Join the Book Club on March 15th, 2012 at 7pm to watch a Film
Alone in the Wilderness
We meet at Oglebay’s Schrader Center in Wheeling WV every third Thursday of the month. Last month we discussed John Muir and left uplifted and inspired by the life of this fantastic naturalist. This month we will focus on the life of Dick Proenneke.
He learned his carpentry skills in the US Navy during WWII. Dick spent 6 months in bed recuperating from rheumatic fever when he was still in the Navy. It was during his recuperation he realized how important his health really was, and he started thinking about living a simple life in Alaska.Dick Proenneke spent his first summer in the Twin Lakes region scouting out the best cabin site and cutting logs. He returned the next summer to build his cabin, stayed through that winter and the next summer before he returned to Iowa for the winter. Dick hadn’t planned on returning to Twin Lakes, but he changed his mind and returned the next spring and remained at Twin Lakes for 30 years, leaving only occasionally to visit his family.
