By Fred Delkin

Alaskan author Dan O'Neill has penned a personal adventure story that serves as a valuable insight to a time when gold drew modern civilization into the northern wilderness bordering the  Arctic region.  A Land Gone Lonesome (Counterpoint Publishing, NYC, June '06) is O'Neill's  account of his recent solo canoe ride along the Yukon river, spanning an outback from Dawson, Canada to Circle City, Alaska.
 

He has chronicled a voyage of rediscovery of territory originally dramatized by 19th cntury writers. 
 

Jack London and Robert Service.  O'Neill colorfully reports on the crumbling structures left by long gone residents who trapped and panned a vast Yukon basin where winter tmperatures plunged far below zero and mere subsistence can still be a way of life.  The author encounters a few adventurous souls escaping the civilized pressures of modern life and is reminded of past colorful  characters who braved this lonely, roadless region.
 

 O'Neill is a talented historian weaving detailed accounts of the gold rush, salmon, fur trapping, dog sledding and other activity spawned by the far north.  His witty travelogue includes epic themes of self-reliance, heroism and humanity.  He also delivers a sharp critique of bureaucratic bumbling in  the current attempt to create and maintain an Alaskan federal wilderness preserve bordering a portion of the  Yukon drainage.
 

 O'Neill lives in a log cabin in Fairbanks, Alaska environs.  He is slated for a public appearance at Portland's Powell's Books this June 19.

                 Copyright 2006 Oregon Magazine