Question

The thing with Alaska is that the huge majority of it is national parks, which were formed by kicking homesteaders off their land and burning their cabins in the 70's. I probably don't need to describe how very very closely monitored every square inch of national parkland is, by helicopter, by heavily armed jackbooted park rangers, by concerned ecotourists in polarfleece, by college people researching the habitat of the lesser ground widgeon. Inholders who legally own the land they live on are harassed- a squatter would be tarred and feathered.
That's just the national parks, the ones the UN has an interest in. There are state parks too.
The largest private land owner in Alaska is Native Corporations. They also keep close tabs on their land and are extremely harsh on trespassers. Much of the land they own is managed and handled for logging or other commercial purposes, and herbicide/pesticide spraying over large areas of forest is not considered to be a bad thing.
The tundra, ironically, is just as closely monitored as the rest of the state if not more so. The oil pipeline crosses the tundra, and access to that vicinity even in the frozen arctic is strictly limited to authorized personnel. An unauthorized person in the area would be considered a national security threat..the "t" word.
There are comparatively few industries and corporations in Alaska, but all of them are very big and very rich...they don't ever just let their land sit there unwatched.
So yes, there is a lot of wilderness. But between constant helicopter monitoring, people flying in to do research or tv shows, radio tagged animals which will be found if they are killed, rich foreign poachers flying in, game management agencies doing wildlife counts, private pilots flying charters, commercial/industrial management and monitoring, and ten zillion other considerations, it's probably about the worst possible place to try to be Grizzly Adams.
Private people who do own their own land here are understandably intolerant of squatters. So really there is not any land in Alaska that is not the object of intensely serious feelings. It's all owned and it's all controlled. The best bet is to try to get your very own bit of it.
It is possible to find parcels of land for sale waaaaay out in the boonies, but to be Grizzly Adams you'd need to make sure you had some means of getting food other than hunting,fishing, or trapping (despite popular belief game is not at all plentiful up here and harvest of it is easily detectable to the management people- harvesting it without a license is an extremely serious offense- plus the problem of the radio collars mentioned before), and that you were living in one of the boroughs that don't have property taxes (they do send assessors out and they do evict people), and that you owned enough land to be able to provide yourself with firewood on your own property, and that the land around you was owned by a govt agency or corporation that wouldn't be resenting your presence, and you'd have to be able to live with the fact that researchers and hunters and wildlife biologists and ecotourists and snowmachiners would be constantly tramping through your backyard and expecting you to be an interesting character and a charming host.
There are several good websites with land for sale in Alaska. I recommend Robert Fox Realty and realtyak.com. Some of the websites cater to people who have no clue about Alaska land values...you'll recognize them by the huge land prices and dramatic write-ups about sparkling streams, untouched pristine forest, etc. But the two I mentioned are pretty reliable.
People seem to have a lot of romantic ideas and misconceptions about Alaska, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to describe the real situation. Hope it helps someone.

Sounds like you live in Alaska...? My brother lived on Kodiak as an air rescue swimmer with the coast guard for several years so I have a bit of an idea of the overall political situation regarding land. I also understand that the interior is a whole different ballgame, but I've never been there and so your perspective is very interesting. I have to say that I'm shocked that They can go so far to monitor such an enormous and genereally underpopulated hunk of land, and from everything that you wrote it seems that the prime motive is cash. No touchie-touchie the forests - money. Stay away from the oil fields - money (and fear, of course). Don't kill the animals for food, they belong to the rich foreigner who just wants parts for his wall. That he pays dearly for.
Alaska holds the last remaining vestiges of the pioneering dream. For people who will never go there, never homestead, might not even have a desire to be independent in any way the romanticized notion of Alaska is like the last little bit of hope that the entire world can't be paved and covered with Burger King.

have you considered living like the Amish?
Come to Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa or other midwestern state that is predominately farming and buy a large enough acreage near a small community and no one will bug you and you don't have to leave your place unless you need toilet paper. Grow sugar beets for sugar, wheat and corn for flour, raise a few head of cattle,sheep, pigs and chickens and a lot of vegetables and apples to sell on the side of a busy road. Get yourself a good cattle/livestock dog for help and companionship and you'll be living the high life. You don't have to go west or into the woods... the sun looks beautifull setting over your own fields and you can see for miles and miles which gives you an incredible sense of peace in a busy world. Small town living is soooo much easier on your sanity, a bit hard on your body, but worth every ounce of sweat.... you've never sleep so soundly as you do after a good days work outside on your land.... I recomend stepping back into the time of the early pioneers--- just a 100 years back is all.... don't give up electricity, get a wind turbine and solar pannels.... and enjoy!

As a number of people have already stated, the "wilderness" in this country is actually very closely supervised, and it is difficult to disappear into it, let alone feed yourself out there. If you really wanted to disappear, the best place is probably a large city, where one person more or less isn't going to be as noticeable as wild areas where people are rare and therefore easily kept track of. I agree with the poster who said that the best place to live is in or near a small town. In rural areas, people tend to be pretty self-sufficient even nowadays, and to dislike large government, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding like-minded folks to associate with. It's much easier to make it if you have friends and neighbors who help each other, and just having people to talk to once in a while is nice, too. There are still parts of this country where small-town property is pretty inexpensive, and it isn't too hard to raise most of your food even on a small place. In the mid-west there are towns that have lost a lot of their population, and they welcome nice newcomers (especially if you have children in the public school system, so they can keep the local school open).

Kathleen in Klamath Falls

: :no: There ie no place in the u.s, where you going to get away with this. You will be cough sooner or later. You would not wont to build and be happy and be told get out.
However you can do this in many parts of Northmen Canada, or south America. Look into this.
john#4

There are parts of the Oregon Forest that haven't been seen in years. However, You mentioned a Grizzly Adams life, you might remember he had several Trapper friends that visited often, A Bear that was trained to hunt for him, and Well It was a TV show so he had a cast and crew for support. :haha:

Anyway Even in the "Good ole days" almost everyone had a support group even if in the form of Trappers, packpeddlers or indians. If you choose such a life. Good Luck and Safe Journey.

Kenneth

if you would like to a caretaker, then you should go to www.caretaker.org

As a kid I watched Grizzly Adams religiously, and romanticized how wonderful it would be to hike out into the mountains, set up cabin, and live a life of pleasant wanderings, unbothered by intrusive civilization. Then I grew up and tried doing some of that work. What they don't show on the Grizzly Adams show:

1) Picking off Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever ticks that "friendly" bear keeps bringing in. See how friendly that bear becomes when you quit feeding it!
2) Scraping buckskin for hours and standing guard while it dries to keep the varmints away. Then, after buckskin is ready for "cloth", try to sew it together with a wooden needle. VERY time consuming. Tanning and preparing hides is a full-time job all in itself. Pioneers usually had just one change of clothes.
3) Debarking trees, then chopping and sizing for that nice, cozy cabin. Afer awhile, people will begin to call you "Mr. Leatherhands".
4) Trapping and fishing for food: expect to go hungry some days, just like the native Americans. And sorry, no big buffalo herds anymore and if there were, it's well-protected and certainly somebody's livestock or biology experiment.
5) Insects. All the time. See them monkeys on National Geographic picking lice off each other? Welcome to the forest! Read any war account of when folks had to live out in the woods, like in the Civil War. Lice, bugs, insects, and mice. They'll be your first, newfound friends who'll stick by (and on) you no matter what.
6) Always looking over you shoulder. The land belongs to somebody else, probably the government, who bought the land with YOUR money taken from YOU via taxation. Clever, huh? But they have the choppers and ex-Vietnam vets and Eco-do-gooders more than willing to police a few acres for a paycheck. "For a crust of bread a man is brought...." Humans leave traces, tracks. At night they show up very bright and pretty on the thermal-imaging devices. Digital-Aerial photography will show signs of campfires or crop-growing schemes immediately. Without agriculture, you are forced into a life of hunting, gathering, and foraging, pretty much the life of an animal. You will spend all day looking for food. Finding a few wild berries will be like finding a gourmet banquet. You will live in fear of other people because you will always be wondering, "Is this an agent come to turn me in?" And the food you do find, you hope it isn't contaminated by intestinal parasites or fell out of the reject bin from an airplane.

Solution: Work hard at a job to save up for some land in a rural area. Since you desire to live frugal and bare-boned, this shouldn't be too hard to do. Once you have some money, go buy some land out in the country and do some farming on the weekends to see how you like it. Farming is hard work but rewarding, because you work for yourself. Farming/ranching is the only way you can be guaranteed (almost) a regular supply of food. Hunting is hit-or-miss, and even cheetahs and wild wolves go hungry half the time. Keep working, keep saving, and pay the tax becuase they have the police to shoot you if you don't. Until you get your own police force, or can convince fellow citizens to have your own "Boston Tea Party" --forget it; THEY have the goons and guns, just look at Waco. The Government has unlimited funds, unlimited weatlh, and an army of lawyers and gung-ho types who'll march at the click of a pen. Your fellow citizens are too scared and have taxes to pay too so they'll just hide in their homes when the "Long, monkey-arm of the Law" comes to take you away. Just pay the tax (there is no getting out of it until people join together and do away with socialist, government-run programs, and the human trait envy) and use your wits You can hide some of your income if you are clever, but, if you start riding around in a Ferrari, somebody will become jealous and make an anonymous phone call to the IRS.
Just some of my copper-reduced penny thoughts.

There was a squatter living across the road from us for awhile. He had a little 16 foot trailer and a truck. Wherever he went, he would find a job and work it until he got restless, then move on. The man who owned the property over there was aquainted with him from work, and allowed him to set up camp for free. Eventually, he felt the call of the road and left. He had a good job while he was here, and we always wondered if he had a million dollars sewn into his mattress because he had no expenses except gas and food! I seem to remember reading an article about squatting in Alaska in Mother Earth News awhile back. If I find it, I'll let you know.

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Melissa
Reformed hoyden. Please forgive me if I relapse.

i have no skills for living off land either except for wanting to stay alive and would love to do it..just afraid to do it alone.!!

Well, I guess you two can PM me.... I've got some poor little acreage just sitting out there in back... (Nice woods... 2 miles to a BIG lake w/lots of fish).. it could be done.. and I pay the taxes!! LOL!

Hmmm maybe I should volunteer this area of mine for 'wanna be's to learn'? I hate to see it just sitting out there. No one would know you're there but you! (and me, unless you talk to loud!)

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"TIMSHEL"
Spoiler ALERT: For those of you who've never read Steinbeck's "East of Eden".... timshel means "thou mayest".

Is this the answer that's been under our noses all the time? Send the Forest service to Afghanistan! Osama, look out!