Siltwater

Abstract

Chronicling one woman's coming-of-age in the Kennicott Valley of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Siltwater spans twelve years (1992-2002), and includes elements of memoir, reportage, personal profile, literary criticism, philosophical essay, prose poetry and a pair of formal poems. Structurally the text is divided into three sections: Finding Home, Neighbors and Reckoning, with each section including full-length essays interwoven with more poetic shorts. As a whole, the text challenges the notion of Alaska as a Last Frontier, and instead presents an inhabited wilderness complete with blue tarps, wolf trappers, booming tourist towns, and large bureaucracies. The Alaska physical geography-with glaciers, rivers, and grizzlies-is presented alongside a unique human geography-with Park Rangers, Ahtna Athabascans, young adventurers, and seasoned renegades. Thematically, the text examines issues of human aesthetics and geographic determinism. The National Park Service emerges as an antagonist in a rural community's struggle to retain individual freedom and small town values during a period of rapid tourism growth. The prose poems allow a more emotional examination of place, and, as a group, suggest analogies between romantic love and an intimate sense of place.