Rockwell Kent "Wilderness" Centennial Journal

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 Part I – Onward to Tierra del Fuego November 1-4, 2019 ABOVE – “Resurrection Dream.” Resurrection Bay in late October 2019. Photo by Jim Pfeiffenberger. BELOW – Another day, another mood at Resurrection Bay in late October 2019. Fox Island is at center. Capra photo. A Damp Drizzly November in My Soul I won’t say the romance of Alaska has died for Rockwell Kent by the time Olson leaves Vermont – but perhaps his idealism has been replaced by the reality of his new situation. He’s finally getting some recognition. As he leaves Alaska and settles in Vermont, part of him most likely always knows that regardless of whether he achieves success or not, Fox Island will fade into a dream or memory. It’s no accident he ends Wilderness with, Ah, God. And now the world again! By the time Olson is gone, he has probably decided he won’t be going back to Alaska. He consider

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018-19 Part 2 – More Thoughts Oct. 25-28, 2019 ABOVE – The Resurrect Art Coffee House and Art Gallery, where I do much of my writing. Built in 1917 as a Methodist Church, it stood at this spot when Rockwell Kent was in Seward. Mount Marathon is in the background. The Methodists sold it to the Lutherans about 1946. For 22 year’s now it has been a coffee house and art gallery. Capra photo taken on Oct. 25, 2019. BELOW – Resurrection Bay at about 1:30 on Oct. 25, 2019. Fox Island is just to the right of the tree. Days like this were few during late August, September and October 1918 when Kent was on Fox Island. As Lars Olson wrote in his diary, It rained like Hell .   Capra Photo = These are some of my thoughts as I try to process my research into a portrait of the man who experienced both the quiet and unquiet adventure on Fox Island in Resurrection Bay, Alaska during 191