We Live in the Arctic

In June 1944, Bud and Connie Helmericks set out in another homemade canoe paddling into the Brooks Range, where they planned to stay for several years. They built a cabin of logs and hunted for food throughout the winter. Constance Helmericks paddled into the Alaskan wilds in 1942 and spent twelve years exploring the Arctic with her husband. She wrote a series of bestselling books about their adventures, and co-filmed and produced three documentaries that were shown on national lecture tours and early television. Their story and photographs were twice featured in LIFE Magazine, including the cover. Later wilderness travels with her young daughters in Canada and Australia were subjects of her seventh and eight books. She was a thoughtful early environmental activist. She died in 1987.