OUT THERE
That Alaskan from Texas The pioneering spirit of Walter “Yukon” Yates
Medfra [ABOVE] Walter’s hand-built cabin and cache. The metal on the posts of the food cache prevented wolverines from climbing to the top. [INSET] Walter “Yukon” Yates in a fur-hooded parka roughing it along the Post River.
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T
HE LEGEND OF WALTER “YUKON”
Yates lives on through those of us who knew him. The man inhabited the independent Alaska spirit, and wore it like an old caribou skin. As tough as they come, Yukon survived for 14 days in the harsh Canadian winter after a crash left him with a broken spine and a scorched helicopter. He found sustenance through foraged cranberries and a frog he captured to eat, before he was finally rescued. Once home, he kept two things from the accident: a gnarled piece of metal that was once his helicopter and the determination to continue exploring until the day he died. Walter’s house was a well-curated museum of an adventurous life. Dusty flannels and down jackets hung in his
A L A S K A M A G A Z I N E . C O M DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018
closet, and his desk drawers overflowed with curiosities he’d collected over the years. Everything he gathered had a story. And he loved to tell stories. Skeptics might have called them tall tales, but Walter had photographic proof of his adventures. Locals liked to call him “that Alaskan from Texas,” but others nicknamed him “Yukon” for his forays deep inside the Yukon Territory. He spent his childhood in the Ozarks, learning the ropes of living off the land and falling in love with mountains at an early age. Later in life, he relocated to Texas and got married, but it was the
(TOP) COURTESY BERNADETTE MURRAY (INSET) COURTESY YATES FAMILY
BY ASHLEY M. HALLIGAN