All the reality shows lately have a lot of people looking at and dreaming of coming to Alaska. I just thought I would put this up to maybe bring some back to reality about how it really is here. This is not meant to discourage it is meant to make people think twice before jumping in the truck loading up the camping gear made for 20 degree weather and heading north on a whim.
1. If you saw it on a reality show it probably is scripted so don't believe that's how it always happens.
2. It gets cold and stays cold for a long time unless you are in SE you will spend more months out of the year in winter gear and driving a Snow machine than fishing in a Tee shirt
3. Commercial fishing is good hard work but landing a job on a boat is not something that happens every day
4. There is not a bull moose or brown bear behind every tree especially on the road system other palces may require special permits to hunt or maybe totally off limits if you aren't a resident of the immediate area do to land ownership.
5. Finding a place to trap if on the road system may take several years
6. you just don't pick a village on the map like Koliganek or Nupskiak and say I am moving to there.
7. You can not just fly into someplace along a river and build a cabin those days are long gone. Land is either private or federally or state owned
8. Done right with the proper thought and fore site you can do it but don't expect it to happen overnight

I am sure there is a lot more but I am not coming up with right now feel free to add to this. If we keep this serious and it doesn't get filled with junk we can pin it up top or archive it down the road

9. You really don't know what a lot of mosquitoes is like.
10. Bring lots of tools because everything breaks.

11. If you have a product that works well, and you use it often, buy at least two.
12. Buy the best gear you can afford.

13. Most of the stuff you order online has special pricing for Alaska. You can forget about free shipping to here.

14. If you live in town there is no dollar menu.

15. Alaskans have a superiority complex. Couldn't resist

This is a good thread. I hope that their will be alot of you who live in Alaska that will keep adding to it. I live in the lower part of the U.S. (Arkansas) I am learning that Alaska is alot different than what i had invisioned it to be. I remember watching an Oprah show where they had this family who was home steding in Alaska. That was in 1992. I recently looked up the Alaska home steding law and the last home sted awarded in Alaska was in 1988 and has since been done away with. I think the biggest part of us here in the lower 48 have the wrong idea as to what Alaska is like. Although i think Alaska is alot more populated and grown alot in industry/business's in just the last 30 years alone and is probably no where near as rual as it was 30 years ago. As far as the harsh living conditions go, the cold,snow,ice well that is just the climate there and always will be. But even things like that will get easier to deal with as urbanization moves in with all of its modern convinces. What i don't understand is why is the cost of fuel so high in Alaska. With all of its fossil fuel I would think the price of petroleum would be fairly reasonible ? Most of what i see and know about Alaska is from reality shows or some TV documentry show.

Elkantler, I can understand how it might be perceived that way from a distance, but that is far from what the OP is trying to convey here. The intent is more in line with what MA posted.

How on earth do you handle all of thoes mosquitoes ? I fish alot along the Arkansas river and we have alot of mosquitoes but nothing like what i see on the TV show's that i see of Alaska while people are out hunting/fishing just outdoors in general. What really amazes me is you will see people there in Alaska doing something outdoors and there will be swarms of mosquitoes covering them up and the people act as if it is nothing and as if the mosquitoes are not bothering them that much at all ? The mosquitoes that we encounter her don't seem to be as big as the ones i see on TV there in Alaska. I don't think you would be able to see the ones we have here on film unless you zoomed in quite a bit. And even thogh there are alot of them they are not in huge swarms like you have in Alaska. But they will drive you up the wall and you will be covered with mosquitoe bites in a shot time. And to when it gets cold here in the winter and i am talking like 40 degree's our mosquitoes for the most part disapear until the next Spring/Summer. You will never see them if we have snow and ice on the ground. But on some of the shows of Alaska i see Carribou looking for patches of snow to get away from the mosquitoes ? So are mosquitoes out in the winter there to ?

Yes the mosquitoes start coming out when there are bare patches of ground. Mosquitoes serve a vital service in Alaska. They keep it from being a paradise that Hollywood nut jobs would buy up and Californicate. If you don't want to get bit up, never change your cloths, or take a bath, and keep layering the Ben's 100.

In Northern Ontario the mosquitoes/blackflys/no-seeums/ankle-biters are considered the price you pay to not have neighbors from Toronto......LOL

That last homestead was actually the last awarded in the nation. It was mine. When you say "it was done away with" you must mean the 1862 Homestead Act. That's correct. My homestead however, is still there.

To some extent you sort of get used to the mosquitoes. Also a liberal coating of DEET makes a big difference. Bur for sure, they are the one thing that makes summers so miserable no matter how nice the scenery and the fishing. BUT, there are worse things than mosquitoes. White sox and no-seeums will really drive you nuts. Unfortunately, they seem to peak during hunting season.

Fuel is expensive because of freight. Where I live it either comes up from Seattle on a barge or in a plane from Anchorage. In the urban areas most gasoline is shipped up from Washington. We have a couple of refineries but they make mostly diesel and jet fuel.

Modern conveniences are really modern problems, Most of them cost money and use fuel of one form or another.

I don't think urbanization will happen in my area very soon. The fact is rural Alaska is losing population. That's fine with many of us but it's a double edged sword. Fewer customers for a product means higher costs for the fewer units sold.

Good stuff otteman.....must be the reality shows....been asked to do a piece on this very subject!

I would add a serious #15. The darkness gets more people than the bears or mosquitoes. The winter days are short....in some areas almost nonresistant for a time.

You AK residents constantly talk about how bad it is ''on the road system''. How far off the road does one have to be before they are considered no longer ''on the road system''. I have a policy along the lines of never going farther in by motor than i can walk out on foot.

White 17, It is nice to meet you. You being the last person to homestead in Alaska is history. There are not many people who can say they spoke to the last U.S. homesteader. I may have it all wrong but when i looked it up on the internet it said that the last homestead in Alaska was filed in 1976 by Kenneth Deardroff that filed for 80 acres along the Stony river. And it was declared his in I think 1988.

I really hope your right about urbanization not happening anytime soon. I am only 52 years old and just in my short time here on earth i have seen urbanization really change things here in North West Arkansas. Congress gave the go ahead to build dams through out Oklahoma & Arkansas down to the Mississippi river so that it could be used for barge traffic. Of course about the same time they were building interstates & new highways everywhere which in our case was interstate I40. It was all done in the name of progress. Unfortunately urbanization comes along with progress. I really liked the way things were before they built all of these new roads & highways and damed up our water ways. Beleave it or not we use to have some pretty good hunting/fishing along the Arkansas river. But now there are a hundred hunters for every animal we have to hunt here in this state. When i was a kid the majority of the small towns did not have indoor plumbing, you had to carry you water from a well thoes things were a little inconvinent. But i would trade thoes inconvineces for the way things were back then in a heart beat.

The meadia is sure doing its best to help your great state of Alaska to grow. They have all kinds of TV shows that makes Alaska look attracktive. They have " Buying Alaska which is a real estate show, Alaska state troopers, Gold rush Alaska, Ice Road truckers, Yukon Alaska, Mountain man Alaska. " I am probably leaving out a couple, I know i am because i can think of one where these guys are doing some kind of survilist show. One show about a Taxidermist & Gun sporting good store, several hunting shows." So the media is doing its best to promote the last Front tier. I forgot the show crab fishing the bearing seas, and the gold mining show in nome Alaska. I would almost bet that in 30 years Alaskas population grow by almost half of what it is now. Oh yeah ! another show about bush planes in Alaska. I am telling you the media is flat putting the shows out about Alaska here in the lower 48.

Do you all get all of these shows there in Alaska ?

Yep that's me in your first paragraph.

I suppose we have all those shows here. I don't have TV so can't say for sure.

I suspect there are many who feel they were born a hundred years too late

Another thing folks don't think about is food storage. The voles, shrews, and squirrels are as ravenous as wolves and WILL find a way into dry goods unless proper storage methods (and critter control) are used.

I bet you are right. There are probably alot who feel they were born 100 years to late. I have never thought of it that way but i guess i probably fall in that category myself. I guess that is why Alaska is so appealing to alot of people. People wathch these reality shows of Alaska, its beautiful scenry,abundance of wildlife, then they convince themselfs they could move there build a cabin, trap to make enough money to buy supplys and kill enough game to live off of. Like the first settlers of North America did. But this day and time it is just not that way. Mr. White 17 again it was sure a pleasure to have met you even though it was not in person, i would have never thought i would have met up with the last homesteader on of all places the internet and on a trapping forum to boot ! You probably don't think much of it but you are and will be consider history. I hope that you write a book or someone documents your adventures while homesteading. You know i am sure there are books written by some of the earlier homesteaders and are equally impressive. But somehow being the very last and probably the last ever here in the U.S. is a pretty special thing in my oppinion. I would love to hear about your years homesteading but i won't bother you by asking about them because i know it would take alot of typeing on a key board to tell about them. But if you would not mind me asking how old are you now and do you and your family still live on the homestead ?

Im glad the media keeps its focus on Alaska. If they were to compare land mass to population it wouldnt be so appealing. With a landmass of just over 650,000 square miles and a population of almost 750,000 it is way crowded by Canadian standards........Wyoming I think even has fewer people per sq mile......Yukon has about 186,000 sq miles and only 30,000 people on a busy day......

W17, you are not missing a thing without TV

#16 Life in the bush is hard work.

I'm certain you're right about the TV Dave. About Wyoming too for that matter.

MAAA: It was nothing but a fluke of timing I think.

I just turned 69 and do not live on my homestead any more. A divorce and an ex wife took care of that. I'm currently about 100 miles north of there.