Editor’s Note:
Stan Gabelein is a very good friend of mine. We’ve known each other for many years now, and from the beginning of our friendship have shared the common reality of our love for the outdoors, especially fishing, as well as a passion for baseball. With the way of Stan’s life affording him much more opportunity for hunting and fishing than my own, I would get my outdoors fix vicariously by listening to him relate his many adventures chasing the big game and fish in the wilds and streams of North America—and believe me, he has some tales to tell. That is why I was glad when he accepted my offer a couple years ago to help him edit and publish his first book, “The Outdoorsman”, an autobiographical account of some of these adventures. A couple of months later Stan launched into his second book, and first novel, “Sam Bigtree and Me,” released last year, telling the story of two young men shipwrecked on the Pacific Northwest coast of North America, and how they get back to their home in colonial Virginia.
And now, a little over a year later, comes his second novel, “Our Alaska Family Album-The Jakobson Family Chronicles”. Stan has hunted and fished all over the state of Alaska, and many of these experiences you will find woven into the story of the Jakobsons, as they homestead in the town of Hope on the Kenai peninsula and discover gold there, 31 years after the Klondike rush of 1899. It’s a helluva of a story, and through it, as with Stan’s other books, you will come to know the author, as he has lived much of the life he writes about.
And to introduce his new book, and why he wrote it, there’s no one better than the author himself—Please read on. Mark Arnold
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I love Alaska!
As a young man in the 1960’s I was in the US Army there, stationed at Fort Richardson, located near Anchorage. A tank driver for the most part, I spent two years at Fort Rich, vigorously field testing the machines. While that was interesting, it was the unbelievable fishing and hunting I enjoyed during my free time, much of it on the Kenai Peninsula near the gold rush town of Hope, that endeared me to the “last frontier.” Born and raised on Whidbey Island, in Puget Sound in western Washington State, I’ve always been an active outdoorsman; taught the ways of fishing and hunting by my Dad. Until the army, however, I had never been to Alaska, and my time serving there, as I drove that tank into the Alaska forest, the lakes and rivers, and through snow in the wintertime, opened great new adventures for me. Besides the incredible fishing, on one occasion I found myself confronted by a huge bull moose. Another time I was hunting near some glaciers just off the Seward Highway, and I saw a bunch of Dall sheep off in the distance. I managed to stalk within range of them because of a freak snow storm which masked my movements, but on scoping them out I found no legal rams in the lot. (a ram must possess ¾ curl horns to be legal for harvesting.) Such experiences were almost routine for me in the 49th state.
After the army, through the years I made many return trips to Alaska for the great hunting and fishing. Because of these, as well as the friends I made along the way, as I’ve gotten older I’ve felt the urge to write about and record my experiences. And so, at the age of 78, I wrote an autobiography, “The Outdoorsman,” that included some of these Alaskan experiences. I followed it with my first novel, “Sam Bigtree and Me;” in its own right a supreme adventure story, about two young men shipwrecked on the Pacific Northwest coast of North America in 1759. To get back to their home in the colony of Virginia, the two then travel by foot and horseback east across the continent—3,000 miles—two generations before Louis and Clark. Needless to say their adventures are many, which provided me the opportunity to weave more of my real-life experiences into the narrative.
And now, at the age of 81, I am proud to release my second novel, “Alaska Family Album—The Jakobson Family Chronicles,” about a fictional family living in Hope, Alaska, who once again discover gold there, 31 years after the Klondike rush of 1899. As my definitive Alaska tale, this is my way of sharing my incredible experiences as an outdoorsman in the Alaskan bush, along with the animals and people that make Alaska what it is. I truly hope you enjoy it.
Stan Gabelein
16 June, 2024
