On Patrol: True Adventures of an Alaska Game Warden

by Tremblay, Ray

• ISBN13: 9780882405735
• ISBN10: 088240573X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-01
• Publisher: Ingram Pub Services

Summary

These daring stories shed light on what life was really like in the Last Frontier just before, during, and after Alaska joined the Union.

Author Biography

After retiring to Anchorage, Ray Tremblay stayed active in the summer with commercial fishing for halibut and sportfishing for salmon. In winters, he was busy traveling and writing. He and his wife, Elsie, were married for fifty years and had six children and eleven grandchildren. Sadly, Ray passed away in August 2004

Table of Contents

Foreword	4	(2)
Map	6	(2)
Introduction	8	(4)
PART I The 1950's: Enforcing Federal Game Laws in the Territory of Alaska
Chapter 1 The Making of a Flying Game Warden	12	(7)
Chapter 2 Modus Operandi	19	(10)
Chapter 3 Think Like a Beaver	29	(6)
Chapter 4 For the Want of Snowshoes	35	(6)
Chapter 5 The Gullwing Stinson	41	(13)
Chapter 6 Capture of the Blue Parka Bandit & Other Trapline Patrols	54	(10)
Chapter 7 Wildlife Surveys: Low Flying, Quick Thinking	64	(8)
Chapter 8 Married to the Fish & Wildlife Service	72	(9)
Chapter 9 Balancing Acts	81	(11)
Chapter 10 The Quiet Men	92	(5)
Chapter 11 What Happened to Charlie Woods	97	(5)
Chapter 12 Lawless Valley	102	(6)
Chapter 13 Wolf Control	108	(8)
Chapter 14 Dog Shoots Man & Other Wild Animal Stories	116	(8)
Chapter 15 Victims of Circumstance	124	(10)
Chapter 16 Search and Rescue	134	(8)
Chapter 17 Engine Failure	142	(7)
Chapter 18 Legal Beaver	149	(11)
PART II The 1960's: Big Changes in a Baby State
Chapter 19 The Duck War	160	(11)
Chapter 20 Check Ride Unsatisfactory	171	(7)
Chapter 21 What Went Wrong?	178	(10)
Chapter 22 A Royal Pain	188	(9)
Chapter 23 Surveys with the DC-3	197	(9)
Chapter 24 The Grumman Goose	206	(11)
Chapter 25 The Protectors Versus the Spoilers	217

Excerpts

“I was a full-time professional trapper in interior Alaska, a life I had dreamed of as a boy. Trapping for a living was a demanding way of life, and it sometimes became very lonely. It was not exactly the romantic life I had envisioned; nevertheless, it suited me. I loved the wilderness and the independent life, as well as the challenge of wresting a living from the land. I felt I was in control of my life.

This way of life finally came to an end, however, because of forces over which I had no control. In the spring of 1952, a scant three years after I took to the trapline trails, fur prices dropped to an all-time low. As I took my winter’s catch of marten, mink, otter, wolverine, and wolves to sell to fur-buyers in Fairbanks, I became downhearted with the prices I was offered for a hard winter’s work.”