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In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898

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John Taliaferro's moving and exciting book is a beautifully researched and satisfying adventure/romance. He captures the ambiguity and humanity of both sincere do-gooders and mercenary outcasts encountering an ancient and vulnerable but canny culture in the far north. His excellent bibliography is generous and useful.

It must have taken individuals of rare inner strength to even have the desire to go establish a Christian mission at Cape Prince of Whales, 55 miles across the Bering Strait to Russia and only 70 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Even more surprising to me was the number of women, single or married to missionaries, who went as well. Tom and Ellen Lopp were both single, that is until six weeks after they met.

This is a story of the mission at Cape Prince of Wales, the Lopp's and of a dramatic rescue where Tom and seven Eskimo herders drove a heard of reindeer some 700 miles to rescue stranded sailors whose ships had become frozen in the ice. This was a trip to rival the other famous trip in the cold, but up until now has been little known.

All in all, a most interesting book about life on the very edge of civilization.

This book rightly takes its place among the other tales of heroic arctic travel. It is well researched, the writing is sprightly, and the characterizations both compassionate and vivid.

In the summer of 1890, Tom Lopp, a thirty-three-year-old Presbyterian from Indiana, and Harrison Thornton, a thirty-two-year-old Virginian, are chosen to serve as missionaries at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, 55 miles from the shore of Russia. They are left with supplies and a simple structure built to serve as both house and school. Their mission is to teach the Natives about Christianity, but first they must learn Inupiaq and teach the Eskimos English. Two years later, Thornton leaves to find a wife. He returns, married, on a ship carrying Lopp's future wife, twenty-four-year-old Evelyn Kittredge, a Congregationalist from Minnesota, who is assigned to share teaching duties with Tom. Perfectly matched, they marry one month later and, together, continue teaching and preaching (for ten years). The Thorntons move to a separate house, and teaching duties are split up. Meanwhile, preparations are made to establish a reindeer station at Port Clarence, sixty miles away, which should help enable the Eskimos to become self-sufficient as herders. When the contracts of the men assigned to the Port Clarence station are allowed to expire, the Lopp's are hired as superintendent (him) and teacher (her). Back at Cape Prince of Wales, Thornton's seemingly irrational worries that the Natives intend to kill him are realized when he is fatally injured during an attempted robbery. The instigators suffer the ultimate punishment at the hands of members of their own village. At the reindeer station, the size of the herd steadily increases, as does the size of the Lopp family. At page 238, the story comes full circle with a member of the Overland Relief Expedition knocking on the Lopp's door, which is how the story begins. The preceding pages cover the actions leading up to the ORE, especially background on the members of the expedition and captains of the icebound ships, as well as the politics behind the decision to guide hundreds of reindeer to Point Barrow, located at the northernmost point of Alaska, to stave off the possible starvation of crewmembers stranded by icebound ships, who are living in squalor and subsisting on rations. The successive pages describe the journey itself in great detail; the (reindeer) adventures along the way; and the fate of the stranded crewmembers (who would likely have survived without intervention), the rescuers, and the reindeer. The details of everyday life at the missions, and the interactions of the Lopp family with the Eskimos, are equally as good as the story of the expedition itself. Seth Kantner provides similar details about a family living in a remote part of Alaska during more recent times in Ordinary Wolves.

I'm really enjoying this book. Its got enough facts to be a documentary but it reads as a great adventure novel.

They certainly were a hardy lot. Those who chose to come Alaska in the latter part of the nineteenth century faced obstacles and hardships that most of us simply cannot comprehend. So why did they come? Despite the fact that the industry was in decline, fleets of whaling ships from such distant ports as New Bedford, Mass. and San Francisco, CA still made the trek to the Bering Sea each year in an effort to eke out a living. Those in the business of saving souls viewed Alaska as fertile territory to spread the Good News. And as the nineteeth century drew to a close there was yet another important reason why thousands would risk life and limb to come to the Alaskan wilderness. The Great Alaskan Gold Rush was on! "In A Far Country" is author John Taliaferro's remarkable account of the events that were unfolding in Alaska during these years.

Tom and Ellen Lopp were missionaries who came to Alaska in the early 1890's. Tom was a Presbyterian from Indiana while Ellen was a Congregationalist who hailed from Minnesota. Both were assigned to a mission at Cape Prince of Wales on the western tip of the Seward Peninsula. Only a month after meeting in July 1892 Tom and Ellen were married. As things turned out Tom and Ellen would start a family and spend the next dozen years ministering to the Eskimos at Cape Prince of Wales. The work was dirty, difficult and exhausting but proved to be extremely rewarding nonetheless. During their years at Cape Prince of Wales the Lopps opened a mission school and assisted in the effort to establish a herd of reindeer in the area. The man who had attracted both Tom and Ellen to Alaska through an advertisment in "American Missionary" magazine was one Sheldon Jackson. Jackson, who was at the time the general agent for education for the new U.S. Territory of Alaska was absolutely convinced that bringing reindeer to Alaska was the key to the regions economic future. Reindeer were indigenous to neighboring Siberia and had been used there for centuries as both a source of food and for transportation. Jackson envisioned teams of reindeer driven sleds moving people, commodities and even the mail throughout the Alaskan territory. At the same time Sheldon Jackson argued that the reindeer could replace the dwindling numbers of caribou as the primary source of food for the native Eskimo population. "In A Far Country" details how large herds of reindeer would eventually be established in several areas of the Alaskan wilderness. Finally, John Taliaferro spends a great deal of time chronicling what became known as the Overland Relief Expedition. At the end of the summer of 1898 a total of 8 whaling ships who were operating in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska became trapped in the ice and were unable to leave the area. It was feared that unless help arrived in time more than 200 sailors would eventually starve to death. The Overland Relief Expedition was organized and Tom Lopp was tapped to lead the final leg of this Herculian rescue effort. What an incredible adventure!

I found "In A Far Country" to be quite compelling reading indeed. The publishers quite wisely furnished a detailed map of the region at the beginning of the book and I found myself referring to it again and again. I find that inclusion of maps like this often greatly enhances my understanding of the events being discussed in the text. All in all this is a nicely written book about important history that has been largely forgotten. Recommended!

Anyone with a strong interest in U.S. history, and certainly Alaskan and/or Arctic history, will appreciate this book.

It centers on the story of Tom Lopp and his wife, who were among the first white settlers in upper Alaska, and who near the turn of the 20th century set up a mission near the far northwest corner of Alaska at the Bering Strait. While the Lopps -- and early on a partner along with Tom Lopp -- were dedicated to teaching the native Eskimos Christianity, the book is not at all "preachy" on that front.

It is instead partly an accounting of their life and challenges amid the Eskimos, the Eskimos reactions to and interactions with them, and also a historic accounting of bigger issues in the U.S. impacting the lives and dealings of the Alaskan settlers and Eskimos.

It all follows the main narrative of the book -- a bitterly difficult rescue mission that Tom Lopp participated in and was key to, leading a herd of reindeer (yes reindeer -- this is key to the book and will make sense) across 1000+ miles of frozen tundra in the heart of Alaska's winter, to save 100+ whaling sailors who were stranded at the topmost part of Alaska (when their ships were frozen immobile in the sea) from the potential of starving.

Most engaging are the descriptions of the Lopps daily life among the Eskimos, as well as the whaling sailors life while stranded at Point Barrow and in their ships near the "top of the world." Author Taliaferro delves deep into details to set up the background history -- but oftentimes it is far too deep and becomes extraneous, serving only to disturb the otherwise compelling narrative of the book. Still, it is a very interesting read about an American event that deserves more attention ... and probably a movie.

This is a little known adventure story of missionary people, personalities, government polititians, native Americans, & foreigners. It has graphic illustrations of problems and errors made when dealing with different cultures in unknown and adverse climates. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it.