Mary Joyce

The brave and exciting exploits of "Mary Joyce - Taku to Fairbanks, 1,000 Miles by Dogsled" are described in this book... mostly in her own words. She wrote a manuscript about her trip with her dogteam in 1936. It was never published until now. She was the first white person over a portion of the trail which later became part of the Alcan Highway. Her narrative and descriptions of Alaska's people, dogteams, vast landscapes and dangers encountered on the trail are wrapped in her wry humor and perspectives of the 30's. Mary was a nurse who moved to Alaska to the Taku Lodge in 1930 aboard a yacht, which also carried lavender bathroom fixtures and a cow. She was a pilot, a stewardess, a musher, a homesteader, a movie actress, a territorial government candidate, and more...and so loved her adopted Alaska. The author, a relative, has included the adventures and photos of her life from the family farm in Baraboo, Wisconsin where she was born until her death in 1976 in Juneau. Mostly all of Mary's clippings, photos and writings have been donated to the "Mary Joyce Collection" in the State of Alaska Library Historical Collections and the Juneau Douglas Museum.