IN ALASKA, the last great American wilderness, caribou still migrate across the lonely tundra; bald eagles soar above glittering glaciers; lumbering bears roam shadowy woodlands; and the mournful cry of the wolf pierces the silence of the northern winter.
The 49th State is still a rugged frontier where Eskimos challenge ice-choked seas in skin boats to find whales, where sourdoughs run sled dogs and hunt to put meat on the table, and where settlers find freedom and fulfillment in rough cabins.
But tremendous changes are affecting Alaska—jets streak into tiny villages on bleak, storm-battered shores, oil brings prosperity and problems, and Native leaders — Aleut, Eskimo, and Indian — wield new power to shape the future of their peoples, who are poised between the world of their ancestors and the world of computers.
In ALASKA: HIGH ROADS TO ADVENTURE, you take a memorable journey across this vast and beautiful state at a crucial and decisive moment in its history.
Six authors, each with an awareness of history and a taste for adventure, blaze trails across the 49th State from the glaciered peaks of the Southeast to the icy solitude of the Arctic, from the winding track of the Alaska Highway to the outposts of the Aleutian Islands, from drowsing villages along the Yukon River to bustling Anchorage, a skyscraper metropolis exploding with activity. You meet people who wrest their living from the wilderness —trappers, prospectors, bush pilots, fishermen, and hunters. You hear many voices debate the future of Alaska —environmentalists and industrialists, politicians and private citizens, scientists and sourdoughs.
Vivid, dramatic photographs capture the beauty of the land, the splendor of its wildlife, and the vigor of its people. The 200 color-filled pages of this book bring you the timely story of America's last frontier.

Exultant climber raises his ice ax near the mouth of an ice cave on Alaska's Matanuska Glacier. The 49th State's diverse landscape encompasses mountain and tundra, glacier and sand dune, meadow and rocky coastline. An equally diverse population lives in this immense, rugged, and fast-changing land.