https://www.markadamsbooks.com/

Kim Heacox, "one of Alaska's best know writers": http://kimheacox.com/

Discussion Questions: (John and Heidi will be leading the discussion.)


1.     What is your experience with and knowledge about Alaska?
2.     Discuss the reasons that Harriman wanted to mount the expedition to Alaska in 1899. How did the invited participants who joined him reflect those reasons?
3.     John Muir may be seen as a key contributor to this adventure. In what ways did he impact the trip? Discuss some of the wonderful stories about Muir in this book.
4.     One of the author’s goals was to recreate the Harriman journey. To what extent did he accomplish this? What were some of the changes since Harriman, and also things that did not change?
5.     John Muir even back in the late 1800s was observing glacier retreat in Alaska and found even some of the maps he was using showed that the glacial coastline had changed since the maps had been drawn 150 years before.  How did this book affect your view of climate change and the relative roles of human impact versus nature?
6.     How has resources extraction versus nature preservation shaped Alaska as we know it today, for example, gold mining, oil extraction, fishing, lumbering, trapping, national park/forest creation, etc.
7.     How did the occupation by Europeans and Americans affect the native populations and their lifestyles? How has it changed even today compared to 100 years ago?

8.     How did this book change or affect how you have experienced or perceived Alaska?






The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams

The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams


Summary: (from Macmillian Publishers)
"America’s national parks are breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why more than 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the environmental classic Refuge and the beloved memoir WhenWomen Were Birds, returns with The Hour of Land, a literary celebration of our national parks, an exploration of what they mean to us and what we mean to them.
From the Grand Tetons in Wyoming to Acadia in Maine to Big Bend in Texas and more, Williams creates a series of lyrical portraits that illuminate the unique grandeur of each place while delving into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history into something of our own making. Part memoir, part natural history, and part social critique, The Hour of Land is a meditation and a manifesto on why wild lands matter to the soul of America."



Arcadia National Park
(https://www.national-park.com)

Quotes:

"Our national parks are our breathing spaces."

"Our public lands - whether a national park or monument, wildlife refuge, forest or prairie - make each one of us land-rich. It is our inheritance as citizens of a country called America.” 

“This is what we can promise the future: a legacy of care. That we will be good stewards and not take too much or give back too little, that we will recognize wild nature for what it is, in all its magnificent and complex history - an unfathomable wealth that should be consciously saved, not ruthlessly spent.”

Reviews: 




Interviews: 


2. Experience Life Mag - Behind the Scenes with the author: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJqJE36VTAI (**Be sure to watch this**)


>The National Parks Series by Ken Burns with Terry Tempest Williams introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUn4IuOHrRU




Vermillion Flycatcher (http://cdn.audubon.org/)

Author's Website: http://www.coyoteclan.com/


Effigy Mounds National Monument
(https://www.nationalparks.org)


Discussion Questions: (Heidi wrote these and will lead the discussion)
1.     Which national parks have you visited and what are some of your memories, from your visit, which make you ‘swoon’ as Maine does for our author?

2.     After reading this book, are there any parks that you want to visit more than ever now?

3.     Do you have ’place’?  A land or space that you feel tied to?

4.     To describe Wind Canyon’s terrain in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, she uses the verbs, “break, erode, collapse, slide . . .”  (p. 80) Which verbs would you use to describe Bucks County?

5.     Our author writes, “Again and again, we find the common story of the establishment of our national parks: a handful of people fall in love with a place, see it threatened, want to protect it for the future and have the passion and patience to attract the necessary fund and political clout to make it happen.” (p. 105) If you had the ability, time and money to protect and save a parcel of land, where would you choose, how small or large and why?

6.     There are numerous wonderful passages, poems and quotes in this book. One of my favorite is from Laurance Rockefeller: “ How we treat our land, how we build upon it, how we act toward our air and water, in the long run, will tell what kind of people we really are.” (p 28) What are some of your favorite quotes and why?

7.     What do you think of Roosevelt’s vision of “democracy of experience” having created the carriage roads in Arcadia? (p. 92)

8.     Williams’ writing style is beautiful, descriptive, visual, and poetic. She includes letters to friends, sections from her notebooks, and shares struggles with her family. How do you react to her style and does it enhance the stories she’s telling? Also, discuss her letters presented in the Canyonlands chapter. (p. 256)


9.     Our federal parks are not only places of beauty and rejuvenation, but also often used for extracting resources, as our author shares of the situation at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Gulf Islands National Seashore, and Canyonlands National Park. She asks, “How might we begin a different kind of conversation so that our public lands are seen as our public commons, instead of the seedbed of rancor, violence and greed?” What can we do to protect and support our national parks? Consider pages 264, 271, 297, 308, 326.



Big Bend National Park 
(https://www.national-park.com)



Koan Boxes 
(http://www.lawrencefodor.com/www.lawrencefodor.com/Koan_Boxes.html)





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