Winding through this narrative is Carpenter’s exploration of the history of hunting, subsistence hunting versus hunting for sport, trophy hunting, and the meaning of the hunt for those who have written about it most eloquently. Are wild creatures somehow our property? How is the sport hunter different from the hunter who must kill game to survive? Is there some bridge that might connect Aboriginal to non-Aboriginal hunters? Carpenter ponders questions like these as he describes what hunting has meant to him and to others throughout history and in our own time.

Carpenter beautifully evokes the sensual pleasure of holding a gun, the inherent spirituality among hunters, the intense relationship between the animals and their pursuers, and the transcendent joy of hunting. Finally, he conveys poignantly how for him animals have been transformed from objects of hunting to objects of wonder.

Used as a trading route by the Chilkat Tlingit for centuries, the Dalton Trail was taken over by Jack Dalton, a hard driving, murdering, entrepreneurial adventurer, who built bridges and way stations and set up a toll booth. For a fee he would pack passengers and freight to and from Dawson, gaining a reputation for a difficult but safe passage.

This is the trail where starry-eyed financiers first dreamed of building a railroad to Dawson City, where thousands of head of cattle were regularly driven north—with only some reaching their destination—and where reindeer were unsuccessfully introduced to the Yukon as pack animals. Despite its short existence—from 1897 to 1903, when it was superceded by the relative ease of the Chilkoot and White trails—the Dalton Trail was also a flashpoint for conflict with the local Natives, border disputes between Canada and the US, and the jumping-off point for yet another gold strike at Porcupine Creek.

While the Klondike stories are (nearly) all true, just remember—it happened first on the Dalton.

Renegade Arctic airline Buffalo Airways defies the cold and the competition by using World War 2-era propeller planes to haul vital fuel, supplies and passengers to remote outposts across the world’s last great wilderness of northern Canada. From rookie pilots trying to earn their wings in dangerous conditions to vintage planes that flew over Normandy on D-Day, The Ice Pilots brings its readers on an engaging romp through Arctic skies.

The intrepid Michael Vlessides—the writer behind Les Stroud’s bestselling Survivorman books—braves bone-chilling temperatures, treacherous landings and iconic owner “Buffalo” Joe McBryan’s famous temper to capture behind-the-scenes stories about the ice pilots, the crew, the passengers and the communities they serve. Weaving in history about bush pilots, plane crashes and the north, he has crafted an entertaining, informative narrative about aviation: the lifeline of this remote and icy world up in the Arctic air.

The highest-rated reality show ever to hit History Television, Ice Road Truckers follows the heart-pounding adventures of the tough-as-nails truckers who risk peril every day to deliver goods and supplies in Alaska and across Canada’s frozen north. Alex Debogorski shares tales of his adventures, and misadventures, in the north, and explains, in his own entertaining voice, how he got to where he is today—a working-class hero, bona fide celebrity, and the improbable star of a smash-hit television show. Debogorski is a natural storyteller who knows how to spin tales about his colourful life growing up in the backwoods. Whether he’s recounting tales about his hair-raising confrontations with bears, calculating the strength of newly formed ice, divulging the secrets of providing security in a barroom full of combative, drunken miners, or saving the life of another trucker, he keeps readers wanting more. King of the Road gives fans of Ice Road Truckers a deep look inside the life and times of the show’s biggest rising star.

They are watching us, these ghosts of the North. They cook breakfast, play cards, mine gold, turn on radios, and play the piano. HAUNTED ALASKA is a collection of ghost stories that will raise the hair on the back of your neck. These astonishing stories tell of miners terrorized by spirits wandering their claims, of roadhouse owners visited daily by ghosts, and of reindeer herders who run in fear as one of their own departed comes back in spirit form to continue his duties after death.

” ‘When my company took over Circle Hots Springs Lodge, people could hardly wait to tell me about the ghosts,’ said owner Susan Knapman. These included the fur coat hanging on a wall in the basement that reached out and touched people, things flying off shelves, and a ghost who was apparently unhappy with the way things were run in the kitchen. One night during the winter, a worker looked outside and saw the ghostly image of a man playing a piano. It was 50 below zero! Knapman herself lost sleep several nights when something kept knocking on her door. But no one was there.”