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RICHARD MERRITT : 1968 - 1976 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT TRAVEL AND ALASKA HUNTING DIARY OF A NEW YORK STATE BIG GAME HUNTER

4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. On offer is a super 1968 - 1976 manuscript relic of one man's love of Alaska and hunting. Handwritten by Richard Merritt of White Birch Lake New York the book details a number of trips over the 75 pages of hunting trips through Alaska and Montana, while also traveling through many other states. Titled: "Alaska: 1968, 1971, 1973, 1974 and 1976. Montana: 1968, 1975." Here are some snippets: "July 1968, 1st Trip to Alaska. Crossed USA to Washington ferry to Vancouver. 1 day to cross island. Started 7 day trip on inland ferry to Skagway. 1st stop was at Prince Rupert. Stayed nite at campsite. 2nd stop Ketchikan. Stayed over nite at campsite. 3rd stop at Wrangell, also at campsite for over nite. Took 2 day on ferry going to Juneau, capitol of Alaska. We were here 2 days site seeing around. Next stop was Haines for over nite. Last stop and end of ferry ride was at Skagway. We stayed here over nite before taking Narrow Gage Railroad to Whitehorse. Stayed all nite here before driving on to Alaska border and traveling in Alaska. We stayed all nite in camper at the Border City Lodge. This is between Canada and Alaska. Tok Junction was first town in Alaska. Route 1 goes to Anchorage and Route 2 goes to Fairbanks from Tok. We stayed at camp site at Atlasta going to Anchorage, also Chickenloon and next stop was at Palmer with friends from our home town. Stayed 2 nites. Also stayed one nite at Cooper Landing. We stayed 3 weeks at Soldotna where my daughter lives. Her husband worked at Airport and also flew planes. We unloaded camper so we could travel around with pickup. Helen and I drove down to Ninilchik a few a few miles on a dirt road. We were going east into a bright sun. Down the road I could see 4 or 5 moose all standing in the road. As I drove toward them they all separated from where they were standing. One large moose stood about 75 yards from road looking at us. I stopped, got out, loaded my gun, 308 Winchester 88 with 165 shell. Took good aim and shot. The moose stood there 4 or 5 seconds and dropped dead. As I started down to dress out the moose 2 women hunters came along looking for moose for their winter's meat. They saw my moose and only wished they had it. I gutted it out and cut off hind ¼. Being a hard frost it dragged up to pickup fairly easy. Helen helped me load it in pickup." "October 19th, 1971 Drove 360 miles today and the driving was through snow, slush, rain, dry road and detour for about 8 miles from cable rocks to you name it. Started at day lite and stopped at dark. I think there were 4 trucks or cars off the road. Two poor guys had tipped a small trailer over on a large wide ditch in a foot of water. Looked like all hunting equipment. What a mess. We had good luck all day. Mountains and valleys but beautiful country most of the time. See many Canadian hunters but they report very little game. Moose are scarce and only saw 2 Caribou hanging up." "October 24th, 1971 Went to First Baptist Church today. Sunday school excellent, woman teacher for over 30 years. Over 400 in church. 300 high school and college age. Pastor Jackson very good in thoughts and expressions but is thinking of going modern with hippies, etc. Only drove about 50 miles today. We visited the Cheese House today." The book measures 6" x 9 ½" and is overall G+. BIO NOTES: Mr. Merritt was a noted resident of White Birch Lake and casual research finds a photo of a large stone and on this stone it said, "This stone from White Birch lake honors Dick and Helen Merritt for their dream in 1947 to develop a lake from an abandoned farm. He passed in 1988 and she in 1996 but they will not be forgotten. Erected 1997." There is also a newspaper clipping showing a photo of Richard and below it was the caption: "Richard Meritt of White Birch Lake, Windsor, brought his Alaskan Hunting trophies to the Sr. Citizen's Multipurpose Center last week for everyone to enjoy. Merritt bagged a 500 pound, 9 year old, Grizzly bear on one trip and a mountain goat on another excursion. Both the grizzly and the goat have been made into rugs with head mounts and the full body skin. Meritt's daughter Carolyn, and son-in-law, Duane King, live in Bettles, Alaska above the Arctic Circle where King is an ordained minister and bush pilot. They have been doing missionary work in Alaska for 12 years. While visiting the Kings, Mr. Merritt has compiled an outstanding collection of slides of the Northern Lights and Alaskan sights, as well as the Indian and Eskimo villages where the Kings minister under Central Alaskan Missions.". Manuscript. Book Condition: Good+

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