Wild Life in the 49th State (circa 1959)

[Music] e your name is water berlet you live in the shadows of the Rockies and you make your living in part as a naturalist but long ago you've put aside the rifle in favor of the camera for stalking Wild game with a lens can be just about as exciting as a hunt with a Remington you've photographed the Rocky Mountain Grizzly you've scaled the steep slopes and Pursuit Of The Big Horn Ram but now far to the North a new Star is Born A new challenge beckons Alaska the Last Frontier but a frontier with modern conveniences thriving Anchorage for example has two television stations three radio stations three newspapers and the busy air of any prosperous American city but your destination is far beyond Alaska as growing cities you seek the Wilds where few men travel and where Alaskan Wildlife is as it has been for centuries the quickest way to get there is by Light plane the bush pilot knows this country like a cab driver knows Time Square there are few Landing strips or airfields only open Tundra your heart sinks as the plane heads for a section of Rocky Beach but the skill of of the pilot and the rugged nylon reinforced tires combined for a perfect Landing you make a final check of your equipment your camera your lightweight rugged clothing of dayron Orlon and nylon your food supplies and now you are alone for the bush Pilot is off to another Rendevous you look at the awesome Grandeur of the Alaskan Wilderness and recall the words of Robert service there's a l land where the mountains are nameless and the rivers all run God knows where there are lives that are aing and aimless and deaths that just hang by a hair there are hardships that nobody reckons there are valleys unpeopled and still there is a land oh it beckons and beckons and I want to go back and I will but a photographer is never alone for long a pair of Mard Ducks spot the lands and come to have their picture taken the Alaskan Beaver shows off a swimming skill a g displays its wingspread and a jagger pin and pretties up for a picture a yellow leg spreads its wings against the warm shinook wind the ever Busy Bee has no time for posing as it collects the pollen from the many beautiful flowers that Grace the Rolling Green hillsides the hungry Alaskan mosquitoes make life miserable for man and beast but modern insect repellent in a pressurized Freon container sends them elsewhere quickly you done a durable nylon jacket shoulder your camera equipment and move move Downstream toward the tolat river there a lonely Alaskan sourdough tends his primitive fish Trend the riety structure a relic of the past is a crude method of catching an occasional salmon the everpresent midsummer sun is no clue to passing hours you realize suddenly that it is 11:00 in the evening although the Arctic Sun still plays a magnificent color raps on the distant slopes here in summer daylight lasts 20 hours around the clock you make Camp build a fire eat an Outdoorsman's dinner smoke a quiet pipe and turn in the temperature drops quickly in Alaska and you're thankful for the warm lightweight sleeping bag of dayron fiberfill to Shield you against the Chill of the short arctic night you get an early start the next day and luck is with you you spot a distant herd of caribou you approach downwind they sense your presence and curiosity aroused cautiously move toward you Caribou travels ceaselessly from one end of the Alaskan Peninsula to the other always searching out the reindeer moss and the slow growing Lon on which they feed in days gone by there were Millions of caribou and their migration across the Yukon river would hold up for hours the passage of the Paddle Wheel Steamers pushing Upstream suddenly for no apparent reason an Ever alert bull panics and off they bound covering the tundra at a running speed of close to 50 mph the herd leaves you far behind so you grind off a portrit of the happy go-lucky Alaskan Fox the Wilson warbler yellow bellied porcupine the Alaskan comedian all at once there's tension in the air suddenly you see why a tokl like grizzly in this Wilderness it's eat and be eaten the survival of the fittest and this 700 lb of tooth and Claw is the strongest meanest and fittest of them all your friends beat a hasty retreat but there is no place for you to go no trees to climb and the bear can run faster than you can you crouch behind your tripod in a cold sweat of fear you have to make a move your piercing yell breaks the silence and your hunch pays off rather than face the unknown the bear Lumbers off down the slope with the danger passed you head for Higher Ground and pick up the elusive doll sheep these sharp scented quickey doll doll sheep are distant cousins of the Rocky Mountain Big Horn at the first sound of a distant plane the herd gets restless and starts moving out it's a relief to see the plane return right on schedule for without this aerial taxi you'd be stuck here with no means to get out for the tundra is too boggy for walking and the river is too wide to cross without boat or canoe the bush pilot lands on water this trip so you pack your gear and head for the River Don Sheldon the pilot is a man of action and by the time you reach him he has landed a 20 lb King Salmon you join Don using light tackle and the new super strong stren nylon line for the best freshwater fishing you've ever enjoyed soon you're Airborne again this time headed for the jagged coast of Alaska and the foggy proloff Islands on the way you pass over one of the many Alaskan gold mines where the miners are literally washing away the mountain to extract the precious ore on the jagged Cliffs of the priva thousands of birds make their homes these frisky chattering Denison of the Bearing Sea find the vast Arctic feeding grounds to their liking the tufted puffen the crested oet the corant are but a few of the many species of bird life found in the privil [Music] nearby is the sanctuary and breeding grounds of the famed Alaskan fur seal here 300 M north of the uans 80% of all the fur seals in the world return each summer to breed and rear their young the young Bulls gather their own Herms sometimes numbering as many as 50 cows you try to be friendly and admire one of the new arrivals but the master of the harm won't stand for any nonsense in his family so you send Junior back to Mama and Daddy let you off with a final word of warning each mother seal knows instinctively which pup is her own dad thinking that all is well fans himself in the Sun but not for long for it seems that Mama has wandered off and a baby seal separated from its mother cannot survive where's Mama perhaps this handsome sea lion has caught her eye but Dad's on the job and won't put up with any Shenanigans from any of his wives in the privs it's strictly a man's world mama is sent back to her duties and after a short family spat All Is Forgiven all of this sentiment is too much much for this battle scard veteran who has had enough of this privil off soap opera and heads for the choir of the sea once almost exterminated by the fur Hunters the herds are now protected by the United States fish and wildlife service each year the herd is carefully harvested and the 100,000 pelts bring close to $7 million a year you're pretty well pleased with yourself got a lot of footage you came for but Don Sheldon the bush pilot has promised you a spectacular plane ride a dangerous rendevu 100 m away 12,000 ft into the Alaskan mountains with urgent supplies for a small band of mountain climbers soon the green hilly Tundra dissolves into broad glacial Rivers Jagged rocks and snow now more than 10,000 ft above sea level you skim the tops of unnamed Peaks the wing tips of the Light plane flirting dangerously with the raw Mountain Side you find the Climbers on a broad plateau of snow these experienced climbers are making the first assault in four years on the highest mountain in North America Mount McKinley the pilot sets the plane down gently on the runway the climbers have Mark for him the rarified atmosphere at this altitude saps an unbelievable amount of strength from from even veteran climbers like these they have to depend exclusively on lightweight gear new self-contained nylon tents that pop open and shut in a matter of seconds weigh less than 5 lb this lightweight nylon rope is the only kind these climbers now use it's strong and is not weakened by milu or rot new sleeping bags insulated with dayron polyester fiber fill weigh less than 7 lb underwear also insulated with dayron fiber fill requires only a thin windbreaker and a pair of lightweight wind pants for outerwear the Rumble that breaks the still quiet of these desolate Peaks means Avalanche a constant thread of sudden death yet a sight of awesome Beauty mission accomplished you and the bush pilot head for home it takes all the Manpower and horsepower available to get you Airborne again it will be several days before the climers will see their goal but for you the top of the Great Peak will Loom into view minutes after takeoff The Majestic Summit of Mount McKinley 20,300 ft of rock ice and Windswept snow conquered yet raw and Untamed a CH challenge still to man and progress typical of Alaska itself our 49th state where raw Frontier and the 20th century live side by side in a booming thriving promising land where the mountains are nameless and the rivers all run God knows where there are valleys unpeopled and still and I want to go back and I will [Music]