Homesteading in the wilderness of Alaska…
Duane Ose moved to Alaska on a whim nearly thirty years ago, after surviving a gunshot wound to the head. He and his wife Rena were the very last persons to file a claim under the Federal Homestead Act of 1862—for a piece of property Duane describes as “a giant, fertile garden bowl, cupped warmly in God’s loving hands.” His new book, Alaskan Wilderness Adventure II, is part biography, part adventure, recounting how he and his young friend Jeff Peterson established Duane’s homestead in the center of Alaska. With humor and vivid imagery, Duane has chronicled the trials and tribulations of building trails, constructing a home, and turning this five-acre slice of heaven into a habitable piece of property—a homestead Duane and Rena call Ose Mountain.
Duane Arthur Ose was born and raised in Minnesota. He enlisted in the army in 1964 at the age of twenty-one and spent one of his three years of service in Korea as a US army engineer. Duane met Rena, his second wife, through the mail-order bride system, and she moved to the Alaskan homestead to live in a hole in the ground (called a dugout) for nine years while she and Duane built their three-story log home. They live off the land for the most part, gardening, using solar power, and trapping. (Rena does the skinning.) Duane is a survival expert, skilled at living and thriving under extreme conditions. A sought-after public speaker, Duane gives presentations on rural living, homesteading, survival, Alaskan living, and the art of dowsing. He is also the author of Alaskan Wilderness Adventure: Join Duane and His Son Daniel on a Journey Deep in the Alaskan Wilderness in Search of Finding a New Home.
