Table Of ContentAVIATOR'S
THEFLYING
NORTH
BY JEAN POTTER
The classic history of
the Alaskan bushp ilots.
AVIATOBRO'OS KSHELF
THEFLYING
NORTH
"A Stirling
and excitingb ook."
-The New York Times
A STUNNING STORY OF CONQUEST
ABOVE THE FORBIDDING TERRAIN OF ALASKA.
Here is the exciting true story otfh e daring men
who pioneered flight over the perilous, blinding
white Alaskan tundra. It is a personastl ory of
commitment ands acrifice, of triumph and
tragedy in the face of the unknown-of the
courageous bushp ilots who took off into the icy
air with a fearless spirit which drove themt o
conquer and open the Northerns kies to what is
now a thunderingi nternational airway.
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THE FLYING
NORTH
JEAN POTTER
er^r
BANTAM BOOKS
Toronto New York London Sydney
THE FLYING NORTH
A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with
Comstock Editions, Inc.
PRINTING HISTORY
Comstock edition published December 1972
3 printings through March 1977
Bantam edition / November 1983
ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST
ROBERT BROWN has been freelancing as an illustrator
for ten years. Most of his work has been for paper
bound book covers. Bob is a pilot interested in ultra
light aircraft He has researched backgrounds for a
series of paintings of remarkable aviation historical
events. He lives in North Babylon, New York.
All rights reserved.
Copyright 1943 by the Curtis Publishing Company.
Copyright 1947 by Jean Potter.
Cover art copyright <© 1983 by Robert Brown.
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by
mimeograph or any other means, without permission.
For information address; Comstock Editions, Inc.,
3030 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA 94965.
ISBN 0553239465 ,
Published simultaneously in the United States
and Canada
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, Inc. Its
trademark, consisting of the wdrds"Bantam Books" and
the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca
JRegistrada. Bantam Books, Inc., 666 Fifth Avenue, New
York, New York 10103.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
H 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
' - TO
, DASHIELL HAMMETT
&iJLt n c & ^
Contents
PAGE
Preface xl
CHAPTER
1
1 The Dogs Look Up
2 Flyingest People 6
3 Earliest Birdmen 22
4 The Life of Ben Eielson 29
5 The Death of Ben Eielson 55
6 Spilling Dollars 66
7 Noel Wien 73
8 Over My Station Right Now 84
9 Joe Crosson 87
10 Willing Hands and Feet 104
11 Fred Moller 111
12 She Can Be Cruel 125
13 Harold Gillam 130
14 Bob Reeve 149
15 Jesus and the Whale 170
16 Sig Wien 174
17 A Man Can Do Anything 183
18 Archie Ferguson 190
19 New Skyways - 213
20 Jack Jefford 214
Index 231
FORTY YEARS LATER
Preface to the 1983 Edition
This book is based on intensive interviews that I conducted
nearly forty years ago with leading pioneer pilots of Alaska,
who also read the text for accuracy; in large part, it is their
own story. Some of . these pilots also helped me prepare the
biographies of two fellow pioneers who were no longer alive.
Four of the nine pilots to whom I devoted chapters were still
flying actively in the mid1940s, so the book was written partly
in the present tense. Today eight of the nine pilots are dead
and the survivor (Sig Wien) has stopped flying. I am sobered
to realize that the book is now a piece of American history: a
unique authentic account of the early development of aviation
on our northern last frontier where "trailblazing" to an ex
traordinary degree was accomplished in the air.
Time, in fact, has made a treasure of these pilots' recollec
tions. Their dream of Alaska's future importance in an air age
has since been realized so dramatically that their prophetic
words and perilous flights seem even more worth reporting
than when this book was written. Expansion of flight within
and through Alaska has been tremendous. Today, to quote an
airline executive in California, traffic at the vast, modern air
port at Anchorage (pop. 173,000) "makes major U.S. airport
cities with many times that population look like Podunk." In
the past two decades alone, passengers handled at the Anchor
age International Airport have increased tenfold to an annual
three million, one third of these transiting on major domestic
and foreign carriers including Scandinavian Airlines, Varig
Brazilian Airlines, Japan Air lines, and Air France to name
only a few.
I am thankful to have interviewed the pioneer pilots while
it was still possible. The late celebrated author, Dashiell Ham
mett, who was not one to use an exaggerated word, once called
the record of early aviation in Alaska "breathtaking." It is a
record of awesome courage in humane service, of the most
arduous progress, of which Americans everywhere may be
proud. I will be glad if it inspires some of my countrymen in
pioneer work today, in our era of spectacular technological ad
vance during which real progress—in serving the basic needs of
humanity including its need for survival—has fallen distress
ingly short. This would seem to be the frontier of the future.
JEAN POTTER CHELNOV
Rome
March 1983
