How Dick Proenneke Lived In The Wilderness For 30 Years

There are two kinds of lifestyles that people enjoy. A way of life is going to work in or around the city, in a big building, and interacting with hundreds of people every day. The streets are so clogged with cars that it sometimes takes three hours to walk three kilometers in the city centre.

Then there is the other lifestyle that people enjoy, living in a country that is open and not much around you. If you’ve ever been through Texas, there are thousands of people who have seen small towns where everyone knows your name. Not much to worry about traffic, and.

But there is a third life that is almost unheard of. That’s Dick Proeneke’s life. It’s about as simple as life can get.

Proeneke lived his life in the Alaskan wilderness. He lived alone–really alone–for 30 years.He built the cabin with his own hands and lived like they did before electricity. All he did was chop wood and start a fire for warmth without water, he went out hunting for dinner

Cars? Dick didn’t need any of that. Telephones? He never called one. The neighbors? He had to walk for miles to reach the nearest person. computer? Dick never touched one.

Best of all, he keeps a record of everything. For 30 years, Proeneke lived this way, photographing and documenting the experience. When he died in 2003, rumors began to surface. It was a wonderful life story.

Dick Proenneke in his cabin.

Early Life of Dick Proenneke

Dick Proeneke was born in Primrose, Iowa, in 1916. Much of what he learned growing up came from his father, a carpenter, painter, excavator, and World War I veteran Dick Proeneke, like his father joined in the war, In 1941, the U.S. The Navy attacked Pearl Harbor.

During the war, Proeneke moved to San Francisco in anticipation of his next career. While traveling in the California mountains, he contracted a severe cold and was hospitalized for six months. He gained his scientific freedom before the 1945 conflict.

The infection became a life-changing opportunity for Pronneke, who nearly died in hospital. After that, he showed his girlfriend that he could dedicate the rest of his life to taking care of his body and health. She doesn’t want to be in a medical office building and feels uncomfortable and wants to be outside where she wants to change her lifestyle

After the war, he went to high school and became a diesel mechanic. He earned a reputation as a tireless worker with an unparalleled work ethic. His love for the most skilled workers there grew over time.

Proenneke’s Move to the Great Northwest

Proeneke wanted to live more in the open, and as life went on, he fell in love with nature. He moved to Oregon in the 1940s working on a sheep ranch. For a while, he was willing to raise cattle and live in the country.

He then took a job as a heavy equipment operator and inspector at the Naval Base in Kodiak, Alaska. Proeneke liked Alaska because it was so different from city life; Spacious with lots of grass, it’s a nature lover’s dream.

Proeneke took other jobs throughout Alaska, as a diesel technician and salmon fisherman. He then got a job at King Salmon working for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. He was highly skilled and in high demand, and by age 50 he had enough money to retire and live comfortably.

But Proeneke had another health scare when a freak accident nearly cost him his sight. After two near-death fights, he decided it was time to find an escape route. He was ready to retire and live the life he wanted.

Some people decide to move to Florida to retire. Others prefer to live abroad and travel. For Proeneke, all he wanted to do was build a log cabin in Twin Lakes, Alaska, and live alone in the middle of nature. And that’s what he did.

Alone in the Wilderness

A park service photo of the cabin.

Proeneke had no telephone, electricity, running water or stores. Growing up, his hand skills helped him make things himself and build fires when he had to in the cold Alaskan weather.
He spent almost every day out in the wilderness hunting and fishing. If he had to go somewhere of great importance, to get lumber or tools, he would not move; He went for a walk.

Pronneke enjoyed writing and journaling. More than 100 pounds of pamphlets were found after his death. People learned to live on their own.
“What can I do that I haven’t learned yet?” Written by Proeneck. “What are my boundaries? Can I really enjoy my own company all year round? Was I equal to what this wild land could throw at me? I had seen his ideas in late spring, summer and early fall, but what about winter? Would I have liked the bone knife solitude, the cold and eerie ghostly silence and imprisonment I was then imprisoned in? I decided to learn this when I was fifty-one.”

Proenneke didn’t plan on staying here for 30 years. He felt as free as anyone else. He never had Lady Love, but it never felt like he needed it. He was in his divine form.

He wrote: “I watched the windswept mountains and the passing floods. “It was hard to take my eyes off. I was on some of them, and I will be back up there again. There was always something different to see and each one was different. To explore all those streams and all those trails that follow the trees with the long pools sparkling. Where would he take her? What is the next step? What kind of information do we make

The Final Days

Having lived in Twin Lakes for 30 years, Pronneke’s health began to deteriorate. Shortly after her 80th birthday in 1999, she decided she could no longer live on her own. He couldn’t do those things for a living like he used to.

He packed up and moved to California to live with his brother. He died a few years later in 2003. But the house Pronneke built and lived in was never forgotten. He had no issues.

Alaska Geographic published The Early Years: The Journals of Richard L. Proeneke 1967-1793, and The Natural History Association published More Reading from One Man’s Wilderness, which included many of Proeneke’s journals in what is now Lake Clark the National Park Snake log cabin and popular exhibit at the Preserve. If you ever visit Donelson,

Iowa, you will see the Richard Pronek Museum exhibit which features most of the paintings during his residency. They are also in Alaska in a national park.