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Beforehand, he made arrangements to use a cabin on Upper Twin Lake owned by retired Navy Captain Spike Carrithers and his wife Hope of Kodiak (in whose care he had left his camper). On May 21, 1968, Proenneke arrived at his new place of retirement at Twin Lakes. His skills as a technician were well-known and sought after, and he was able to save for retirement.
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He worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service at King Salmon on the Alaska Peninsula. Proenneke spent the next several years working throughout Alaska as both a salmon fisherman and diesel technician. He moved to Shuyak Island, Alaska, in 1950.įor several years, he worked as a heavy equipment operator and repairman on the Naval Air Station at Kodiak. Though adept at his trade, Proenneke eventually yielded to his love of nature and moved to Oregon to work at a sheep ranch. The combination of his high intelligence, adaptability, and strong work ethic helped him become a skilled technician. : xiii According to one of his biographers and friend, Sam Keith, the illness was very revealing for Proenneke, who decided to devote the rest of his life to the strength and health of his body.įollowing his discharge from the Navy, Proenneke went to school to become a diesel mechanic. During his convalescence the war ended and he was given a medical discharge from the Navy in 1945. After hiking on a mountain near San Francisco he contracted rheumatic fever and was hospitalized at Norco Naval Hospital for six months.
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He spent almost two years at Pearl Harbor and was later stationed in San Francisco waiting for a new ship assignment. Proenneke enlisted in the United States Navy the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor and served as a carpenter. He also admired motorcycles and obtained a Harley Davidson as a teen. Until 1939, he worked in proximity to Primrose driving tractors, working with farm equipment, and doing typical chores Iowa family farms required at the time. Proenneke completed primary school in Primrose, but left high school after two years because he did not enjoy it. : xiii The year of Proenneke's birth is often given as 1917, but social security and census records note Richard Louis Proenneke was born in Primrose, Harrison Township, Lee County, Iowa, on May 4, 1916. His parents married in December 1909 and had three daughters and four sons: Robert, Helen, Lorene, Richard (Dick), Florence, Paul, and Raymond (Jake). His mother, Laura ( née Bonn) (1884–1966) was a homemaker and gardener. Proenneke's father, William Christian Proenneke (1880–1972), served in World War I, and made his living as a house painter, carpenter and well driller. The cabin is a popular attraction of Lake Clark National Park. Proenneke bequeathed his cabin to the National Park Service upon his death and it was included in the National Register of Historic Places four years later. The journals and film were later used by others to write books and produce documentaries about his time in the wilderness. He documented his activities in journals and on film, and also recorded valuable meteorological and natural data. Proenneke hunted, fished, raised and gathered his own food, and also had supplies flown in occasionally. Richard Louis Proenneke ( / ˈ p r ɛ n ə k iː/ – April 20, 2003) was an American self-educated naturalist, conservationist, writer, and wildlife photographer who, from the age of about 51, lived alone for nearly thirty years (1969–1999) in the mountains of Alaska in a log cabin that he constructed by hand near the shore of Twin Lakes. Heavy equipment operator, carpenter, mechanic