Shipwrecks and plane crashes on isolated Alaska islands, bear hunts not for sport, but to protect herds of cattle and sheep, hauling cattle by ship, barge, and skiff, snowshoeing across snow-filled mountain passes to feed cattle and rescue calves, the 1912 Katmai Volcano, fox farming, the 1964 earthquake and tidal wave (tsunami), and the oil spill of 1989. All of this and more is woven by Wanda Fields into the fabric of her tales about pioneer Alaskan ranchers on and around Kodiak Island over the past two hundred years. She has combined extensive interviews with many of these ranchers, stories passed down and lived personally, and the ranching experiences she and her husband De Witt have shared during their 50 years in Kodiak. Only now, that most of the participants in these events have passed on, can some of these stories be told.