Tip of the Iceberg by Mark Adams.
4/5 rating. 297 pages.
Book #32 of 2023. Read July 31, 2023.
This was an incredibly interesting book about Alaska and the 1899 Harriman expedition throughout a large swath of the Alaskan coast. This was book 10 in July!!!
I found myself just continuously sharing quotes from this book with my family – my sister, @aerials705 can attest in a somewhat annoyed manner – and it was the perfect compendium for me to read before my trip to Alaska!
This book made me laugh a bunch and was just so much fun of a read!
Some of my favorite quotes:
– “An environmental activist who joined me for a couple of cocktails bemoaned the difficulty of fighting Big Oil in Alaska. ‘What kills me isn’t just that these people prostituted themselves; it’s that they did it for so little money,’ he said.”
– “And if the bear isn’t dissuaded by your flailing and oratory and aerosol Tabasco sauce and decided to attack you? Because if it’s a black bear, ‘DO NOT PLAY DEAD,’ one of the more dramatic brochures advised. ‘Most black bear attacks are predatory.’ (Fun fact: Black bears often have blond, brown, or cinnamon-colored fur. The easiest way to tell a black bear from a brown bear is that the latter has a distinctive shoulder hump. I guess if you’re attacked, you should calmly reach around the bear’s neck and feel for the hump.) You are also supposed to fight back (‘vigorously!’) against a brown bear ‘if the attack is prolonged and the brown bear begins to feed on you.’ What I really needed was a checklist for determining the moment a bear ceases her defensive attack and commences tearing into your flesh with the intent to swallow and digest you. Ideally it would be laminated.”
– “I like the old saying: Bring a gun and someone slower than you.”
– “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” – John Muir
Additional Quotes:
“Muir Glacier, named to honor the writer who literally put Glacier Bay on the map and almost singlehandedly created the market for scenic Alaska cruises, had written more than twenty miles since 1879.”
“A journey away from something – work, stress, societal norms that frown on drinking before 10:00 A.M. – is a vacation. A journey toward something – a trip with an objective – is an expedition.”
“Alaska is essentially a small continent: big enough to hold Texas, California, and Montana (the second-, third-, and fourth-largest states) and still have room left over for New England, Hawaii, and a couple of metropolises. It contains seven mountain ranges and ten peaks taller than any in the Lower 48. Its waterfront accounts for half of all the coast in the United States.”
“The most recent data I could find showed the Inside Passage had catapulted over Las Vegas and Orlando to become America’s number-one tourist destination.”
“While fishing, mining, tourism, and other sectors of the economy account for a large percentage of Alaska’s jobs, the generous state budget relies on oil industry taxes for 90 percent of its revenues.”
“In 2015, Alaskans paid 524 dollars [in individual taxes] per person. The next-lowest state, New Hampshire, paid nearly three times that amount. Vermont residents paid the most, more than four thousand dollars per person.”
“Goldsmith and I had grown up in Illinois, where stealing from taxpayers is considered a fringe benefit of holding public office.”
“The same officials who rail against federal overreach do not often mention that Alaska receives more money per capita from Washington than any other state – about $2.50 for every dollar it pays in taxes.”
“In 1680, Glacier Bay – today more than ten miles wide in some parts and more than a thousand feet deep – did not exist. Its upper two-thirds are covered by ice, and its lower third is a green valley bisected by a stream. By 1750, at the peak of the Little Ice Age’s effects in Glacier Bay, the ice has marched all the way down to the mouth of today’s bay and beyond, extending into Icy Strait.”
“The first rule of bear encounters finally popped into my head: Never, ever, ever get between a mother bear and her cubs. Ever. In the canon of grisly deaths from grizzly attacks, accident reports involving angry moms were those most likely to employ nouns like ‘sinew’ in conjunction with verbs like ‘tearing’ and ‘chewing’.”
“Four out of five earthquakes in America occur in Alaska.”
“What I most enjoy is the power of creation, getting into partnership with nature in doing good, helping to feed man and beast, and making everybody and everything a little better and happier.”
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” – John Muir
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