Alaskan family lives isolated life in vast wildlife refuge

[gateley]

Brooklyn, New York (VBS.TV) -- Most people are never really alone. Living here in New York, we're constantly surrounded by others. Even in the state's biggest wilderness, the Adirondacks, you can't get more than 15 miles or so from civilization. Similar levels of population density can be found in most of the lower 48 states. So when we heard about Heimo and Edna Korth, a couple who live 150 miles above the Arctic Circle and 60 miles from their nearest neighbors, we had to go meet them.

The Korths reside in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area about the size of South Carolina in the northeast corner of the state. It is bordered by the Beaufort Sea on the north and Canada's Yukon to the east. There are other people living in the refuge -- Inuit in Kaktovik and the Gwich'in of Arctic Village -- but as far as we know, the Korths are the most isolated humans in the area.

They live in the most remote location in America and sustain themselves by hunting, fishing and trapping. They've lived like this for more than 30 years, raising a family in the process and all the while dealing with grizzly bears and temperatures that dip as low as minus-50 degrees Fahrenheit. Their home turf is inhospitable in the truest sense of the word. /snip

(interesting video at the link, too)

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/07/vbs.heimo.alaska/index.html?hpt=C1

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. 60 miles from nearest neighbor!!!

:wow:

[gateley]

2. I know! Can you imagine? nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. nope. Distance from my nearest neighbor is 10 feet.

[joeybee12]

3. Is this legal? Native alaskans are allowed to hunt, fish, etc and live off this protected land...

....but someone who apparently wanted to get away from it all?

[Canuckistanian]

5. They have special permission to live there

I think the guy said they could keep their cabin until the death of the youngest child.

[joeybee12]

7. I wonder if they settled there before it became a refuge...

...lots of exemptions here and there on federal lands...thanks.

[Subdivisions]

11. This is explained in the video. n/t

[sharp_stick]

4. I don't mind being alone

but that would drive me nuts.

[Bryn]

6. Why would they keep their dog chained?

I hate chained dogs!


on edit: ooops I mean I HATE to see dogs chained and kept outside. Why would they do that especially since they don't have neighbors?

[Mz Pip]

8. They probably don't want it

to run off and get lost. Might be hard to find a lost dog in that wilderness.

[katsy]

17. Maybe to protect them

while he was splitting wood?

[Arctic Dave]

9. Reminds me of this guy and his family.

http://www.adn.com/2010/02/17/1144639/pilot-master-guide-writer-bud.html

[proteus_lives]

10. Wow!

What fascinating people.

[SlipperySlope]

12. I would honestly love to give that a try

Don't know if I could live my whole life like that, but I'd try it for a few years.

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. as long as I could get internet, radio and tv signals

[SunnySong]

13. Good God it's like upstate New York...

just saying yopu don't have to go to alaska to find people in the middle of nowhere.

[ParkieDem]

14. I read this book a few months ago:

"Lost in the Taiga" -- http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Taiga-Fifty-Year-Religious-Wilderness/dp/0385472099/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278540793&sr=8-1

It's about a Russian Orthodox family of "Old Believers" -- members of a sect that refused to modernize after Patriarch Nikon -- left all civilization behind in 1932 to live an isolated life in the Russian wilderness. Between 1932 and 1978, they had absolutely no contact with the outside world. A Soviet team of geologists just happened upon them.

Can you imagine?

[cutlassmama]

16. Sounds like paradise.

[KamaAina]

15. Drill, baby, drill!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: