Profiles

Wyman Meinzer: Capturing the Soul of the Wild

Meinzer, a man Field and Stream magazine has called an outdoor legend. That is just one of a long list of accolades he has accrued over a lifetime of documenting...

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Profiles

Alaskan Musher: Lauro Eklund

With his father, Neil Eklund, Lauro spends long days working with his dogs and exploring Alaska’s remote and rugged interior. With hopes his dogs will one day soon lead the...

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The Dynamic of the Line: the anatomy of a dog team

Sled dog teams consist of 12-16 dogs to traverse difficult terrain, while following specific commands from a musher. Learn the anatomy of a sled dog team and what it takes...

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Profiles

The Fire Inside: Photographer Kiliii Yüyan

Award-winning National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yüyan, joined us on our recent trip to the Alaskan Arctic, where he was consumed in his mission to capture the stoic essence of a...

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The Evolution of Hockey Gear

When a modern NHL team takes to the ice, players are protected from head to toe, the focal point of which is their large colorful sweater. The need and developments...

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Profiles

James Reeves: The Mule Packer

“When I walk into any pack station or ranch, I know from the get-go that I'm probably not going to look like anyone else who works there. But anyone who...

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Moosemeat John

Moosemeat John, with a nickname earned from generosity and the skills to not only survive, but thrive on the Alaskan frontier. When we built our first Alaskan Guide Shirt in...

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The Carver King: A Conversation with chainsaw artist Bob King

Bob King spends his life surrounded by sawdust. It crunches underfoot, coats his clothing, and swirls about him. Each day he dons layers of protective gear and enters his workshop....

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The Woman on the Mountain: Christine Estrada

Christine Estrada, a fire lookout, having visited 93 of the remaining lookouts across Washington State, works tirelessly during fire season to spot, report and communicate with fire teams on the...

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Profiles

THE PASSION: RANGE RIDER DANIEL CURRY

As a range rider, Daniel Curry patrols the rugged wilderness of Colville National Forest in eastern Washington through all seasons and weather. He will spend weeks working tirelessly day and...

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Profiles

Zech Bennett: The Undersea Tradesman

When you meet Zech Bennett, he seems like a pretty ordinary guy. Not too tall or too short, he seems somewhat in shape but is not a chiseled gym rat....

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Pacific Fishermen Shipyard: The Origins of Ballard’s Oldest Working Shipyard

Pacific Fishermen Inc., or “PacFish,” as it is known to the many boat builders, ship crews, employees, family members and stakeholders in the Ballard community, can be traced directly back...

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Profiles

Renowned Artist and Activist: Ray Troll

Ray’s Alaska adventure started in 1983, when he moved here to help his sister open a seafood retail store in Ketchikan. Ray soon turned to art to document his experiences...

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Profiles

Deep Sea Fishermen's Union

Back at the turn of the last century, a hardy group of men roamed the wooden docks of Seattle. Grizzled and gruff, they would spend days out on the unpredictable...

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Food & Recipes

You Take What You Can Get: Or Suffer the Consequences

The stampede for gold into the Klondike of the Yukon territory reached a peak in 1898. In that same year, 1,200 other miners set out for other regions of the...

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Profiles

Seattle Maritime Academy - 50 Years of Training Seaworthy Mariners

Long before Seattle was a tech town, or even an aviation town, it was a maritime town. In fact, it still is. And although some brag that Seattle has more...

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Marian Beck: The Saltry Restaurant

The first thing you notice about Marian Beck is her hands. Graying Alaskan fishermen all have the same hands, swollen and powerful from decades of picking fighting salmon from gillnets,...

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Profiles

Bay Weld Boats

The shop is loud. Metal screams on metal. Chop saws, band saws, air saws, table saws, skilsaws, drills, grinders, and welders all sculpt, slice, and meld aluminum plate and extrusion...

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Profiles

Kate Mitchell - NOMAR

An old homesteader once told Kate Mitchell, “That was about the year you figured you weren’t going to starve to death.” By then, much of the community enjoyed wanton luxuries...

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Coldfoot: More than just another gold camp – a place that defined those who lived in it

The history of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 promised fortune to many who made the journey north to the gold fields of the Yukon Territory, with many of those...

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Profiles

Leif Whittaker: My Old Man & the Mountain

My Old Man and the Mountain is Leif Whittaker's engaging and humorous story of what it was like to "grow up Whittaker"―the youngest son of Jim Whittaker and Dianne Roberts, in...

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Amy David: Why I Guide

As a professional skier, Amy David spends most days in the winter backcountry, skiing and snowmobiling while being photographed and filmed for media content. Simultaneously, She leads a backcountry retreat...

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Profiles

Western Flyer: The Vessel of John Steinbeck

On the morning of Monday, March 11, 1940, writer John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts boarded the sardine seiner Western Flyer at a wharf in Monterey, California. Both men...

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Profiles

For the Love of Wooden Boats: Port Townsend's Shipwrights Co-Op

Southeast of Port Townsend is a gravel yard where large boats balance on blocks of wood and slender steel stands. Removed from the water, the vessels reveal pleasing, functional curves....

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SS Portland: The Ship that Started the Boom

August 16, 1896, stands out in the history of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska as the moment when miners prospecting along the Klondike River in the Yukon Territory discovered gold...

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Rebisoning America's West

As we bounce across the prairie, small groups of bison close to the dirt track watch us roll by, while two bands of elk stare at us from a distance....

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Remarkable Skills of an Avalanche Rescue Dog

When it comes to mountain life, avalanches are part of the territory. If you’re lucky, you might only see or hear one. But on the off chance you get caught,...

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Signature Materials

Keeping Handmade Traditions Alive in the Northeast: Filson & Quoddy

Jack and Anne Spiegel originally started Quoddy in Maine in 1947. Their unique footwear was all made with moccasin construction to be flexible, durable, and repairable. At one point, Quoddy...

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Dogs with Jobs: Sheepdogs in Rural Scotland

Sheep dogs are commonplace in rural Scotland, with many shepherds owning more than one. The use of such dogs in Scotland dates back to the 19th century, but even today...

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Profiles

The O'Hair Ranch

Before there were O’Hairs, there were Armstrongs. And like most homesteaders, the Armstrongs arrived at Paradise Valley, Montana, by way of misfortune looking for fortune. In 1878, Owen T. Armstrong...

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How To's

How to Become a Ski Patroller

Ski patrollers are responsible for maintaining and promoting skier safety, providing first-aid assistance to accident victims on the hill, and transporting injured skiers. They play a huge part in what...

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Q and A with Adam and Frankie Foss of Foss Media

Gary Edinger, a logger is at the center of Will to Live: The Gary Edinger Story, the latest film from Adam and Frankie Foss, the husband and wife team behind...

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Will To Live: The Gary Edinger Story

On a fateful February day in 2007, in the remote Northern Wisconsin woods, a solo independent logger named Gary Edinger severed his left leg off while felling a tree. Twenty...

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Elver Fishing in Maine

Elver fishing in Maine is based on a lottery system. For those lucky enough to win a license the payout can be over $2,000/lb.

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The Oldest Continuously Running Sawmill in North America

Port Gamble was a gamble that paid off for 142 years as the longest continuously running sawmill on the North American continent. Like many logging towns, it faced boom years...

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A Brief History of Horse Logging

Horse logging is an echo of an earlier, distant time but it is gaining steam as a modern, sustainable form of logging. This practice goes back nearly 10,000 years, though...

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Filson Adventure Comic

Filson Adventures, an original comic series based in Alaska circa 1933.

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The Lantern Tavern Announces No New Improvements

The Lantern opened its doors back when gasoline cost 32 cents a gallon and shiny ‘66 Mustangs cruised Chicago Avenue. Every day since, their philosophy of good, simple food and...

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Mike Blais of Auburn Stove Foundry Company

Some of Mike Blais’ earliest memories are from the inside of his grandfather’s foundry in Maine. He spent his youth shadowing the older man, learning to mix sand and clay,...

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Ranchlands: Six Generations of Stewardship

Conservation isn’t abstract and ranching doesn’t reward those who disconnect themselves from nature. I learned these truths from Duke Phillips, or Big Duke, to his friends. For Big Duke and...

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Banking on Bailey: Introducing the Filson x Merrell Sandall

Head an hour north of Boise, and you’ll find a stretch of the Payette river that contains some of the world’s most notorious class five rapids. Not many people dare...

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Trade Stories: Aaron Fields, Firefighter

Aaron Fields has been a firefighter for over 13 years, 6 of which have been spent training others in the state fire academy. After a close call in his first...

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The Balance of Trust

Farriers spend years mastering the ancient craft of horseshoeing. It requires many hours of standing next to a hot forge, swinging a hammer, bending in uncomfortable positions, all within striking...

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Above Alaska: Bush Pilots of the Last Frontier

Covering 663,268 square miles, Alaska is larger than Texas, California, and Montana, combined. With only 20% of that land mass accessible by road, aviation is not a luxury in Alaska....

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Broken Down and Saved by Saints

Photographer Joe Haeberle travels the west in a rambling fashion, documenting small town Americana. A few summers ago, he found himself broken down in rural Montana and in need of...

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History of the de Havilland Beaver

This work-horse of an aircraft has earned a reputation as one of the most capable bush planes ever built, and it was easy to see why as we flew out...

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In Print: Alaska Aviation with Sarah Russell

For Sarah Russell, Alaska has been the answer at the end of a long search for freedom. We spent time with Sarah last summer as part of our Above Alaska...

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Piloting Kodiak, AK with Willy Fulton

Willy Fulton is a floatplane pilot based in Kodiak, AK. We caught up with him to ask a few questions about how he ended up there, with arguably one of...

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Mother's Day in the Mountains with Terry Myers

Terry Myers is perhaps one of the more adventurous women we've ever met, seen here trimming the spring shoots on her favorite apricot tree from the bucket of a front...

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Off the Grid with Brett Watts

Brett Watts is a flight mechanic with the U.S. Coast guard, currently stationed in Kodiak, AK.

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In Print: Making Art with Ed Anderson

Ed Anderson is an Idaho-based artist known for his iconic scenes using bold colors and lines to present subjects from bush pilots to bull trout and bugling bull elk. We...

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Corey Forrest: Fishing Rhode Island

As a little girl, I didn’t know I was going to grow up to be a fisherman, or follow in my father’s footsteps, and his father’s footsteps. It was a...

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Seven Star Marine: Newport, Rhode Island's Source for Marine Engineering

I had the great good fortune of growing up on the waterfront in my father’s marine business. It was an immersive, hands-on experience that captured my imagination from the start....

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John Finley: Wyoming's Cowboy Artist

The Wind River Range rises from the river itself, fall shifting into winter as my truck reaches the outskirts of the town of Dubois. I slow at the town museum,...

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In Print: Matthew Nienow and Good Story Paddleboards

I reeked of   the sea and had nothing to show for it.Darkling saltwater for a dreamand no other place to be (29-31)Excerpt from “In the Year of No Work” by...

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In Print: Keya Clairmont

EEarlier this winter, we traveled to the snowcovered Canadian Rockies to develop our latest print catalog. We invited fancy shawl dancer, Keya Clairmont, to join. The 24 year old is...

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A Day on the Hell's Canyon Mail Boat

“The U.S. Postal Service will deliver mail to anywhere in the United States with a mailing address,” says Jill Koch, part owner and operator of Beamers Hells Canyon Tours. Jill...

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Mossy Oak Gamekeeper Kennels

Words are wasted on trying to describe the relationship between bird dog and owner. From the euphoria of lifting a mallard out of your retriever’s trained mouth for the first...

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Robertson Stykbow: Traditional Archery with Dick Robertson

Dick Robertson is the owner and founder of Robertson Stykbow in Forest Grove, MT. Dick has been designing and crafting some of the most beautiful and high-performance traditional bows for...

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Horse-Logging Vermont's Northeast Kingdom

When Neil Fromm was twenty-five years old he drove his Volkswagen van from the Florida Keys up to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Known to Vermonters simply as “The Kingdom,” this mountainous,...

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Svalinn: Bred to Love, Trained to Protect

Kim Greene's email signature reads, "Alpha Female" and in her line of work, that is exactly who she needs to be. Kim and her husband Jeff are the owners of...

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PNW Workers: Force/Collide

Located in Seattle WA, Force/Collide is driven by owner Chelsea Gaddy's distinct style that blends geometry, minimalism, and the raw characteristics of metals into high-end furniture and architecture. "The creative...

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Ploughgate Creamery: Vermont's Cultured Butter

An average summer day at Ploughgate Creamery goes something like this: You’re up at quarter to six to start the churn. An hour later you’ve got golden butter and buttermilk...

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PNW Workers: Western Neon

If you've walked Seattle's streets after sundown, you've laid eyes on Western Neon's craftsmanship. Since 1985 they've put their radiant stamp on our booming town. Along with the logo and...

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PNW Workers: Meridian Forge

It’s not an easy process. “You have to beat it into submission…you have to tell it what to do,” he says, speaking of the metal being shaped by his hands....

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PNW Workers: Dovetail General Contractors

Located in Seattle, WA, Dovetail General Contractors specializes in bringing clients' visions to life by immersing themselves in every aspect of a project - from Japanese joinery to large-scale foundation...

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Might of the Pacific Northwest Worker

For 121-years, Filson has outfitted and partnered with makers, builders, fabricators and creators. These craftsmen and women work with their hands. They use brute force and extreme finesse to bring...

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PNW Workers: Laura Burkhart

Laura Burkhart drew inspiration from the Pacific Northwest's mountains, lakes, and trees - and used it to develop a refreshing, unique style of artwork."Woodwork is such a physically demanding medium,...

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Food & Recipes

Montauk Brewing Company

When Vaughan moved back to town in 2010, the two built a home brewing system from an igloo cooler (which they still have) and started brewing. Initially, making beer was...

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Motherhood: Hilary Anderson

Hilary Anderson is a wildlife biologist who has been running the range-riding program in Montana's Tom Miner Basin since 2013. She's a rancher and a mother, raising her four children...

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Motherhood: Jackie Three Irons

Jackie Three Irons is an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe of Montana. She and her family reside just outside of Crow Agency, Montana near the town of Hardin. We...

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Motherhood: Jane Golliher

Jane Golliher is a third generation rancher born and raised in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She and her husband Grant own and run the Diamond Cross Ranch in Teton county where...

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