Rockwell Kent "Wilderness" Centennial Journal

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 Part 2 – Jan. 2 – Feb. 11, 1918 ABOVE -- The sun with its reflection on Resurrection Bay as it nears setting behind the Aialik Peninsula -- on January 18, 2019. Those are sea ducks, probably Barrow's Golden-Eye, on the water. A hundred years ago on that day, Kent wrote in Wilderness : "Two beautiful days, these last. And to-night the wind blows and the snow falls and it is very cold...I'm hard a work painting by day and drawing at night. Twenty-five good drawings are done." Capra photo. Olson leaves Fox Island to get the mail and is gone for 38 days -- until February 11 th . In the preface to the second edition of Wilderness, Kent wrote: "I have been asked why Olson...stayed away so long. No reason. There was never much reason for anything. He wanted to." As far as Olson is concerned, he has a very good reason for remaining in Seward. He was wa...

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 Part I – Jan. 2 – Feb. 11, 1918 ABOVE – A bald eagle devours a coastal mountain goat that has fallen off the cliffs along Resurrection Bay near Caines Head. I took this photo on May 29, 2008 – about the time of year the kids are born. The kids scamper around only hours after birth, but are not too steady on their feet. The females usually give birth lower down on the mountains and remain there until the kids learn to maneuver the cliffs. Meanwhile the black bears are coming out of dormancy and go after the young goats, and the bald eagles dive on them trying to make them lose their balance and fall.   Capra photo. This period of Kent and Rockie’s stay on Fox Island – between Jan. 2 nd and Feb. 11 th – deserves a separate section to itself for many reasons. Lars Olson leaves Fox Island for Seward on January 2, 1919. His main mission is to pick up his territorial pens...