'Open boreal forest in the surrounding area ensures ready firewood and building logs as well as good hiking.' Proenneke thought the area was a perfect place to settle. We are a mission-driven group of survivors, clinicians, and executives who believe that survivorship is the next frontier in cancer care. 'Twin Lakes is a spectacular glacially carved set of lakes nestled against the jagged Neacola Mountains of the Alaska Range,' emails Megan Richotte, program manager for interpretation, partnerships, and public affairs at the park. Its wild beauty struck a chord with Proenneke. In 1962, Proenneke encountered the area that's now called Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. Eventually he became a heavy equipment operator at the naval base at Kodiak Island in Alaska. After the war, he trained to become a diesel mechanic and also tinkered with sheep ranching in Oregon.īut it was a visit to a Navy buddy in Alaska that gave him the wilderness bug - and he couldn't shake it.

Struck by rheumatic fever that laid him low for half a year, he was given a medical discharge from service in 1945.

Survivors the quest moss