The nineteen-million-acre Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) contains three to eight billion barrels of crude oil. Conservationists and developers have fought bitterly over the land for the last half-century, an era in which petroleum has virtually come to define Alaska. Struggling to combat the big-money politics that threaten ANWR, the conservation efforts of one couple, Olaus and Mardy Murie, have made them legendary.

Jonathan Waterman blends historical narrative with vivid tales of his journeys into the Arctic, creating tension between past and present, science and politics, reflection and investigation. Since 1983, he has taken eighteen trips into the far North, trekking and paddling thousands of miles and encountering howling wolves, Inupiat hunters, and the oil-ravaged Prince William Sound. Where Mountains Are Nameless explores how oil exploration has choked Alaska's pristine wilderness and also traces the lives of the celebrated Muries. This memorable portrait makes the stakes over ANWR vividly clear. 3 maps, 23 illustrations.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 4 reviews)

Get Debbie Miller's Book Instead

This book is very similar to Ken Madsen's Under the Arctic Sun book in a number of ways. Like the Madsen book, it is a travelogue of Waterman's experiences in the refuge. Waterman's unique angle is that he weaves in a biography of ANWR pioneers Olaus and Mardy Murie into his own stories, putatively showing how his experiences are similar to those of the Murie's.

Unfortunately, like the Madsen book, this book is deeply flawed. The entire book is wrapped up with an air of self-importance, the stories' drama seemed intended more to impress us about Waterman's courage than to enlighten us, the book was massively overwritten and desperately needed heavy editing, and the putative linkages between Waterman's experiences and the Muries are frequently incomprehensible.

I actually enjoyed reading about the Muries, and Waterman does a decent job telling their story. It made me wonder if a good biography about the Muries is available. That would be worth reading. However, this book is not an adequate substitute for a legitimate biography of them. Because it cuts between Waterman and the Muries constantly, the book is choppy and, frankly, the parts about Waterman just aren't that interesting.

Thus, like the Madsen book, I don't recommend this book. It only reinforces that Debbie Miller's seminal Midnight Wilderness book is so much better than the subsequent copycat books. Get Miller's book instead.
December 28, 2008

The Majesty of the far North Vastlands...

Long ago, I heard about the Alaska Pipeline, but I had no idea that it involved a Wildlife Refuge which contains sixteen billion barrels of crude oil. That is a sin if they go in and disturb the penguins, eskimoes and caribou. Across the Brooks Range from the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska into Canada, these wilderness areas need to be left alone for the good of the country. They can use corn to make alcohol additive and leave the crude oil alone.

The photo sections show the glorious mountains (unnamed) but I would have enjoyed them more in color. I watched the majesty of the penguins in the movie 'The March of the Penguins.' I know it was supposedly located in Antarctica, but most movies these days are filmed in Canada. We saw those determined fowl make their seventy-mile march to an area to propagate their species. If this wildlife area is disturbed, the majestic penguins will be lost, no place to go to find a mate, and the species of large birds will be lost. Why, they need that yearly ritual to go back to the place they were born.

Prince William Sound is full of oil in abundance; this book shows how the hunt for that valuable source of fuel for the many cars Americans own is destroying Alaska's wilderness and people. I know two people who lived in Alaska, one worked in the fish industry and has moved from Knoxville on to Texas. The other is still here but has made a trip back to Alaska in the past two months. If these folks from other places who lived and worked there have that dedication, then the natives should be considered and left to their own wishes (remain at home). Home is where you were born, and being displaced is, or should be, un-American. The Eskimoes love their land even in the long, dark winters and the savage windstorms with resulting ice/snow everywhere.

It will not benefit the world to have this area destroyed to satisfy the rich who can afford many autos and vans. Let them ride the buses like I do. We should not encourage the use of gas and oil at the expense of destruction of our lovely Penguins and Caribou. Remember what happened to the buffalo here in the Western part of America!

Robert Service wrote in "The Spell of the Yukon,' there's a land where the mountains are nameless...there are hardships that nobody reckons...and I want to go back -- and I will." I applaud this spirit of the American west. Jonathan Waterman is such a devoted advocate for the far North taking eighteen trips and trekking cross-country in that vast wilderness.

He has written A MOST HOSTILE MOUNTAIN, HIGH ALASKA, ARCTIC CROSSING and KAYAKING THE VERMILION SEA. He is a Paul Theroux of Alaska and should be heeded in this endeavor to save a Wildlife Refuge from the greedy hands of politicians.
August 11, 2005

If you have to read one book this year, this is the one.

I happened to hear a John Batchelor ABC radio interview of the author after I finished reading this book and Jonathan came across just as eloquently in person as he does in the book. The narrative is not bound by traditional time constraints (on August 2, I went here, and the next day...) and this technique seems to allow a greater sensory awareness versus a more journalistic approach. In fact, I wasn't even aware of it until another reviewer here carped that he didn't know the date! I mean c'mon, are we as reviewers allowed to take potshots at a book that will is destined to be remembered as great literature?

The reason the book is great is that Waterman concurrently, in between his own fascinating encounters in the Arctic, tells the story of the Muries, who created the Refuge. Their sense of romance allowed the author to open up a saga that was about something bigger than himself and ultimately, to show the tastes and textures and true meanings of the Arctic Refuge. A beautiful and stunning book.
June 26, 2005

Far From a Wasteland

Of course the prospect of drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be fought over forever by know-it-alls from far away who have never been there. The main point of this book by Jonathan Waterman is that the ANWR is far from the barren and lifeless wasteland described by oil proponents, while environmentalists should also learn more about the true nature of the landscape before making big statements. In the end, Waterman certainly comes down on the side of conservation, but he mostly keeps the oil politics and environmentalism to a minimum as he describes his own adventurous journeys to the Arctic North. Threaded into Waterman's travelogues is the story of the longtime champions of the wildlife refuge, Olaus and Mardy Murie. Olaus was a groundbreaking field biologist and explorer throughout the first half of the 20th century, while his wife Mardy was a hugely influential conservationist and lecturer who died at age 101 while this book was being written.

Unfortunately the book has some problems with readability. Waterman's main point, about how you really have to experience the refuge firsthand to understand it, is spread out very thinly across at least a dozen concurrent narratives and storylines. Segments covering various portions of the Muries' lives, several of Waterman's different trips, a history of Alaska, oil business economics, the biology of the caribou herds and other animals, environmental politics, and naturalist philosophy are all mixed together haphazardly and in no particular chronological order. Waterman also gets a bit maudlin in his attempts to conjure up the appropriate language to describe the wonders of the refuge, with occasional croakers like "letting my body become the universe in which it walked." The nonlinear construction of the book really saps the energy out of Waterman's potentially powerful insights about communing with nature overall, and the fate of the ANWR specifically. But he still manages to convey the feeling of the potential loss of a tremendous national treasure in favor of miniscule economic and political gains. [~doomsdayer520~]
June 17, 2005

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